Lights Down - 08/09/18

Proximal Distance. Photography by Simao Vaz.

This will be the final blog post of my dissertation project. Reflecting on the performance of Proximal Distance and the findings within the post-performance questionnaires. I'm pleased to say that the performance went splendidly and it was received very well by my audience!

Arguably, I feel as though the dress rehearsal went better, but this was mostly because during the evening performance, two of the drones used for sections 1 and 2 had a slight fault with their propellors, meaning they were more difficult for Andrew to control. The performance became very tense as the drone swerved close to the cyclorama at the back of the stage and also close to the audience. It was a good thing that I restricted the seating so that no one was sat in the first three rows! The intensity of the performance I felt disrupted my movement, as I became increasingly worried about the drone's flight pattern, concerned it was suddenly going to crash or cut out. Thankfully it didn't but it was too close for comfort! The audience were also therefore extremely tense, as the drone and I were often extremely close, almost hitting each other, but somehow at the last minute narrowly avoiding one another.

It felt as though the drone and I were both nervous for our debut, as our movements together were drastically different then any previous rehearsals. But we held it together and somehow maintained calm amongst the intense atmosphere. 

I've already received some of the questionnaires back from my audience and I've had some interesting answers. For instance, all of them so far have stated how they see the drone as a performer in this piece, rather than an artistic tool to aid performance. And with regards to the question on how would the audience feel is this work was to progress in the future, perhaps to the extent of eliminating the human reference entirely, many shared the view that having a human being present on stage makes it more relatable for the audience as they can understand and imagine in their own bodies how it feels, which they cannot with the drone. Others stated they would miss the human emotion which currently a drone can't replicate and one audience member found that particular thought as "unnerving" as without the human element there implies there is no human control. These answers provided great insight in to the audiences reaction and how I could progress with this research in the future. I think its obvious that current contemporary audiences are not ready for purely robotic art, without human input, we still require an element of control and human emotion.

Many audience members picked up on the organic relationship between myself and the drone and how we influence each other, which is exactly what I had hoped for. So overall, I feel as though the performance was a success, even if it didn't go as smoothly as the dress rehearsal. I now have to collect all my findings from the creative process and the questionnaires to conclude this particular research project in a presentation. Its a shame to say goodbye to this project, and bye to Andrew, who has helped so much in the making of the work and the discoveries of the research. But I am confident I will continue this work in the future, so perhaps it isn't goodbye after all.

Lights Up - 28/08/18

This was a nerve-wracking week, it was time for the dreaded technical and dress rehearsals in which everything I've attempted to plan and all the contingency plans I've put in place could fail drastically. I planned the lighting of the piece to be very basic as I didn't want to risk the lights affecting the drone, but no matter what I do, they are always going to have an effect. The drone now starts to follow its own shadow for example, adding another element of surprise and something else to watch out for. 

However, aside from a few problems here and there, the technical rehearsal went as best as it could. And I'd of course prefer to get all the problems out of the way now so that hopefully everything goes well on performance night. But then again, even if something does go wrong, failure is all part of the research, but it does not define it. I have to remember that I'm still working drastically out of my comfort zone and I should be proud of myself for that. 

I've also put together my post-performance questionnaires for my audience members, in order to gain a general consensus of their thoughts of the work. I've purposely kept the questions fairly basic, so that my audience are able to expand their answers as much as they wish. What I really want to find out is how the audience view the drone and whether their opinions match those of my test audience members. And how they feel about work like this developing in the future, which is inevitable, but I'm curious to know what the audience feel is appropriate, for instance, could they imagine this kind of art without the human element entirely?

As performance night gradually gets closer and closer, I'm quite saddened that this research is coming to an end. Therefore I hope to continue with this work and discover what else can be created with a drone, perhaps a different type of drone with different functions, or maybe even return back to the original idea of programming and investigating whether the outcome is still the same. I look forward to researching this with more time to really delve in to the exploration.

Nevertheless, its time for the drone and I to perform together in our debut, hopefully not for the last time!

Final Countdown - 21/08/18

With two weeks until show day, all there is to do now is to keep rehearsing, keep practising and just KEEP GOING! I've finalised the structure of my piece, finished the film to go in-between the live sections to mask the battery changes, and all that is left to do is to keep rehearsing. The structure of my piece is now as follows, you'll notice its nothing like the original structure I laid out in a previous blog post!

1. Opening film

The piece opens with the sound of the drone's propellors creeping in and gradually getting louder, so the audience hear the drone before they actually see it. A film then follows, all from the drone's perspective, of the floor as the drone flies low, before getting higher, as if the drone is 'learning' to fly.

2. Section 1

As the first film fades down, a drone onstage takes off and hovers, staring at the audience. It starts to move with jolty, erratic movements, again continuing on with the theme that it is learning to fly. Gradually I enter the stage and try to mimic these movements which also gradually become bigger and more fluid. As the drone gains confidence it starts to fly around the stage, showing off its newfound talent whilst I remain limited to the floor, unable to reach such heights. The drone comes back close to me, encouraging me to move and eventually I do so, attempting to follow it around the space and move the same way it does, remembering that I am limited by gravity and also the white space around me. The pace is quite slow as the drone and I try to figure each other out, remaining 'eye' contact, much like a contact improvisation.

3. Film 2

The second film, is again from the drone's perspective shows my hand appearing underneath it, as if I'm reaching out towards it, unable to quite reach. I slowly crawl towards it, trying not to disturb it hovering, but the drone gradually allows me to get closer.

4. Section 2

Reflecting on what just happens in the film, I begin to move the drone with my body, starting with my hand, and then maybe my leg. This is my turn to try to influence the drone to move after in the previous sections it influenced me. I start to use the rest of my body to encourage the drone to move with me. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's a dialogue between the two of us.

5. Film 3

The pace picks back up again as the drone and I have established a relationship, the film shows me confidently moving underneath and around the drone, it sometimes follows me and I sometimes follow it, providing an insight of what is about to happen live on stage.

6. Section 3

The final section of the piece is an accumulation of everything that has just happened. The drone and I both confidently move about the stage, interacting and dancing with one another, sometimes in quite close proximity, and at other times far apart. The movement vocabulary varies, but often demonstrates an animalistic, challenging nature, where the drone and I try to challenge each other by getting in the way of each other's pathways. 

Each section has a drone dedicated to it, so during the films, I disconnect the battery from one drone, connect a battery to another, and Andrew behind the scenes can connect to the new drone via WiFi and prepare for the next section. This was the most practical way to ensure there is enough battery for each section. 

The beginning section is perhaps the most difficult, as the drone and I have to treat each other like we have never seen each other before, like this is a new experience even though we have been rehearsing and developing a relationship for months. Feedback advised me to start a lot smaller and calmer, saving the energetic moments for the last section, and in doing that there is then a clear development throughout the piece. The second section then has an entirely different quality, which is more intimate.

The film from the drone's perspective allows the audience to peer inside the drone's 'mind' if it were to have one. It shows the audience what wouldn't originally be visible without the film, it allows for the two different perspectives and therefore allow the audience to understand the drone and I both together and as individuals. 

Not only have I finalised the structure of my piece, I have also finally decided on a title! The piece will be called Proximal Distance, which could be considered as an oxymoron as proximal defines something that is close to the centre of the body, yet distance implies a certain amount of separation. I believe this summarises my piece perfectly as it relates to the fluctuating distance between the drone and I, not only during the performance, but also to the distance in intelligence, as I am a human capable of thoughts, feelings and emotions, yet the drone is a result of scientific exploration.

With only two weeks to go, I am becoming extremely excited to perform the work and demonstrate my research, I hope my audience enjoy it as much as I have.

 

Performer Autonomy - 14/08/18

After finally deciding on improvisation and developing a structure for my piece after a very stressful weekend, I was keen to practice the improvisation with test audiences to see what themes came up and what could be improved upon. I had two helpers pilot the drone for me as Andrew was away. Having different pilots also developed new ideas, as I thought it would be best to practice mostly with Andrew, as he will be the pilot on the performance day, but ultimately it is not the pilot I am trying to develop a relationship with, its the drone. Each pilot will fly the drone differently, but practising with various people will help me become more accustomed to the unpredictability of the drone, rather than becoming comfortable with Andrew's piloting skills and being able to anticipate where the drone will go next.

I showed my test audience a roughly outline of my piece, describing the three sections I had in mind and asked for their opinions. With regards to improvising with the drone, they recommended to set myself tasks, such as limiting myself to the floor, or restricting the space in which I can travel, emphasising the different limitations between human and drone. Because the white floor is there for practical reasons, they suggested I play on that and use it for artistic reasons, for instance, perhaps the drone can leave the white space but I can't. However, they also said that the interaction is a lot more interesting when the drone and I are in close proximity to one another, as when we are separated, the audience have to decide who to watch, so perhaps the white floor is there to try and keep us both contained. 

A key element my audience helped me realise, was that I was focusing too much on the drone and that I'm almost forgetting that I am able to make my own decisions, I also have autonomy. I thought by bringing advanced technology on to the stage would make the audience want to watch the drone more than myself, whereas in fact it doesn't always matter what the drone is doing. The following quotes detail some of the key feedback I was given on my improvisation:

"Its like you're desperate for the drone to notice you because you're so focused on it, therefore all I'm picking up is the desperation. Its nice to see you doing you're own thing, for instance; you're in the space, the drone is in the space, and you work together. Its not you completely following the drone. Its a two way relationship." 

"I want to see how the drone is affecting your body, less of how much its affecting your use of space. Then we are really seeing the relationship as its causing us as audience members to react and tense up when its so close to you and it might hit you. In contact work, for instance, if your dancing with a partner, you sometimes never know whats going to happen, so you're reacting to it, like call and response but way more."

"You feel like the drone is a person, its got a presence, especially when its so close to you and it affects your movement. Like what is the drone thinking, is it trying to be intimidating? Is it trying to hit you or is it trying to move with you? As audience members, we do try to work out what the relationship is, what is the drone trying to do, which is crazy because we are also the ones controlling it" 

"You're more important, you don't need to be as submissive to the drone as you currently are being. I enjoy watching you and then the drone appears"

This feedback all proved valuable and my research questions are again becoming clearer, particularly about how a current contemporary audience might react to robotic art. Its interesting how they see the drone even though they know that they themselves are piloting it, they see the drone as a person despite the fact they have control over it. When it came to showing them the section of me influencing the drone to move using its sensors, they had this to say:

"There's so much to read into it. And when its not just your hands manipulating it, it shows so much more of the relationship, it shows that its really responding to you. Its like I can hear a conversation between the two of you when watching it, like you are bickering. There's a dialogue there."

"Sometimes its like a child, it responds how it wants but then when you grab hold of it, its like its being told off."

This is again very valuable to my research, as my test audience were able to almost read the drone as a human, they are attributing human qualities or human emotion to it. The theme of anthropomorphism in the work begins to make itself apparent. I look forward to performing the piece now and finding out through post-show questionnaires how my actual audience see and interpret the work. I'm starting to feel really positive about the research now, and I'm still continuing the learn new things every day, its like I'm only scratching the surface of the potential of human art and robotic art, I know there is a whole range of possibilities I have yet to discover and I'm quite keen to do so and carry this on in the future.

Getting Nowhere - 11/08/18

The title of this blog suggests exactly how this creative process is going. I hit a massive rut in the road this weekend and it seemed impossible to get out of. I'm struggling because I do feel like I've learnt so much with this project, I've pushed myself far out of my comfort zone and discovered things I hadn't even considered at the start, yet how do I put this research in to a 30 minute piece? How can I create a piece which constantly has to adapt and change every day? I'm in this very vulnerable place with 23 days until its showtime with not even a structure to my piece. Everything I set out in the beginning has had to be changed, adapted or scrapped because the drone simply can't do it. I'm almost getting tired of adapting, I want one idea to just work and stick!

What am I trying to show? An interaction between human and drone. Ok what can the drone do that I can do also? What are our similarities and differences? The drone is a rigid object, yet once it moves it has the potential to move quite fluidly. My human shape is more impressionable, able to move rigidly and fluid also. The drone is limited by battery, I am limited by stamina. The drone is able to move efficiently on its axis in small movements very well; forwards, backwards, right, left. I am able to move in any direction.

Looking at it this way, it seems as though the drone is dictating a lot of what could and can't happen. Therefore, it could be said that it is the drone that has the final say over the piece. Does the drone therefore have autonomy? It may not be directly communicating to me what should happen but its forcing me to make certain decisions all the time. I actually have very little say in what this performance may result in. Which I think may be one of the reasons why I'm having so much difficulty, I'm used to being in control and unfortunately I have none.

So, I've said that the drone can move on its axis very well. So lets start here. How long can it move forwards, backwards, right and left before the battery goes? How long can I do the same? What happens to the drone if those movements are prolonged? 

The drone also has four propellors, and it moves in those different directions by oscillating those different propellors at different speeds. The human body has four extremities, two hands and two feet, how can I move in different directions using these four extremities to pivot and rotate?

The drone can't follow music like I can, so lets not choreograph to music. Don't give the drone a beat it can't follow.

Ok, so now I have a foundation of what I can and can't do, I need to put all my presumptions aside of what I originally hoped my piece would look like and think about what is possible. I want to portray an organic interaction between human and drone, so how has that interaction developed during the research? There's been lots of adapting due to the drone's unpredictable nature, so lets put that in to a performance; an improvised, organic interaction. I can move in a manner that is influenced by the drone, and the drone can move by me influencing it using its ultrasonic sensors, and consequentially the drone and I can influence and react off each other. Therefore, I could have one section where the drone influences me, and second section where I influence the drone, and a third section which is an accumulation of sections one and two.... did I just create a structure for my piece? I think so...

Preventing the Inevitable - 07/08/18

After weeks of feeling like I've made no progress and the beginnings of stress creeping up on me, I decided it was time to have a meeting with my tutor to discuss what has been going on. I've been putting off this meeting as I felt like I had nothing to show from my research, apart from a few videos documenting more failures then successes. I updated her on how much the project has changed, from programming the drone, to no longer programming the drone, from interacting with it, to attempting to tether it. 

As she watched a few videos, what she noticed was how I move with the drone, her attention seemed to be more on what I'm doing, rather than the drone, asking me whether interacting with the drone has potentially changed my movement vocabulary. Arguably, my movement has changed, as I'm not used to moving in such close proximity to a flying object. But when interacting with the drone I still don't feel like what I am doing is dancing. I feel as though I am stood there occasionally walking or lifting an arm to see if the drone reacts.

She encouraged me to look more closely at my movement and create phrases based on this new vocabulary. This actually brings me back to another research question, looking at how new technology sparked the introduction of the post-human condition. How can I portray this post-humanism in my dancing, and how does the drone affect my body and somatic awareness. I realised there is potentially a lot more research to be done here. And this may help lead me in a direction where progress can be made. 

That being said I attempted to move with the drone in my hand, imagining it has just died out of battery and my movement is as if I'm trying to encourage it to keep flying. I improvised to see what came naturally, as I have never experienced dancing with a prop before and the result seemed to be taking me somewhere, perhaps something I could consider including in my piece, maybe even just as a contingency plan should the battery fail on me mid-performance.

However, I received mixed reviews on this, as test audiences stated that this reduces the potential of my piece, which is to move with an advanced piece of flying technology, to moving with an inanimate object. With this in mind, I've kept the movement quality that I created, and I will attempt to incorporate this with the drone flying around me also.

Putting a Leash on Technology - 06/08/18

Referring back to mine and Andrew's lengthy discussion about setting the boundaries on technology,  today we tested out playing with tethering the drone with fishing wire. Therefore if the drone does fly off course and I struggle to bring it back under control just using my movements, I can pull on the fishing wire and (theoretically) it comes back.

Upon testing it out... that didn't happen. As the drone has ultrasonic sensors that maintain its position, when I pull at the fishing wire, the drone pulls against it in order to remain in that position. The pull of the drone is actually quite strong, and so by using the fishing wire, we hoped it would enable us to bring the drone back under control, when what actually happened was the opposite effect, it seemed to make the drone stronger and therefore more uncontrollable as it fights against me to try and remain where it is. 

Then there is of course further consequences of this. As the drone pulls on the tether, the propellors and motors of the drone work harder to try to maintain their position, therefore providing a further strain on battery life. And so putting a leash on technology didn't quite set the boundaries that we are hoping for, instead it encouraged the drone to further push through those boundaries. 

Admittedly, there are still ways in which this tethering effect could be useful. For instance the drone could look as though it is pulling me out of control, perhaps I'm the one being put on a leash. Yet because so much tension builds up on the fishing wire, if that were to snap or if I let go, the drone flies away and there is no stopping it, potentially causing damage to surrounding equipment, the drone itself, or an unexpecting audience member. So I'm not sure if I want to entertain that level of risk in my piece.

I feel as though the theme of my piece has adapted in such a way that I'm now more interested in human and drone eventually working together and interacting. Rather than having the drone and I as two complete separate beings, I hope for us to work as one, however getting the drone to do so is taking a lot more time than expected and is proving to be very challenging. I'm discovering that I'm constantly having to reduce my ideas and narrow them down, which Andrew warned me of at the very start, so I should of been more expectant of it. Its just finding that one thing that works, and then perhaps the whole piece will unfold out in front of me. One can only hope.