YBCA Gallery Lobby Installation January 2011

1/5/11 Production Meeting YBCA

Walk through with Gallery people to get logistical parameters for next week.
PR and Marketing Check-in
YB Gardens need proposal for outdoor installation

1/10/11 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

 First Meeting in Lobby ar YBCA- Trying to feel why we are here.  Feels far away all the conceiving and planning and organizing.  These slightly stubborn ‘mature’ artists that don’t share a vision. Sat around and did a freewrite – trust what got you here.

Free write Yerba Buena –

 Stairway access light is bright we are here at a different time of day and not so bright.  How do our strange little characters exist in this world and why?  What is our piece actually about, Transformations. Should we be transformingin front of people or not what are our questions?  What is a body? Which of the things that we do underline this question. I like lying around in the space at different times. Fake glasses and wigs and costumes in lying around and inhabiting the space. The remnants of what we have done and might do.  Inspiring people to ask“What has happened here?” or What might Happen here?”  I like riding the little bike with a globe on the handle bars and a trophy.  Koan riddles. We could hand out glasses to people as they arrive to see magically what they might see.  How do we ask people to look differently?  We can do the gazing score?  Should we ask some people to do the gazing score with us?  We could invite some of the people that might participate in the group installation to just come and put on fake glasses and watch whatever happens in the space.  I would like us to improvise in the next days.  Perhaps it makes sense to just meet later and to talk a bit and then have 4 hours where we don’t talk, but just do what we feel like and then talk after ward. or talk and then work an hour and then talk some more. and then work some more and let the process be public in our little corner here. I like hanging out and asking what is the performance and what is the rehearsal.

Jörg’s symbol/reference exercise

Jög proposes to go through the piece looking at each of the objects and actions he is doing and to research their referential or symbolic significance.  I think  it is an interesting exercise.  Reminds me of stuff I used to do in Contraband that no one would really care about.  What if this were an actual part of the installation?  A computer with all these references on it.

Jess Objects Actions – The search for Meaning or consequence.
Lying on the ground – Death, sleep, Breath, audience entrained?
Lying on Books – Books as physical objects, books as bodies, “The body of this Book” introduction to Peggy Phelan’s last book.My T-Shirt – 100% Stulen Konst (Swedisf for 100% stolen Art) joke about the making of ‘original’ work, nothing is original, everything is a stolen sign (even these words0 and we simply re-organize them in the moment.) The image on it is Caravaggio??? painting I like the tactile fleshiness of his work and it is an image of a body.(I don’t find it.
Sitting at the reading table. – St. Jerome Hieronymus often pictured with a skull and sometimes a lion as he supposedly pulled a thorn from the paw of one.

INSERT IMAGE HERE OF ST. JEROME

Three Arms –
Mannequin molding- Twilight zone episode  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_After_Hours
Skinny mannequins renew debate over unrealistic images http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Skinny+mannequins+renew+debate+over+unrealistic+images/3009209/story.html
Weight lifting/Shadow man
Cyclist

1/11/11 Rehearsal YBCA

Unpacked objects/costumes
I propose that everyone choose two or three images from material in the show that can sustain durationally as images. All begin in street clothes and glasses and change visibly in gallery at clothes rack. 

Images are:
Maria - Rollerskates, Jörg Duet, and Sleeping on Bed
Claire - object delivery and space man with lights and Godzilla, walking on me at end.
Bridge- Touch score as Bowery Red Man and then interacting with audience.
Jörg – Maria Duet – Trumpet playing Miles Davis.
Me – Gazing, reading books and chatting with people, riding bike, Getting walked on by Claire at end.
Went and bought Many fake glasses and Mattress for Maria
No Matthias music for these installations

1/12/11 –  Rehearsal

Ran through proposals, as gallery was open this was practically a performance in and of itself-  need comfortable space for Claire to hang out and rest in between appearances. 
Adjusted durations a bit to keep activity in space within a good  range of density. My ride should start later and last two hours. Claire needs longer break after object score, but if she waits too long we don’t have time together with bike/light
Figured out boom box placement for Matthias sound score.

1/13/11Installation Performance

Small but attentive audience.  YBCA estimates 100 people over the 3 hour span.
Last minute addition I made signed ‘Sweat Prints’ for viewers to take home with them. This idea needs more commitment, nice paper and some kind of sealable container to really work well. But it is pretty fun anyway and makes a nice audience interaction.

1/14/11 Installation Performance

Video Documentationday – Laura Lukitsch brings camera. Slightly disruptive in one way and yet it adds to sense of ‘event’ through the gaze of the camera.
Paced better.  Audience in Glasses is really working. at beginning.
Maria and Jörg are hilarious and tragic, Bridge odd and lovely, Claire quirky and fun with Godzilla/Boyfriend.
Staff at YBCA seem also to be having fun with it.

11/15/11 Installation Performance

Ran smooth,  no issues.  Everyone seems to have found their rhythms.
Strike and pack with Tony and Hope to transporton plane to Miami.

Miami Residency @ InkUB8 -   Tigertail, Florida Dance Association‘s Winterfest.

1/24/11Travel Day arrive Miami

Accommodations are interesting and funky.  An old inn near little Havana.   This is a car city, no really viable public transit except in the very central corridor along the beach.  Matthias arrives from Berlin.

1/25/11 Rehearsal

AM

 Load-in Hang and ciruit. Spacings set and spiked

Rental packages delivered or picke up:  Bike, Generator, Furniture (Fridge, tub etc.)

General spacing discussion with cast

My back goes out lifting something.

PM

Performers arrive -Spacing Discussion, Use roll-up doors to exterior patioor not?  How much ‘Installation’ energy to invoke. Lots of discussion a little acrimony. tabled

Evening

Inclusive Improv Master Class

1/26/11

AM

Tech with Tony, fine tune spacing,  sound setup with Matthias.

At lunch I go to a Massage Thearapistfor my tweaked backwho turns out to do a kind of psychic healing and does a kind of reading on me that really helps me think through some of the emotional issues coming up in our process.  I get a really strong encouragement tonot try to make everyone happy

PM

Performers arrive.

I decide to leave electric rolling doors open as audience enters and then close them for show.  Too much outside sound once show begins but nice border transgression for pre-show.

1/26/11 Evening

Class –Physical Processes

Played Performance/Gazing exercise.

Panel Discussion on Dance and Physical Diversity.

Slovenian Company visiting take part in all classes and panel.

1/27/11

AM

Lightprogramming notes moving lights are Ok but not perfect. I am impressed by Tony’s facility with them and we get lots of looks from 6 moving lights.  Some angles not perfect though.

Dress Rehearsal

Chunky but OK.  Issues with the tech booth as only real offstage space so traffic odd etc. 

Moods lightening.

1/28/11 Performance

Completely sold out –Good run- Standing ovations. Strong positive response.

Post show discussion very positive

Important shift in group morale here. People getting on board and seeing it work.  Is this perhaps a cultural thing?  Is the piece working better here than in Berlin because I’ve made it anticipating or mobilizing more American values?  Or has it just gotten better? or both?

1/29/11 Performance – Strike

Guy from bike shop came to see show and pick up rented Cervelo S2.

He was really sweet and loved the show and hung out forever.

Pack up tight to get everything to airport in the morning.

Yerba Buena Forum – World Premiere

2/1/11

AM

Tony and David Program and dry tech.

Load-in

Spike Set pieces.

Move into dressing rooms.

Tony and David get floor laid and lights hung and focused

PM

Performers Arrive

Space choreographies to re-expand after Miami

Re-check spacing, offstage areas and pathways

Maria skating paths, check floor for skate mark problems (none)

2/2/11

AM

(Shorter day for Dress Rehearsal)

Tony does Tech Notes

Matthias Sound set up

Guy wires me monitors for toilet. (awesome)

Q2Q with David for light cue fine tuning.

PM

Sound check with Matthias, Jörg, and Claire.

Arrange pre-sets with crew.

Techical Run thru of show.

Everything rolls fine just enough little fuck-ups to assuage my superstition.

2/3/11 - SF World Premiere

PM

Tech/Dress Rehearsal – light energy.

Evening

Full house, smooth run, appreciative audience.

It really feels like the show has arrived here.  I think everyone is quite happy.

Bar on stage at intermission is a winner

2/4/11

Sold-out show, They add overflow chairs, exciting.

Good run. 

Guillermo attends and takes part in post-show discussion.

Maria does post-show in blonde wig.

2/5/11

Sold-out.  Union problem with the extra chairs they put out night before. Adding seating requires a union call with a 4-hour minimum.  Chairs stay for tonight since they are already out though.

Good run.

2/6/11

Closing night, not quite as full, but great crowd.  very satisfying.

Strike, but leaving some stuff in storage for next installation process.

Everything else up to my house.

Yerba Buena Gardens Installation

Working with an all-star team of local SF Artists.  We took two days to share basic exercises from our DNFBprocess and created an installationin the Yerba Buena Gardens adjacent to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Community Collaboratorswere: Rotimi Agbabiaka. Alejandro Anastasi, Laura Arrington, Dante Baylor, Mary Anne Brooks, Cristina Carrasquillo, Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos, Rachael Dichter, Jesse Hewitt, Marilyn Jensen, Zari J. Matthews, Leroy            Moore, Megan            Schirle, Leon             Setti, Ernesto Sopprani, Sunny Taylor, Eugene Williams, Sandie Yi

2/8/11

Arrive

Warmup

Name Circle Checkin

Ishmael Identity Games

Contact

Presence Exercises

Gazing Performing Exercise

2/9/11

Warm up

Score Installation

Run through

Feedback

2/10/11

Arrive Warmup Prep

Perform Installation 12noon -2pm