Dynastia 2 – Bright Green

So there was the premiere of DYNASTIA, a quartet of dance performances, the result of this year’s Sound and Light for Dance era in the Theatre Academy. It feels weird now. Everybody did something. It took some time. Nobody had a clue what it was we’re doing. The technical possibilities were huge, the experience the people had was tiny. Most of us hadn’t done their homework on time, either.

I think that’s why nothing really relates to anything. So there’s this.. thing going on on the stage and it’s our fault.

It somehow feels that it’s been the same problem with some other groups, too. With exceptions, I’m glad.

Our choreographer managed to piss me off just 3 minutes before the performance. The sound designer asked me to be sure that I’m aware of the last minute changes. Not surprising, I wasn’t. When I asked the choreographer about the changes, she replied: “Oh yes, we did. But it doesn’t concern you.”

Otherwise I’m quite happy about my lights. And really high-five to the stage by Kalle Ahonen, I think it looks just great.

Photos: Kimmo Karjunen

Energie in motion

Here’s some German guys I found doing really cool light graffiti.

And definitely see the complete video on the project page (scroll down).

Jaap Blonk performance

Lighting and sound of dance – studio rehearsals

The first sight at the studio was a mess – panic and sobbing all over, nobody seemed to have enough rehearsal time, a moving head was missing, Hippotizer didn’t communicate with the Grand MA, nobody had any clue what had actually been brought to the studio nor whether anybody had any of the things they had ordered, everybody was lacking lamps, dmx and common sense.

We left the studio with our sound designer just in case we’d have caught some of the panic and had some pizza instead.

It’s going to be a piece with a LOT of light. Quite controversial to my hide-in-shadows-focus-for-hours-style so far. I’ve got six VariLite VL1000 AS moving heads, two 4k HMI fresnels and bars of PARcans in all the corners. All I’m missing is a couple of stroboscopes (Imagine, the VL1000 have got NO shutter! What the deuce!).

And there’s going to be a hole in the floor. I’m so going to blind those dancers. You poor people.

A notice: it gets much better when the dancers get the actual costumes on. With just some dudes in jumpsuits bouncing up and down, our scenery looked like an empty roll of toilet paper. Now that they got their weird white fencing suits, it unites the stage into the psychedelic world of what-the-fuck.

It’s actually cool to see that our team actually works. Nobody pushing too hard on the others and nobody bitching about their thing. It’s been a while since I had a project where things were really just allowed to happen.

The name of the whole project is now DYNASTIA. Shows on January 22-26, tickets available at TeaK.

Looking at light

I’m trying to make some points for myself while reading Vittorio Storaro’s “Writing with light”. A heavyweight triptych I almost broke my neck carrying, it shows beautiful cinematographic photos of his films and adds some text on different elements of light.

Having read only a few chapters, it once again proves me how limited the human brain is when it comes to capturing the world as such.

At first it seemed weird, looking at pictures with quotes from Greek philosophers to accompany them. But I didn’t figure what I would have wanted to have read by the photos instead. It is very difficult to explain anything. Many people try, some almost succeed. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If there are any words worth the picture. Our minds are powerful but we cannot take the world apart. It is possible to explain most phenomena around us, to make up schemes that seem to work in known situations and analyze experiments. You can nail up a lighting fixture on a specification sheet, drawing out all the angles and explaining the wattages. But when it comes to reality, definitions such as “the thing that happens when I open my window on a winter morning that makes me think of my father” go way beyond Wikipedia. Storaro has a philosophy on the essence of light. What is Light? What does it think of? Does Light like Darkness? Are they friends or foes with Shadow? He doesn’t try to tell us what’s going on. I like it. Nobody can know what’s going on.

It is understandable that everyone experiences a different thing opening the window on different winter mornings and that Wikipedia passes on knowledge that we all have agreed on to work the same in every situation. But on the other hand, even the agreed-on knowledge we would use by our very own window on our own winter mornings. So it really doesn’t make a difference, does it?

That will be 85.50, thank you

Another experience I would like to share has taken place meanwhile. Finding out that art doesn’t provide Christmas presents for my family, I worked ten days in the central shopping mall selling shampoo, socks and plastic jewelery. Again, this was Real Work. 12 hours a day, 10 days in a row. With less amount of work time the money acquired would have been too insignificant. It’s cheap labour, it so is.

There are two things to point out from this gig.

a) Standing behind a counter is HARD WORK. Physically and mentally. It’s a different species of human that actually works at the malls, I’m sure of that now. At first your back and feet hurt and you feel like you’re going to die. Then you get really REALLY tired of the zillions of people I normally wouldn’t like and now have to smile to and the never-stopping Christmas carols… I think I eventually reached a sort of a robot-like state of meditation. At first the brain stops thinking. And then it starts thinking on a totally new level. Who are these people? Have they come shopping or are they just passing by, unexpectedly in need of some things? Eventually you start to analyze every single purchase, connecting it with the client. A lady known from social magazines buys a pair of men’s socks and a pack of cotton at 9 am Sunday morning. A gentleman with lots of make-up pays for a a soap rose and a razor. The all present their discount cards and I get to know their names. I don’t think many of them bother to read my name tag. I know them now a bit more – but remain anonymous to them myself.

b) The philosophy of giftshopping. Especially during Christmas, one has several presents that are not optional. You just need to give presents to some people. If you’re lucky, you really want to give the presents and know them enough to make enjoyable gifts. It still seems that many people have to make compulsory presents to blurry persons called mother-in-laws, nieces, nephews, wives-of-second-cousins and such. And they go to the mall and grab any item they can reach. And they think: HA! I can give him/her.. ee.. THIS!.. whatever this is! And without further pondering they lift the cheap-looking gift box of dandruff shampoo and Christmas socks (with images of drunken reindeer saying Ho, Ho, Ho, bitch) into the shopping basket and continue the hunt for similar items. And I, sitting next to the pile of gift boxes see all the hundred boxes leave the store into different directions and I know there are a hundred persons in Estonia that receive dandruff shampoo and reindeer socks for Christmas and think of the options of how many of them would actually be in need of socks or suffering from dandruff. Or the amount of candles, chocolate, gift books and other stuff I received myself. Of course, I eat the chocolate and burn the candles. But still there’s something bothering me in maniac people buying useless and overpriced stuff.

On the first day of Christmas, while emptying the basement of my mother’s apartment from my childhood memories and crap, I saw an empty blue MEXX gift box of shower gel and deodorant in the garbage bin. I felt like meeting an old colleague. So one of them ended up in our house. A small world it is, a small world.