#9 CHANCE OF PERCEPTION

APPLYING THE IDEA OF CHANCE TO ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN

As I am continuing my literature reviews, I am finally beginning to see some crossover between articles. This seems to me that I am beginning to find a clear path down how choreographic styles could possibly aid the architectural and design process to benefit the natural human movement. Within these articles, I found and developed my thoughts on how they, the author, or the subjects of discussion may have applied a mythology or theology process.

ARTICLE #9

The Collaborative Legacy of Merce Cunningham

“in space and time”

Merce Cunningham was a contemporary choreographer during the 20th century and worked with Martha Graham. He was an artist that was constantly surrounded by other disciplinary artists. He saw other choreographers begin to work interdisciplinary. Cunningham did otherwise. He sought to keep his artistic process within himself rather than work alongside other art forms. He recognized their importance and appreciated it, but he thought it best to keep the works separated.

This idea was because Cunningham choreographed due to chance. Along with his life partner, the composer John Cage, he thought that all art forms, if they are to end up together in some form or fashion, should be worked on independently up until the final moment. To me, it is hard to see how this works out best for everyone in the end. Maybe it is the idea of leaving everything up to chance that makes it all seamlessly come together. Cunningham would go so far as to flip a coin on what would come next in a dance sequence.

There must be some freedom to this way of thought and practice. If he does not know what is to come next, what comes to him will end up having a better outcome. As choreographers, artists, designers, and architects, we get so wrapped up in our brains that we sometimes can no longer move forward because we are trying to plan too far ahead. Maybe Cunningham was right to take away preconceived notions of what would happen and just let it happen. It will then make sense. Is this possible in design? Is this a way to design for the human body?

The article discusses the opposite of Cunningham’s chance theory or the slow step away from his theory. Lucinda Childs and Frank Gehry have worked collaboratively in conjunction with composer John Adams to create Available Light in 1983. The piece was to honor Oskar Schlemmer and the Bauhaus during the 1920s. Cunningham viewed creation as “about nothing,” so did Childs, Gehry, and Adams when making Available Light. There was a continuous collaboration between the three to create a compelling piece. Something Cunningham sought not to do.

Lastly, an introduction to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s set for Elisa Monte’s The World Upside Down. The three wholly abandoned any connotation with Cunningham’s theory of chance. The music, the set, and the choreography intermixed. There was nothing up to chance, yet it still creates something compelling and memorable.

It is fascinating to see how others create something equally influential. There are benefits to chance as there are to planning, but how can they benefit the other? How can these thoughts and theories aid the design process?

After reviewing this article, it seems as though Cunningham took the approach of the design-polemical theory created by chance. It was not customary to choreograph without planning or thought. It is not normal to design without preconceived notations. Though dance is not design-related, it still speaks with design-polemical. It is challenging the standard way of choreographing. Chance makes you question what could happen without thought.

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ARTICLE #10

Chance Encounters Between Body and Buildings: New Technologies in Architecture and Dance

Within this article sits a few different ways of viewing architecture and dance together.

Unintentionally, a discussion over chance was had as well in this article. This time, it describes how dance can benefit from chance and architecture as well. Both should try to break away from their preconceived notions to create something unexpected. Contemporary dance broke away from ballet just as architecture styles change consistently, breaking away from old ways of thinking.

The author discusses how both are also situated in gravity. Gravity seems to be a heavy word, but choreography and design create lightness rather than heaviness if they are done correctly. Light creates a soft and gentle experience on the human body. Gravity does not.

Next, the author describes how dance and architecture are plans for somet

hing yet to come. An architectural drawing is the image of something to be built in the future. It is not constructed simultaneously with the drawing. Planning choreography is to create a sequence for a performance. I have not ever considered this idea of planning for the future.

William Forsythe takes the idea of applying architectural drawings to choreography, bringing it to life in the present. He takes Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Endspace’ drawings and develops movements and geometries for the dancers. He creates movement that amplifies these drawings in a new dimension. This brought a thought to my head of choreography replicated in architecture.

The geometries in the form of the dancers take away the center of balance. The dancers have to work to stay balanced and maintain their shape consciously. The author compares this to Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. Libeskind purposely designed the space so that the user was consistently aware of their movement because if they lose focus, they lose balance.

Through this article and its many points of thought, an application of experimental methods speaks to me. Whether this is an accurate statement or not, I see how Forsythe applies Libeskind’s drawings to his dancers as a way of experimenting with the architectural process. I wonder if Forsythe took this way of choreographing and replicated it elsewhere.

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Through the reading and review of this weeks articles, a new though has been developed to guide my next steps.

Dancers create the illusion that everything is effortless. It is part of the art. That does not always mean that it is easy to do so. They make it work, though, and portray this illusion to their audience, whoever that may be. Can we take that idea of effortlessness-- something that the body wants and recognizes-- and combine it with different choreographic styles and replicating it in architecture to create a space that the human body, without thinking, understands?