Discussion of a Direction

Day 1, A Conversation between Zai, Mike, and Mark

(text by Mike)

We have spent some time discussing the direction which this project would go. as three of us we would like to work on a performance piece that involves sound, projections, and sculpture elements. since it is a discussion between the three of us we do not know whether it is something the rest of the group is interested in. but here is the rough concept of it:

There is a secret  pop song chosen by Mark (he is very much in this "diva" figure).  he would like to make a performance piece based / inspire by this song.  Mike and Zai decided that they do not want to know the title of the song.  Instead, Zai would respond to it by looking only at the "waveform" and make something out of it.  At the same time, Mike would only look at the lyric of the song and write something else base on it. Basically we are looking at the structure of a "pop" song and break it into different components (additionally there is "music video" and "album cover" which we have not touched on) and create some sort of abstraction.  we do not know yet what we will do with the material created by this abstraction, but we do have a sense of how this project will function: conceptually it is kinda like play the game of "20 Questions". each artist would be guessing what this song is.  each part of the process is almost like proposing a possible answer, but its not about getting it right. We will keep the song a secret during the first round, then reveal it to the group the second round, and see what each artists would like to do with that material.

the final performance would possibly be structured into three parts. we see each part not as "act" in the traditional theater sense, but as "variation" or "permutation".  basically each part is the same (base on same material: the pop song) but in different configuration and levels of abstraction. To Mike this in interesting because he has been working on ideas about experiences as "basically the same but just in different arrangements". we want to capture a sense of that. So far Mark is focusing on the action of "descending down the staircase" which the obvious reference point is divas and music concerts.  also Nude Descending a Staircase by Duchamp. therefore we will be constructing three sets of staircases as prop (also as sculpture. or surface to do projection). two would be with wood but different size of stair; the third one been done with sponge material.

we would like to see the comments and opinions from the rest of the group, and see how they can contribute to this theme. we all have different feeling about pop songs one way or another, which is an interesting subject matter to dissect and reconstruct.  but this performance is not about "pop song", but really treating it as a overall umbrella or starting point. we want to focus on the process of collaboration and see what type of work it can generate. we want to encourage artists within the group to work independently as well as in smaller groups.