Doug Fox of GreatDance.com asks me to clarify some specific techniques and approaches we are using regarding the loop structures in "Loop Diver". These are the questions he asked:

• Q1: "how does a computer lock performers into a "strict rational pattern"? How do performers than "shatter the loops' structure?"

•  Q2: "What specifically is this module created with Isadora [that creates the loops]? What do these loops look like? What would be two or three examples of a 'rich and complicated loop structure'?"

•  Q3: "What does it mean to 'impose the looping structure using Isadora'"?

•  Q4: "What exactly is a 'shifting loop'?"

•  Q5 "What does it mean for dancers to learn material from 'looped videos'?"

Here are my answers... not necessarily in the order of the question asked.

The module I have created in Isadora is called Movie Player++ -- it is not available to the public, as I have created this module specifically for use in our private creative practice. That being said, you can create several types of loops. It's a bit difficult to explain without showing an example, but I will do my best to do so here.

Let's create an imaginary bit of material:

A B C D E F G H I J K

We could say that each letter represents a 1/4 of a second of video.

A "standard" loop might look like this:

A B C A B C A B C A B C

That would be the first 3/4 of second, repeating for a total of four times. This is the loop with which we are all pretty familiar by now. Of course it could be any duration, and any number of repatitions, but here I chose to play the first.0.75 seconds four times in a row.

A shifting loop might look like this:

A B C B C D C D E D E F E F G

As you can see, the start time of the loop shifts later in time by 1/4 of a second on each iteration. In this case the loop shift is positive; it could also have been negative, shifting to earlier moments in the clip.

A growing loop might look like this

A B C A B C D A B C D E A B C D E F

Now the loop start is fixed, but the duration is growing by one unit per repetition. The duration shift could also be negative.

You also have the option to palindrome the loop, i.e., to move forward then backward back to the start point. So the first loop I described, when "palindromed", would become

A B C B A B C B A

So, these are some of the basic options. You may also simply jump to any other portion of the clip at any time, and may play back each loop step at any rate you desire (forward, slow motion, fast forward, etc.) An advanced feature is to take any number of "loop steps" (the examples above would all define one "loop step") and repeat them any number of times. It is also worth noting that the sound associated with the clip is looped in exactly the same rhthym -- this has become very important to me as I develop the musical materials for the piece.

So, when you start accumulating various loops, one after the other (ones that are "standard", ones that shift their start time, their duration, or both). The patterns of video playback that result can get very complicated very quickly. They define highly rhythmic patterns whose structure would be quite difficult to define with any form of traditional notation. (I.e., trying to write the rhythm of these loops in traditional music notation would be an exercise in frustration for growing loops that start with a duration of 0.05 seconds and grow to 2.0 seconds over 400 repeats -- something that has actually been done when creating "Loop Diver".)

It is possible to take a digital video recording of a movement phrase, and to create a new phrase using the looping techniques described above. And while I said "strict rational patterns", perhaps the word rational is not correct. It has been interesting to watch the improvisational ways that Dawn and the performers have used their choreographic instincts to develop the looped structures in Isadora. Furthermore, changing the tiniest parameter in an one loop step has an incredible ripple effect, completely changing how the rest of the loop structure looks, because the start time of subsequent loops steps change. The results here can often be highly irrational and provide unexpected (though sometimes lovely) results. I see this inability to precisely predict outcomes as a big plus when making an artwork with a computer.

So, this is what Dawn Stoppiello, my collaborator, and the dancers also, have done for the past two weeks -- they use Isadora to create these looped versions of video recordings of themselves dancing.

Now I can finally answer question 1 about the computer "locking" the performers into the loop structures. In our current approach (which is changing and evolving daily) the dancers take the looped videos and proceed to learn them, as perfectly and precisely as they possible. This is a very demanding process, both physically and mentally. But the looped structures created choreographic results that just simply would not come naturally out of a choreographer's body -- and that is precisely what interests us.

Furthermore, some loops, like the simple "ABC ABC" have impossible moments in them, namely the jump cut that occurs when moving from C to A. The performers cannot possibly move their body from one position to another in zero time -- but this has become a key point of investigation in the piece. Even if their body cannot make this move, can they psychologically "embody the edit" in their mind? And if so, is this something that affects the movement quality? Can the snaps of the edit be "morphed" -- sometimes soft, and sometimes harsh? What does this allow us to see? (Now these are somewhat intellectual questions -- but by asking them, and asking the dancers to explore them, we come to emotional responses -- and this is how the emotional qualities of the piece are being discovered.)

Seeing the performer's attempts to recreate these impossible moments was the source of the theme of the piece -- in my blog on MySpace I discuss that forcing them to perform the "impossible move" is a form of violence perpetrated upon the natural, organic movement of the body. And this is why the theme of violence emerged as our central idea for Loop Divers over the past days. This line of flight has led to a completely different inquiry about the psychological implications of what we intend to show, and the meaning of the piece as a whole.

As to how the dancers will "shatter the loop structure" -- this is a question we have not answered as of yet. We are still quite involved with our looping games... including how one "looper" may catch a "virus" from another, adopting movement elements or rhythms from another performer's loop. But, as I said in my blog about the theme of the piece, we _have_ become clear one fact: there is only one person who can make the decision to end the loop of violence within which he or she is trapped, namely, the person against whom the violence was perpetrated. How this decision will play out in the dramaturgy of the actual performance is a major question we will be considering as we continue our process.

So, I hope that makes things a bit clearer. We do plan to post more looped source material soon.. it's just that it's been a hectic few days as we have made all of these discoveries!

Till Next Time,
Mark