Uncanny Valley blog: 2010

Interviewing grandparents

I came across this on Yes! Magazine, and it reminded me first of Erin's show (where's THAT blog?), and then I thought it could be a tool for us to generate material for UV too, if we want to.

Tell Me Your Stories bridges the distance—both geographical and relational—between young people and older people through recording oral history interviews. The project offers curriculum, interview templates, and sample projects to help your students conduct interviews with elders from their families or community, and have conversations that may touch their hearts, and, perhaps, be life-changing.

They have online classes in how to interview your grandma, how to prepare, what questions to ask, what equipment you'll need... it's pretty awesome.

Today in the NY Times:

Hi all, I just came across this!

Awesome slideshow of various spacewear!!!

View Here

memories of southern childhood

these images are from a design blog i like called clever nettle. they are so memories of southern childhood.

Has anyone read Complicite's devised play "Mnemonic"? I read it a few years ago and it suddenly dawned on me how relevant it all felt to Uncanny Valley. A quote from Simon McBurney about the production that particularly struck me:

"I had wanted to make a piece about memory for many years. At the source, we merely investigated our own memories and how they functioned. How much do you remember? How far back does your memory go? To your childhood? Beyond into your parent's childhood? If memory is not possible without consciousness, and our conscious selves are created by our backgrounds and where we come from, how does what we remember tell us who we are? And if we forget where we come from, what continuity we are part of, does that mean we forget who we are?"

I can't find my copy of the play but I'm gonna keep looking. Here's a look to the show's website anyway:

http://www.complicite.org/productions/detail.html?id=5

Space Suit Couture

From Thom Browne's Spring 2011 collection...

I really like the individual dressing stations: just a hanger and a shelf.

Bam! Shark print velvet shorts-suit! Glitter lips! Not in our world at all, but dang, space suits are so handy for reveals.

The Memory Doctor

Just came across this series in Slate about Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a scientist who studies and experiments with memory. She was instrumental in debunking 'recovered memories' of abuse in the 90s and ironically she has now been experimenting with how to implant positive false memories in patients to promote better eating habits.

Really fascinating -- and there is something strange about the way it is written that I can't put my finger on. Somehow it makes her sound like a fictional character.

Maybe that's why I was so strongly reminded of the psychiatrist in "Lathe of Heaven" -- and the mysterious 'doctor' character that Marc kind of played early on in UV (now that I think about it, maybe the doctor should come back as a stronger character in round two).

Umm, WOW?

Ground control, a light table covered with sand & a camera mounted either above or below with occasional projections when we choose to do live animations over narrative or recollections. Anyone tempted?

Dance Notes

New Maya Deren Moves: the cheat sheet

1. Gesture forward

2. Gesture right

3. "Me" @ chest

4. Forehead hands and up

5. Look down w/ right hand ringing left

6. Hand on chin

7. Shift R-L-R as shoulders roll then head drops.

8. Shift center, gesture forward

9 Left hand down right arm, palm down, flip palm up, left arm goes up to R elbow

10. Gesture and look to left w/ left arm

11. gesture right w/ left arm to chest, hip and head to R also.

Alien Wall

And here are some really amazing pictures I found last night after the meeting to try and describe what the floating wall on the Other's side should look like. As its based on whatever found wall/items we can find, several options of the way in which it was burned/distorted/worn down, but all very, very cool!

Set image onslaught!

My apologies for the wait, but here are the original sketches we're working from, if it posts right from the first ones to the latest so that if you want to see how things have changed and solidified you can, but if you don't want to the important is at the top!
- Chad

Quivering Senses

So... more inspiration.

I read this blog pretty regularly. It's written by a woman with 7 children who has left the "quiverfull" movement -- a super conservative christian movement that believes in 'letting the lord do your family planning'. I heard about her through this Salon article, and have been oddly drawn back to her blog regularly. It's pretty fascinating, to see how she makes the transition from years of cult-like thinking to what I think of as 'normal' life.

Anyway. I haven't mentioned this because it didn't seem too relevant to space and memory and time. But today she posted about sensory hallucinations and it seemed eerily applicable.

I quote:

The freakiest thing has been happening to me lately: I’m having sensory hallucinations. Weird smells that get stuck in my nose and mouth for days. The first time it happened was last summer ~ for several days, all I could smell was cinnamon. I tasted it too.

The cinnamon smell eventually went away ~ but since then, I’ve had the same thing happen with the smell of bleach, Listerine, oregano, dish soap, cat litter ~ it’s always a strong, distinct odor which completely overwhelms my sense of smell and taste.

For over a week now, all I can smell is fresh pencil shavings. Our lilacs are in bloom ~ and even when I stick a bunch of blossoms right under my nose and take a deep breath ~ all I smell is lead and sawdust. I usually chew Winterfresh gum ~ and lately, I can only taste the mint flavor for about a minute ~ and then the gum tastes like lead.

Anyway. If you want to read the whole post, here it is: http://nolongerquivering.com/2010/05/04/mayhem-on-the-homefront-dont-freak-out-2/

Meredith Monk

I too have more inspiration to post. And everyone, keep posting things you come across that are related to the show! I'll post them on FB & twitter.

Anyway, here is Meredith Monk, hocketing:

More Radio Inspiration from Radiolab

Yes, I know we're past the point of new inspiration for this go round, so this is for fun for now.

Radiolab is the freaking bomb and they have so many podcasts that are right up our alley...

Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters
Ah, discovery. One of the great and noble pursuits of humankind. Also one of the most dangerous, frustrating, ego-driven, transcendent, sublime, dirty, long, demoralizing, inspiring......you get the idea. Why are inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge so seductive? We take a grand tour of characters and their stories of love and loss in the name of science.
www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/12/12

Where Am I?
OK. Maybe you're in your desk chair. You're in your office. You're in New York, or Detroit, or Timbuktu. You're on planet Earth.
But where are you, really?
This week Radio Lab tries to find out where you are. This hour: stories of people whose brains and bodies have lost each other. We ask how does your brain keep track of your body? We'll examine the bond between brain and body and look at what happens when it breaks. We begin with a century-old mystery: why do many amputees still feel their missing limbs? We speak with a neuroscientist who solved the problem with a magician’s trick: an optical illusion. We continue with the story of a butcher who suddenly lost his entire sense of touch. And we hear from pilots who lose consciousness and suffer out-of-body experiences while flying fighter jets.
www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/05/05

Memory and Forgetting
According to the latest research, remembering is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process. It’s easy come, easy go as we learn how true memories can be obliterated and false ones added. And Oliver Sacks joins us to tell the story of an amnesiac whose love for his wife and music transcend his 7 second memory.
www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08

Space
In the 60’s, space exploration was an American obsession. But the growing reality of space has turned the romance to cynicism. We chart the path from then to now. We begin with Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, with a story about the Voyager expedition, true love, and golden record that travels through space. For a dose of reality, astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson explains the Coepernican Principle and just how insignificant we are.
www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/05/12

Emergence
What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. How? That’s our question this hour. We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very own brains. Featured: author Steven Johnson, fire-flyologists John and Elizabeth Buck, biologist E.O. Wilson, Ant expert Debra Gordon, mathematician Steve Strogatz, economist James Surowiecki, and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch.
www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18

Choreography Video

Hand2Mouth Uncanny Valley Choreography from Hand2Mouth Theatre on Vimeo.

Alzheimers & memory & radio

I just listened to a fascinating interview on the topic of alzheimers and memory loss. It was on Speaking of Faith, and Krista Tippet was talking to Alan Dienstag, who worked with writer Don Delillo to set up a writing group for people with alzheimers, so they could pass on their memories through writing.

You can go here to listen to the interview -- and you should, because it's powerful and moving and speaks so directly to the inherent dislocation and alien-ness one feels as they lose their memory. (You can also go to the Speaking of Faith website which has links to lots of related and equally fascinating articles).

And speaking of related articles, here is one by Alan Dienstag about his experience. A few things stood out to me:

1. The prompts they used in the writing groups are remarkably similar to the prompts we've used for EWLLY and Project X and now for this project. I quote from the article:

Our goal was to stimulate memories and feelings. We began by devising a list of topics, one or two of which we would present at each meeting, which might serve as a point of departure. The original list was made up of the following subjects/titles:

* I remember …
* My friend
* An unforgettable person
* The house where I grew up
* Summer memories
* The last time I saw …
* The ocean
* What is happening to me
* Birthdays
* My doctor
* A movie
* My mother's voice
* My father's hands
* A photograph
* What other people notice
* A precious object
* The future
* My life now

2. Some of the pieces of writing they include are just heartbreaking, but also painstakingly written and misspelled, as if from someone barely holding onto their memory of grammar and communication. Here's one, from a woman named Charlotte:

My life if my life was growing in going to growing—

My mother lost her first darghter when she was one hear and when I was born mother watched me although all the time.

I reamontay when my brother and I bosh my mother called the Docter and up the six flights and said was very sick. My parents worred a lot ad the Docter soften his and said do worred she will life for all time.

3. Dienstag reminisces about his own grandmother, and how before her death she started to give things away. His thoughts on how this applies to memories themselves is lovely:

As she neared the end of her life, my grandmother seemed to understand that if you can give something away, you don't lose it. This, as it turns out, is as true of memories as it is of objects and is yet another aspect of memory that is often overlooked. Memories are, in a sense, fungible. Writing is a form of memory, and unlike the spoken word, leaves a mark in the physical world. As a form of memory, writing creates possibilities for remembering, for the sharing and safeguarding of memories not provided by talking. The writing group gave memory back to its members. They were transformed in the experience of writing from people who forget to people who remember.

This also reminds me of the Lois Lowry book The Giver, a young adult sci fi novel of the alternate future vein which is too complicated to explain but involves an elder passing on his memories to a young boy, losing each one as he transmits it.

And by the way, all of this reminds me of Erin's show as well! Crazy that we're exploring similar terrain but so differently.

The Memory Kitchen

I always get excited when the New Yorker syncs up with our work, and here is a rather lovely article about memory -- personal and national -- and food. I was especially tickled by the mentions of Proust and his madeline moment across the column from sumac and pomegranate extract.

I made a pdf of the article and put it up here. Apologies for the unregisted marks. This is what I get for moving intellectual propery around without authorization.

"The Memory Kitchen"

Scientific New Online series, focus 'Mystery of Memory'

Good timing... there is alot here, I copy the intro.

http://bigthink.com/series/35

"A few snapshots." According to novelist Tim O'Brien, that's all our minds retain of our childhoods, adulthoods, and even the people we've loved most deeply. "And that's memory? Little remnant of a lifetime, that's what's left to us?" O'Brien isn't the only one fascinated and baffled by the phenomenon we call remembering. His meditations on aging and loss—along with a moving recollection from his tour of duty in Vietnam—kick off Big Think's newest series, "The Mystery of Memory."

Exploring that mystery from both the objective and subjective angles, the series presents three noted experts in the evolving science of memory, as well as three writers whose unusual experiences with memory demonstrate just how much science has yet to explain. In the former camp are Columbia neurobiologist Ottavio Arancio, whose research into a once-ignored protein may reveal how memories are formed—and lost; Gary Small, Director of the UCLA Center on Aging, who explains why the modern habit of multitasking may be weakening our memories; and Marcelo Magnasco, mathematical physicist at The Rockefeller University, who describes the difficulties artificial memory researchers have in understanding how our memories are organized.

Joining O'Brien in the second camp are Siri Hustvedt, whose bizarre seizure at her father's memorial service (recounted in her memoir, "The Shaking Woman") sparked her interest in the emerging field of neuropsychoanalysis, and her fellow memoirist Augusten Burroughs ("Running With Scissors"), whose experience of memory is the polar opposite of O'Brien's. Burroughs claims to recall his childhood, from infancy onward, in extraordinarily vivid detail—a phenomenon he believes is connected with the Asperger's syndrome that runs in his family.

We hope it's a series you won't forget.

theatre and memory

I was piqued by Jeb's mention of Marvin Carlson's book 'The Haunted Stage'. Carlson is my favourite theatre historian. Here are a few tidbits from the book (as well as a quote from the book jacket by my mentor, Joe Roach, that employs our favourite word--the uncanny.)

The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine
By Marvin Carlson (2001)

'The retelling of stories already told, the reenactments of events already enacted, the reexperience of emotions already experienced, these are and have always been central concerns of the theatre in all times and places, but closely allied to these concerns are the particular production dynamics of theatre: the stories it chooses to tell, the bodies and other physical materials it utilizes to tell them, and the places in which they are told. Each of thee production elements are also, to a striking degree, composed of material "that we have seen before," and the memory of that recycled material as it moves through new and different productions contributes in no small measure to the richness and density of the operations of theatre in general as a site of memory, both personal and cultural.' (3-4)

...' any theatrical production weaves a ghostly tapestry for its audience, playing in various degrees and combinations with that audience's collective and individual memories of previous experiences with this play, this director, these actors, this story, this theatrical space, even, on occasion, with this scenery, these costumes, these properties.' (165)

From the frontespiece:

For theatre is, in whatever revisionist, futurist, or self-dissolving form—or in the most proleptic desire to forget the theatre—a function of remembrance. Where memory is, theatre is. –Herbert Blau, 'The Audience'

Even in death actors’ roles tend to stay with them. They gather in the memory of audiences, like ghosts, as each new interpretation of a role sustains or upsets expectations derived from the previous ones. –Joseph Roach, 'Cities of the Dead'

What, has this thing appear’d again tonight? –Shakespeare, 'Hamlet'

From the book jacket:

“The theatre ghost—whether is takes the form of the celebrity-possessed dramatic character (as in Kelsey Grammar’s Macbeth), or the character-possessed celebrity (as in Rip Van Winkle’s Joseph Jefferson), or the fixed locality of the Noh stage or the periodically returning scene in Tate Wilkinson’s memoir—is an uncanny manifestation of the theatre’s role as the caretaker of cultural memory.” –Joseph Roach

the uncanny valley response

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/uncanny_valley/

from the article:
"Disturbing experiences that feel both familiar and strange are instances of the “uncanny,” an intuitive concept, yet one that has defied simple explanation for more than a century. Interest in the particular occurrences of the uncanny, in which humans are bothered by interaction with human-like models, began as a psychological curiosity. But as our ability to design artificial life has increased—along with our dependence on it—getting to the heart of why people respond negatively to realistic models of themselves has taken on a new importance. Attempts to understand the origins of this reaction, known since the 1970s as the “uncanny valley response,” have drawn on everything from repressed fears of castration to an evolutionary mechanism for mate selection, but there has been little empirical evidence to assess the validity of these ideas."

What Happens On A Journey

At some point, when Jerry, for example, finally launches into the journey space, this might happen to him. Seriously: check it out. Glowing Eyes Choir, Ninjas, Full on Men In Suits Food Fight. This is the real deal.

The Uncanny

While looking up quotes about "the uncanny valley" for the press release, I found this essay by Freud on The Uncanny and thought it would complement our dream material. Read it here: http://people.emich.edu/acoykenda/uncanny1.htm

Male H2M Uniforms

Real Men wear Union Suits!!!

I am picturing a mix of these for under the Space Suits, cutting off mid-thigh and mid-arm.

Drawings of "Others"

Hi! This may veer a bit more towards the Extraterrestrial side of things than OUR Others, however as the first image illustrates many "Abductees" suffer massive confusion over their experiences, feeling that the experience, and their emotional response to it, is real but that their own senses or recall of the encounter may not be accurate; possibly due to their own minds obfuscating the truth (Subjective Recall?) or due to mental projections or "memory screens" placed there by Others. In many cases it would seem that the Others' motivations are unclear and possibly beyond our ken.

The Missing Eighth Memory?

"Others" in Pop Culture, of possible interest...

Hello. Here are some responses to and variations of "Others" found within pop culture, as well as some primary source material from those who believe that they have been in contact with Others.

The Mental Body:

Mental body, in occult philosophy, is that aspect of the human being which resides on the mental level of abstract consciousness. This is the part of the self which allows awareness of meaning. Existing outside of space and time, it is the lowest part of the self to survive physical death.

"Phillip":

It was thought that as a result of their experiment that the human will can produce spirits through expectation, imagination and visualization. The members of the experiment purposed to attempt to create, through intense and prolonged concentration, a collective thought-form.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/philip.html

Alien Behavior:

What laws do the invaders (and I use that term intentionally) of our world abide by? I posit that we have no idea of the rules of the navigable universe by which these otherworldly entities operate. We continue to develop ideas of their intentions based on our own social rules and written laws. I asked a prominent author and researcher of the UFO phenomenon the other day why he thought the aliens could be trusted - why we should believe what they tell us. His reply was sincere, I think. He said they have demonstrated their truthfulness by predicting some future events, and, lo and behold, what they said came true. He said they have told us our planet is in ecological crisis and we know that is true. And, although they seem to have been here for thousands of years, they have not invaded us. What wonderful creatures they must be!

In the few years that I have been studying my own personal invasion by these creatures, I have come to understand that the invaders do not tell the truth unless it serves THEIR purpose. They play on our fears, using pollution, war, nuclear holocaust and greed as backdrops for their warnings. But every day since I was a small child, I have been aware that those things are part of our world. We all know these things. It does not take a zillion-plus-IQ creature from the planet Orlon to make me aware that we have problems in our world that we must face. We have very human problems to deal with - problems that we can deal with.

The problems we cannot yet overcome is that of outside interference in our affairs. Some people may call it "benevolent intervention" and point to positive results. I respect the scientists and laymen of all disciplines who have been studying the alien phenomenon and artifacts for the past 50 or 60 years. It appears that they have made some progress, as witnessed by the rapid developments in the aerospace industry, medicine, communications, etc., a great deal of which seems to have come from such research. What is missing is a thorough and public study of the mission and rules of engagement in the war for our world.

I believe that our very thoughts and consequently, our behavior as a race of sentient beings are being UNDERMINED through the power of insinuation and the implantation of controlling devices in our bodies by non-human (most of the time) entities. This is truly the most effective way to invade and conquer. I do not trust such creatures no matter what I have been told about their altruistic motives.

We, as a race, have never been free to discover our own true identity. Every social advance we attempt is thwarted by some maniac who springs up with almost divine grace to lead us into madness. Saint Paul, for instance, seems to have taken the real message of Jesus and his earliest followers and distorted it into something that we kill, lie and cheat for. And, in spite of all that, we still aspire for redemption of our souls. The followers of that doctrine - Christians, they call themselves - are not the only ones who behave in such a manner. Every major religion has managed to find an excuse in its teachings to destroy non-believing fellow human beings. A part of me shudders every time I hear of yet another killing based on 2000-year-old hatreds.

What law allows us to continue with such atrocities? What influence keeps such hatred and fears alive? Why are we abductees so afraid to ask for real help from our own society?

We have been INVADED - but I do not yet believe that the battle is over. Invasion with sticks, knives or guns is a human reality, not necessarily a universal one. There are very sophisticated mechanisms being used in the invasion of our world. Why should our invaders use pointed sticks against us when they can get us to sharpen sticks and use them against each other? We provide them with everything they want from us, and they take none of the blame for our misery. They just zip around in their wonderful flying machines, dazzling us with their magical abilities and filling us with awe at their insight.

Can there be a more successful military campaign than one in which no shot is (apparently) fired and in which the conquered populace gladly and openly welcomes their enslavers? We are being programmed mentally and socially to accept our invaders as saviors, not a conquering force. I truly believe we are being deceived by smoke, mirrors and sleight-of-three-fingered-hand movements. Are we going to sell our birthright to some sneaky beings who appear on our shores in marvelous ships and offer us a few glitzy baubles?

The researcher asked if I personally knew of harm that has come to anyone at the hands of, or because of, the aliens. Yes, harm has come. My early youth was damaged severely by the unconscious knowledge that I was being used by some non-human agency. It took me 40 years to recognize that the fears which guided me daily were not of my own making and that the rebellion I constantly felt was engendered by my contempt for the powerful invisible agents that forced me to do things that I knew were wrong, even as I was doing them.

For example, I did not want to marry the person who became my first wife, yet I had no control over the decision. Before we were married, we were jointly abducted and subjected to severe programming. The results brought no happiness to either of us. We both starved for love and companionship, even though we tried with all our might to find them. My son (now 25) was also one of their subjects, and is miserable and lost. He is an artistic person with so many unknowable fears that he is paralyzed. I know of abductees MURDERED by mutilations (reports of which are suppressed immediately and completely), by cancers that no physician has ever seen before, and by madness that has led to suicide. In my opinion, these acts were not caused by "brothers" of any sort.

I do not believe that all is lost, however. I have felt a guiding hand that helped me to discover happiness and inner peace amid all this chaos and misery. What I have come to understand is that that hand is only there when I take responsibility for my own happiness and do something about whatever is bothering me.

Reality left in the hands of the invaders is neither what we need nor what we want. It is time that we think hard about ourselves and what we have on this gem of the universe, our home - our planet. There are laws governing the actions of our invaders, rules guiding their actions and patterns of behavior we can discover if we will make a concerted effort to discern them. We humans have something valuable that is desirable to, and usable by the alien forces acting on us. I feel it is time we take back that which is ours, that we use all our resources to discover the laws that govern reality and become the beings that we intrinsically know we are.

Manipulation by "Others":

"I realized that a subset of abductees from all parts of the world were claiming that alien-orchestrated love obsessions were tearing their families apart...the aliens seem to calculate exact strategies for specific love matches, with each bonding drama engineered to create the perfect conditions for their benefit. It is as if the aliens have found our true Achilles Heel - most human beings are incurable romantics." -- Eve Lorgen, The Love Bite: Alien Interference's In Human Love Relationships

A Personal Response by an Abductee:

HOPE By Elsie

It is about hope. Hope for someone who is experiencing alien abductions. I read a journal entry from someone I knew from years ago who makes the comment or assertion in the form of a question and asks, "Don’t you think this is all benign in the end?" The other comment from another person was given after I had recounted a rather lengthy episode, "Deception! It was deception."

Both of these comments are from the opposite ends of the belief spectrum about abductions. One is the attitude that alien abductions are spiritual and nothing bad ever happens to you. The other attitude is alien abductions are evil and the phenomenon is all to be mistrusted.

Both of these comments left me coldly frustrated and I had felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

Both of these belief systems take hope away from me as a person dealing with this unknown that we know as alien abductions.

If you assert this is all spiritual and benign, then you invalidate and remove any hope of my attempts that I make to try and heal from my physical and mental traumas I have endured since I was a child.

If you assert this is all demonic or deceptive and nothing can be trusted or learned from, then you take away all my hope that I have experienced a truly astonishing and personally elevating event.

Why do people want to remove hope? What do we have without it? I work hard to retain my hope since it is not an easy thing to keep within the cold blackness of space.

Costume thoughts

Here are everyone's thoughts on the ground control costume question (if the continuum is 1 = sporty uniformed team and 5 = personal clothes a la RAM or EWLLY):

MARC: As far as costumes, my vote for base costume would be toward the uniform end. Check out these astronaut undergarments:

www.flickr.com/photos/smallritual/4365724485/
msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090317_Discovery_space%20clothes.widec.jpg

I'm particularly fond of the tight fitting t-shirt/bike shorts combo. We could also just go straight for the unitard (perhaps with a hot astro-toolbelt) I like the spirit of the star tek uniforms, but I would want to avoid evoking actual thoughts of star trek. So I guess in the 1 to 5 scale, I vote for 1.

LIZ: As for costumes. I like what Jeb says here.

JEB: Costumes, i think something a little uniform but with personal touches would be great for the Home Base to make it seem like there is some structure to what we are doing.

KATE: For the costumes, again I think it depends on the story. Do we want to up the meta level (a la voiceovers that reference H2M?) Or create a different base level world of the play? I can see us going in either direction. If the costumes-as-you-normally-are thing is something you feel you've done a lot before, then would a departure be compelling? Or is there some kind of meta-narrative/dialogue among the productions that would ask for the more street clothes-esque approach?

I wonder about referencing star trek (as on the blog). What does it say to reference that look? What does that mean for our story? Do we want our audiences to go there with associations?

So I come in with more questions than answers. I am inclined to vote more street clothes-esque. Maybe there are three levels? Street clothes, then base uniform for ground control, then alien world?

MAESIE: For costumes, I don't want us to look too extreme either direction: uniform or casual clothing. I definitely don't want to look like Star Trek, but the idea of having uniforms that are casual but look like we chose them from a pre-determined set of options seems good. On the other hand, it reminds me a lot of EWLLY: sporty, semi-unified outfits and it's sort of a safe non-choice, which isn't that great. I guess I'm very ambivalent at this point. Maybe we should all wear black unitards and white dresses.

JERRY: I'm not sure where my costume vote would fall on the number spectrum. I like individual, but sporty. Posted some Star Trek ideas here: http://space.hand2mouththeatre.org/2010/04/ground-control-outfits.html

FAITH: I think I'm falling more on the 'uniform' spectrum than individual, though I share Maesie's reservations about being too EWLLY-like if we go sporty. I like Maesie's idea of doing black unitards, actually. I like the idea of it being uniform and underwear-like but the weirdest most unlikely version of that -- what you would not expect astronauts to be wearing underneath their space suits. Actually maybe more like Russian cosmonaut wrestlers, what they wear in my imagination. Which is basically a black unitard. Hm. Well not according to Google Image search though: foundmark.com/pers/gallery/parkas/army/images/suits.jpg

JULIE: I like the idea of something tight and strange as our base wear, but I really hope that is is MUCH more interesting than bike shorts and t-shirts. Or, if it is something so plain, that the base can be modified through the performance to reveal a much stranger under-base. I like the idea of a unitard type outfit with some removable parts, maybe a sleeve that can come off, or a back piece that is removed to better experience the memories. I don't think the under costumes need to be identical, but much more so than not (4 on the scale out of 5).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3599/3593053047_525a1dc892.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1yf0OmhLebmXysM0qykk_UJ4fIgxDMRj9uJkIByVhVueZGUt7Gd8HjlpJwNKmj6jCnU_NIXhjpwhADBLk0-8AeWGpw6xxIX1AICWQ1xPDkdCExfP-4IURCgrqJ_Geq5KyeeXupo4vlY/s400/unitard.png
http://www.thefashionpolice.net/images/Topshop-studded-unitard.jpg
http://coreygilmore.com/uploads/2008/07/unitards-300x273.png
http://i.americanapparel.net/storefront/images/detail/serve.asp?media=rsa8330td_Army_Black.jpg
http://fashionbombdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Dwight-Eubanks-First-Look.jpg

alternate to tyveks…? 4.bp.blogspot.com/_b4mZSnRHUAw/SjJWcgF1XEI/AAAAAAAAAzE/XlUkKy1RCWA/s320/IMG_7566+2.jpg

this is just too good to pass up. maybe liz's mom can knit these…
2.bp.blogspot.com/_1I7KiCuAU4k/SGWewn7ArWI/AAAAAAAABYI/D7QMv-PGHu4/s400/birdo_unitard.jpg

Sensitive Boy & The Perfect Lie

I didn't get a chance to record these, but here are the lyrics:

SENSITIVE BOY

We know you’re a sensitive boy, a sensitive boy
Put down your cup, examine your mind
What is your name, where is your proof
The mind strays behind, the mind strays behind

We know you’re a sensitive boy, a sensitive boy
The seeker seeks, the creator destroys
Where are you from, don’t you know anymore
Go on seeking your own mind, go on seeking your mind

Of course you don’t understand
Of course you don’t understand
The mind disappears, the mind reappears

Of course you don’t understand
Of course you don’t understand
The seeker seeks the dark, the seeker is the dark

You are a sensitive boy, you are a sensitive boy…

THE PERFECT LIE

The smell and taste of things, the perfect lie, the recollections come
I am in love with each mistake I make and everything I’ve done
One is precisely only this: a man awake immersed in time
I’m made of tiny cells and drops of essence
I won’t let them fall

I won’t let them down
I won’t let them down

Do you predict the future or is it predicting you
We all must bear each tiny drop unfaltering amid the truth
When all is broken, scattered, still, alone, more fragile but aware
We turn our faces to the sky and breathe the swarming air

Please don’t let me down
Oh don’t let me down

I’m so in love with myself, every simple breath and sound
The sleeping sense that we would otherwise have never known
They keep on kissing us each morning, noon and night in different turns
Until they leave us stepping lightly breathless one by one

I won’t let you down (the perfect lie)
I won’t let you down (the recollections come)

Scenic design

At the request of Mr. Walters I present to you:

Ground Control outfits

I like the Star Trek style, team-sport, but individual look:

Kid Cudi

Jonathan asked me to put together some snippets of these songs to be sung as backup to scenes from ground control.

Kid Cudi

Alive (Nightmare) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Purub08zwJI
Sky Might Fall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwI3CS2CHE8
Man on the Moon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKD2EWLKcNU
Embrace the Martian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhzZet_pQ58

Alive (Nightmare)
CHORUS:
Everytime, the moon shines I become alive, yeah
and everytime, the moon shines I become alive, yeah

Nananananananana, whoooa
nanananananana
Nananananananana, whoooa
nanananananana

You're fate will be whatever it shall be (be, be, be, be)
We'll fight no more, I let these things just be (be, be, be)

Sky Might Fall
CHORUS:
'Til then I call
The sky might fall
The sky might fall
But I'm not worried at all
C'mon C'mon
The sky might fall
The sky might fall
But I'm not worried at all
Hey Hey
OUTRO:
i keep running yea
i gotta keep up gotta keep up yea
gotta keep up i gotta keep up
and i keep running yea
i gotta keep up gotta keep up yea
gotta keep up i gotta keep up yeaaaa
cause im gone
yea na na na na na na
na na im up and awayyy
na na na na
na na na na hey heyyy

Man on the Moon
And my mind is all (crazy crazy crazy crazy)
They got me thinking I ain't human like I came here from (above above above above)
Feeling like an airplane in the sky
But then they say I'm (crazy crazy crazy crazy)
They got me thinking I ain't human like I came in from (above above above above)
Feeling like a bird sitting high, I

(Chorus)
I'll be that man on the moon
I'm that man on the moon and I'ma do what I do
So do you (hey hey)
I'll be that man on the moon
I'm that man on the moon and I'm up up on the mooooon.
Whoo-hoo-hoo (hey hey)

Embrace the Martian
CHORUS 2x
Embrace the martian, embrace the martian
I come in peace, but I need ya’ll rockin wit me
Please, embrace the martian
And this is how it sounds

Oo oo, and this is how it sounds
In my mind, ooo

O Superman

At the request of Ms. Lizzy Lou, here is the queen herself:

BioMotion Lab

Jerry asked me to post this -- check it out, it's awesome:

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

Hocketing

The song that Marc was teaching Jerry and I last night reminded me of this video I had seen of the Dirty Projectors demonstrating "hocketing", which is basically sharing a melody between two or more people, alternating singing/playing notes, giving a ping-pong effect.

Dave Longstreth talks for a while about it, but skip to minute 7 to see the ladies demonstrate.

This hocketing example might be more useful for a group song. This is a group of flute players from Ethiopia. It gets pretty crazy and dissonant, but a melody could work on top of something sparer. We could try something like this as a vocal improv.

Twin Peaks song

Holy Shit! Over at the Twin Peaks Archive (which I didn't even know existed until today) they've just released 4 previously unreleased songs, which are downloadable today only.

CHECK OUT THIS CLIP -- it features so many of the elements we've been toying with, like:

- dark haired twin-like girls singing backup
- an 'alien' or unexpected voice coming out of someone's mouth
- wierdly nostalgic yet creepy home-like environment

And it's also a lovely, understated song. I'm not suggesting we use it in the show, just as inspiration:

White Vinyl Design

Came across this design firm, White Vinyl, which featured two things (among others) that really charmed me.

SolarBeat: "A simple ambient musicbox, with sounds generated using the orbital frequencies of our solar system." Go watch & listen here.

Micro Fantasy -- these photos kind of reminded me of Jerry's etude!

Song from Marc's Etude : 4-6-10

To Remember You

'Chorale' Devotional music from Africa

I've been a big fan of music from West Africa/Mali, and often its devotional and chanty in a mix of islamic and poly-rhythm/sub-saharan african style that is fascinating...

Here is a religious chant/song that is popped up a bit. Its a call and response but could be 3 voices/4 voices... and someone could sing the high part of the instrument (flute?).

Soufi Drissa Dembélé 'Magnouma Baro'

Although Sufi brotherhoods have been an important part of Malian Islam for centuries, Sufi Drissa Dembélé is part of a new generation of Malian Sufis, with their own style of worship, who first started to draw attention in the early 1990s. Drawing inspiration from the Baye Fall of Senegal, and in some cases from West African Rastafarianism, this new generation of urban Sufis-previous generations of Malian Sufis were more concentrated in rural areas- have created a syncretic style of worship that reflects Malian pop culture.

Choral Awesomeness

Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium" is one of my favorite pieces of choral music. I remember hearing this piece for the first time and crying because it was so beautiful. Maybe we could try playing with the main melody or use the chords for inspiration?

This is a song called "Past Life Melodies" that features overtone singing (starting around minute 5), which would be fun to play with.

This is a really well-arranged version of "Hide and Seek" done by Divisi an all-women's acappella group also from UO. Just FYI, I checked it out and only the "Mmm whatcha say" part of the song has been used commercially. The rest would be unfamiliar to most people.

Acappella MADNESS

Hey guys, I've been rethinking the whole "not using a recognizable pop song" decision, especially in light of this video of the U of O acappella group singing on the NYC subway (which also ties back to our discussion of college acappella groups!)

Instead of finding a choral chant, should we jazz up The Lion Sleeps Tonight as a funky acappella song? The answer is YES.

UPDATE: Jonathan thinks I should clarify that I am joking about this. So to clarify: I am joking about this. I will label it "joke" so in the future if you ever want to look at just the joke posts, it will be easy to do. (That was also a joke).

Proust Questionnare

This text came in last week in an etude and then popped up in improv. To me it proves that M. Proust was wacky and self-obsessed/reflexive (in a terrific way) from the very begining.

"The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the birthday book, and here's what he said:"

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To be separated from Mama

Where would you like to live?
In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal

What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
To a life deprived of the works of genius

Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real

Who are your favorite characters in history?
A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry

Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
A woman of genius leading an ordinary life

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful

Your favorite painter?
Meissonier

Your favorite musician?
Mozart

The quality you most admire in a man?
Intelligence, moral sense

The quality you most admire in a woman?
Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence

Your favorite virtue?
All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues

Your favorite occupation?
Reading, dreaming, and writing verse

Who would you have liked to be?
Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.

Seven years after the first questionnaire, Proust was asked, at another social event, to fill out another; the questions are much the same, but the answers somewhat different, indicative of his traits at 20:

Your most marked characteristic?
A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired

The quality you most like in a man?
Feminine charm

The quality you most like in a woman?
A man's virtues, and frankness in friendship

What do you most value in your friends?
Tenderness - provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having

What is your principle defect?
Lack of understanding; weakness of will

What is your favorite occupation?
Loving

What is your dream of happiness?
Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Never to have known my mother or my grandmother

What would you like to be?
Myself - as those whom I admire would like me to be

In what country would you like to live?
One where certain things that I want would be realized - and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated. [Proust's underlining]

What is your favorite color?
Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmony

What is your favorite flower?
Hers - but apart from that, all

What is your favorite bird?
The swallow

Who are your favorite prose writers?
At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti

Who are your favoite poets?
Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Hamlet

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Phedre (crossed out) Berenice

Who are your favorite composers?
Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann

Who are your favorite painters?
Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt

Who are your heroes in real life?
Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)

Who are your favorite heroines of history?
Cleopatra

What are your favorite names?
I only have one at a time

What is it you most dislike?
My own worst qualities

What historical figures do you most despise?
I am not sufficiently educated to say

What event in military history do you most admire?
My own enlistment as a volunteer!

What reform do you most admire?
(no response)

What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Will power and irresistible charm

How would you like to die?
A better man than I am, and much beloved

What is your present state of mind?
Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Those that I understand

What is your motto?
I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.

Dio Vi Salvi Regina

I don't know if we're feeling like continuing with this song at all, but for reference I looked it up and it turns out it's the Corsican National Anthem. WHO KNEW. Probably a lot of Corsicans.

Anyway, here's a clip on youtube -- you can find some others too, and you'll notice that there are different variations on the harmonics. Plus I can't find one sung by women, I imagine that changes the sound somewhat too. Interesting.

White Nightgown World

The idea of White Nightgown World is taking me back to my teenage obsession with Victorian dress and custom. I used to read Victoria Magazine and swoon over the soft-focus romantic photography.

From "Days of Heaven"

From "Picnic at Hanging Rock"

From "Bilitis"

From UK Vogue, 1981

A more modern version

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