Documentation, Trasformatorio 2014

Program and Themes for T#1

Is time to give a bit of information to the public about what will be the themes and the activities for the Trasformatorio of this year.
I intend to divide our research for number one into 6 general areas of interest:

  1. Sensing the invisible

Observations generated by the movement in day and night and various weather conditions  inside the castle or in the open areas around the Argimusco suggested many themes of research: low intensity lighting and sound is one of the most promising for our performative purposes. Observers instead of getting into a dark artificial space from light as in the experience of getting to theater in a city, goes throught the experience of walking at night in the open beforehand has time to adapt his senses to the environment.

Small movements in the background of a landscape in the moonlight can be perceived as gigantic. Very low intensity light still retain the qualities of a big effect, and same goes for localized sound, that uses the structure of the natural resonances of the space. These observation defines a field of study and application that asks for invention, new design and unconventional approaches. Is our intention to prepare some of these to be put on test in trasformatorio number one. Some arguments that fall into this specific category are:

  1. micro lighting

  2. localized sound and vision

  3. projection strategies and tactics

  4. context specific performance control

 

2. Sustainability

Sustainability has evolved from being a general technical aspect of the research to a multi layered approach, that includes production guidelines, founding strategies, technical givens  with specifications and future research themes, surprisingly became more prominent in a dramaturgical context than in a technical one.

3. Space of tales and transformation of stories

  1. Trasformatorio number one shall approach the local “space of stories”, experimenting with a guest group of writers and storytellers as participants of next trasformatorio number one. This space could transform in many ways and become part of other stories, a event that is of great interest.

  2. Local folklore had been collected by first hand accounts and from independent researchers busy with the location that we encountered in the first trip, and most of the discussions have been recorded in audio by Gabriele Zaverio. As an example some elements of this activity could be part of radio transmissions both in FM and streaming, and other audible transformation-prone work. A mini FM radio broadcast over the area could be one of the themes of the “sensing the invisible” sessions,   allowing an experimental situation that withstands longer times of attention.

  3. Archeo-astronomical data collected about the close by locations, the presences of clear and suggestive star alignments in the megaliths is of great interest and inspirational value. It allows to explore many different kind of regular structures. Patterns of recurrence that can be investigated from algorithms for generative compositions and dramaturgical analysis alike. This could be one of the themes for further research on witch to design our future “call for artists”.

  4. It is of interest to arrange our communication to allow participation to artists of the southern side of the mediterranean, including the Magreb nations and the arab talking cultures. We wish to propose our laboratory in Sicily also as a open space of encounter and investigation to different types of artists. A gate for north-south collaborations and also for south-south and east-west alike.

  5. In trasformatorio number zero a great deal of attention was given to integrate as many as possible artists and circuits from the region, and to establish connection with curators and theaters of the area. To be able to propose them our type of performance and to get to know better sicilian artists in the field.This activity shall be continued and potentiated and some small founding dedicated also to this exploration.

 

4. Synesthesia: senses that collide

  1. Focus of the research is the integration of media rich reactive environment to natural environment and to the presence of performers and audience alike. The point of view of Synesthesia traces a research path were some characters of the performer work are reverberating into other perceptible forms: intention becomes a color, emotion a sound, speed a movement in the air or a series of sound in staccato moving away in the distance in the wood at night.

 

5. Out in the open: media rich site specific performance off the grid

 

6. Situation based formats: investigation of the border between cinema and other forms

  1. performative cinema

  2. cinematic happenings

  3. live cinema

Trasformatorio as a lab is for production and collective investigation has always to include presentation and performance. Number zero contains in itself many works that will continue into collaboration works. It would be interesting to be able to follow these collaborations and be part of their development. Forms to facilitate this should be a theme of discussion in the core group for the months ahead.

Pre production activities (4 days on site)

1. week one (36 hours max of scheduled activity, rest of time is free to use for own projects coordinated by Federico):
two groups, one for day one for night, one day of day activity and one day for night then swap.

1.2.1. work table: light visual and sound;
1.2.2. work table: out in the open 1; light and sound
1.2.3. work table on sustainability; solar and wind, micro solar for stand alone units

ARETHA PROJECT

1.2.4. history harvesting
Techniques of collection and transformation of local folklore, lore, stories and myth
1.2.5. out in the open day event (all together)
1.2.6. documentation practices and activities
1.2.7. kitchen
and  other methodologies of transformation paradigms: service, setup and running, hospitality, food transformation
1.2.8. exchange programs
1.2.8.1. Elderly people
1.2.8.2. School
1.2.8.3. Old and New Inhabitants of the borgo
1.2.9. informal exchange

1.3. week two (15 hours)

1.3.1. work table: light and sound; micro projections
1.3.2. work table: out in the open 2; light and sound
1.3.3. out in the open night event (all together)
1.3.4. storytelling and dramaturgies
1.3.5. documentation
1.3.6. kitchen
1.3.7. informal exchange

1.4. final public presentation (one day activity)

1.5. planning and forms for T#2

2. on site breakdown (2 days)

3. on-line archiving (2 weeks)