FINDING THE WAYS TO UNDERSTAND WHERE THE BEST CONNECTION IS TO RESEARCH
This weeks focus for me was to beginning looking deeper into the connections architecture and dance have with one another. I know there are connections already but it is so intriguing to see how others view these overlaps. I was excited to read more into others thought processes, both from architects and dancers. In most instances, the two disciplines work with one another. Not only, in these cases, did they respect each others fields but they had the want to learn and be around the other. They could feel the importance of each others influences. This blog number three is dedicated to the search of dance and architecture and a continuation of blog number two.
BOOK #1
NOGUCHI GRAHAM SELECTED WORKS FOR DANCE: Essay 1 Constructing the Dance and Assembling the Sculpture
"space became a volume to be dealt with sculpturally"
One could consider that all art is alive. It comes from the creator's heart, just as a mother gives life to her baby, so how could art not be live, too? Isamu Noguchi saw creating sets and sculptures for Martha Graham's dancers similarly. Sculptures are a mixture of movement and structure if you think about it. Dance and architecture.
Noguchi has created and developed nineteen sets for Graham throughout many decades, amongst other choreographers. Noguchi and Graham's connection was different, though. They both understood one another and their purpose and respected each other. In a sense, their work would not exist without the other. Noguchi states that his work reflects the way he creates for the stage. He repeatedly went back and forth, so it only makes sense that he would be influenced by how dancers interact with space.
Noguchi consistently challenged himself with the set designs and sculptures. He was challenged by himself and the limitations that come with the size of a stage. It was great, according to him, seeing as we constantly had to adjust the way he thought to accommodate space and the dancers. He took the time to work closely with Martha and her dancers to develop sets that made the movement natural and not forced. Yet he could still surprise them: Noguchi and Graham how one discipline informed the other.
While creating many flexible and easy to assemble sets, Noguchi became enticed with assembly sculptures and furniture. There was no need for fastener joints, only the assemble and disassemble. These sculptures and pieces of furniture bring up so many ideas. How can this become useful for us in the design world? Noguchi's practices understood the user's importance and created simple construction. It is truly fascinating.
ARTICLE #4
COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURES: CHOREOGRAPHING FOR DANCE OF MENTAL OPERATIONS WITH THE TASK ENVIRONMENT
Cognitive Science: the act of studying mind and intelligence, the mixing of two or more mediums to complement one another
In the 1950s, cognitive science began to spread out into the world while giving glimpses of the importance of understanding human factors. Cognitive alone only focuses on human factors; cognitive science expands to add a resource to make human factors matter, for lack of better terms. To designers now, this seems like an obvious statement. We cannot expect to create an effective space without considering a person would move and use the area. As it grows and evolves, cognitive science can be categorized into three eras.
1. In the first era, cognitive science looked towards the dancer; the way the
brain guides movement and assesses the surrounding space or task environment.
2. The second era emphasizes the combination of the dancer and the task
environment.
3. The third era now focuses on cognitive architecture as a "tool for choreographing
dance for the mental operations…."
The third era almost suggests to me that architecture aids in understanding dance in space. I would say the same could be told from a dancer's point of view as well. This essentially suggests that bringing in an art form, such as dance, helps better the design of a space—the two mix two to create something good for the users. Thus, the focus is on the person, not the place. Interestingly, this has not always been the case in design. This is a new way of thinking.
The article goes on to suggest that if a space is not what is expected, the mood of the user can instantly be altered. This could be a good thing, or in most cases, not. But how can we measure the quality of how a human grasps the space? Quality becomes too suggestive, but there are qualitative data! That may not be the first thought process of measuring the effectiveness of space on a person, but it almost makes sense. It keeps the human but takes away the guessing.
Herbert Simon and Paul Fitts first look at how dance interacts with a ballroom. When one hears that, they may think, oh the dance movements, as did I, but no—the dancer. According to Simon and Fitts, the dancer is where the focus should be. The dancer is the one whose brain understands the space and then tells what the body wants. First, understand the dancer, then the movement, and lastly, understand the space. Dancers can dance anywhere, but their brains are trained to assess the space they are to know where to travel and where not to travel. They perform space analysis without even knowing it! Maybe, just maybe, designers have been utilizing cognitive architecture without even knowing as well. Who's to say? And if not, it is not too late to start learning.
ARTICLE #5
ARCHITECTURE/DANCE: CHOREOGRAPHING AND INHABITATING SPACES WITH ANNA AND LAWRENCE HALPRIN
Given what the author studies, you know that he is an outsider to architecture and dance. Somehow, he connects the two through geography studies and philosophers. It is a unique and outside approach to understanding how architecture and dance benefit one another. Interdisciplinary works prove to be the most successful.
Peter Merriman states that geographers wonder how much the body is influenced by its surroundings. How do outside agents help us understand why our bodies respond to spaces the way they do? Geographers Catherine Nash and Nigel Thrift see from different views how dance can be utilized to understand movement in space. Nash considers dance as a 'free-floating realm of experience,' meaning that it is taught through both words and expressions of both. Both words and movement contribute to the process.
On the other hand, Thrift argues that dance is 'embodied spatial practice that eludes representation.' In simple terms, Nash sees movement in space as not fixed, whereas Thrift believes it is. In reality, dance is not just one thing.
With this in mind, the author explains that dancers work together to create movement; they feed off one another's actions, sometimes leading to new ideas. This shows that dancers understand each other not only in words but also in movement. If a dancer is stuck, another can understand the confusion. I feel as though sometimes designers get so in their head that they don't know how to hear other options, not for a matter of no respect to the other person but a matter of being blocked. Can understanding the way dancers think together assist architects and designers?
Looking towards the avant-garde period, architects sought information on how dancers use space to create space that makes sense to the human body. This is an idea that has been circulating through my head. It is nice to read that the path I am leaning towards has historical connections.
This brings us to Anna and Lawrence Halprin, a dancer wife, and landscape architect husband duo. Anna was at a point where she wanted to escape the choreographic world, so she began to suggest that dancers should focus on each other and themselves and look towards dancing with and in their environments; it could affect the way we move. Lawrence found interest in a similar way for landscape design. He wanted to find ways to help other designers create 'kinesthetically' to have everyday movement integrated into spaces. This way of thinking affects other dancers and designers for the future. One could say human factors began in this era. They understood that dance could influence architecture, and architecture can influence dance.
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