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...