SEEING HOW TWO WELL-KNOWN DANCERS WORK
After finally, narrowing my search down to how architecture and dance interact, my goal was to see how dance could be utilized to understand the way we should design for the movement of the body. Though still broad in this idea, I looked towards two well-known choreographers: Pina Bausch and Martha Graham in connection with Isamu Noguchi's set design. Both articles are seen from the perspective of someone else or another lens. Pina Bausch is discussed through the film Pina by Win Wenders and Martha Graham is seen through the understanding of cybernetics.
ARTICLE #6
The specter of Pina Bausch: enhancing the possibilities of Tanztheater through film in Wim Wenders’s Pina (2011)
Through the techniques of film director Wim Wenders, the legacy of Pina Bausch's choreography has been immortalized through the film Pina. What was meant to be a collaboration between Bausch and Wenders turned to a memorial film of Bausch after an 'untimely death.' Wenders broke down the barrier between the dancers in the film and the viewers experiencing the film. He wanted them to feel as though they were in the room sharing the movement of the dancers in real-time. With the collaboration of Bausch's choreography and dancers and Wenders utilization of Tanztheater and match cutting, breaking down the camera barrier became easier. With an idea and goal of breaking a barrier and creating an understanding for the audience, could the same be done with architecture and the human body? Can the human body and the built world understand and meld without question?
The article breaks down the elements of the film and how it came to be. Wenders main goal, always being to enhance the movement of the dancers, was accomplished through:
1. The filmic practice of Wenders and the idea of image and story being compared
2. Dance aesthetics of repetition, landscape, and dreamscapes
3. Spectral lens celebration through the film
With the film's original intent to collaborate, Wenders took old video clips of Bausch dancing her choreography and sprinkled them throughout the film in juxtaposition. In doing so, Wenders accomplished his goal of breaking down the film barrier. The repetition of juxtaposing was created by juxtaposing Bausch's movements next to her dancers. This makes a duo with the two, yet they dance at different times. It establishes a non-spoken narrative allowing the audience to determine the story. Architecture and design are the same in the aspects of subjectivity. There will never be an answer to what something may mean.
The article begins to describe aspects of Bausch's life to make connections to the images in the Pina film. The article mentions that Bausch knew Martha Graham. Is there a chance that she met Isamu Noguchi in those interactions? Was Bausch at all influenced by the Graham and Noguchi relationship? Just as Graham, Bausch set out to connect the dancers with the audience.
On the one hand, Bausch creates not to tell a story that makes sense to the audience but one that connects to the brain and is comprehendible without question. It just makes sense. The built world should make sense to all of its users.
The result of memorializing Bausch and Wenders' use of spectral lens creates a feeling of what is described as 'afterness.' Wenders breaks the dance through a lens to view barrier. One could say he broke a barrier that disconnects us from lost ones.
Though not an article that connects dance and architecture directly, through the eyes of a cinematic filmmaker, and the eyes of a dancer, one can attach their understandings of the world to the design process. They work to tell stories that make sense to their audience. How can architects and designers guarantee that they do the same?
ARTICLE #7
Unruly Cyborgs: The Relational Set Designs of Isamu Noguchi
When it comes to the collaboration of Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi, it is unspeakable. There are no words, not even from them, to explain why they understand each other so well. They create beautiful and memorable sets to intertwine and work with the dancers. The mixing of the two allowed them to be successful together rather than if they did not have one another.
With how Noguchi created his sets, the author suggests that Noguchi was under the influence of cybernetics. Cybernetics is the communication of how control systems of living and machinic things work and respond to each other and was emerging simultaneously as the popularity of Noguchi and Graham.
A conversation with a dancer who interacted with a Noguchi set describes his sculpture sets as very hard to work within manipulating the body. Yet, the dancer recognizes that the body understands the sculpture and works with it regardless of bodily discomfort. How can we create a space that makes sense to the brain with explanation?
Noguchi's sets interact with the dancers; they do not just occupy a single space on the stage for the look of the dance. This is an idea of cybernetics; the sculptures give back to the dancers just as the sculptures give to the dancers. Noguchi believes 'life is environment, and environment is life.' Noguchi's sets were designed to not separate nor pull focus from the dancers but instead view them together. As designers, our job is to create a space that connects and meshes with its user.
An example of how cybernetics works in Noguchi's sets can be seen in Graham's Night Journey. The nonbed is just as it sounds. It was a design meant to represent a bed but not feel like a bed. Once one lays on it, one understands why it is the way it is. We see a chair and know we are supposed to sit and rest. If a chair is sculpturally built, does the user know it can be utilized rather than just viewed? A secondary example comes from the performance of Frontier where the utilization of a rope and a dancer work together to create a space. One could not tell the story without the other. The dance was created use the rope just as the rope was created for the dance.
One of the benefits of this relationship between Graham and Noguchi is that their influence has continued down the line. If one Graham-trained dancer interacts with a Noguchi set designer, they know exactly how to work and understand one another.
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