Follow behind someone you don’t know

Can technology help us feel more connected and less alienated?

Eric John Olson, Tamin Totzke and I are less than week away from our first participatory performance and project launch at the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. Up until this point, the idea of guiding a group of strangers through space via text message felt curious, novel even... and perhaps interesting but we had NO IDEA if it would a.) affectively work or b.) serve as a meaningful experience for the participants. This second aim was particularly important to us and especially ambiguous. During our residency hours this weekend, we put this framework to the test. 

At the beginning of our residency, Eric, Tamin, my sweetheart Tim, and I decided that I would only travel to Seattle two weekends a month throughout the project. I have a young toddler and traveling more than that felt unsustainable; even this much would be a strain on our family but felt necessary and worth it. Consequently, my experience of this weekend's participatory "TESTS" were mediated via video chat.  Although I mourned the limitation, I also found beauty in the circumstance. Sitting in my studio on the other side of the state, I directed 20 participants, sending text messages to our small collective whom enacted the instructions one by one. Together, the group flocked through the room, laid their heads on strangers shoulders and envisioned change for the world. From 274 miles away I witnessed. 

We ran the "big score" once, met as collaborators, altered it and then ran it again. The feedback was unanimous and enthusiastic...they wanted more. As I watched them through a computer screen, individually reading text messages to move through space together and somehow still creating honest connections with each other, I found myself contemplating an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote I recently read in Rebecca Solnit book Hope in the Dark.  "The test of a first-rate intelligences is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."  Technology isolates us and connects us.  In this project, that concept manifests in layers.  

Get free tickets to the first ART ENCOUNTER!  January 26 at 7-9pm at the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park.

Photograph by Allison Rowe.

---

MORE: TESTS (from THE LAB)
or find posts from all categories of THE LAB below.

12 (suggested) Acts

1.
Blow into a straw.
Blow into a straw submerged in a glass of water.
Blow into a straw submerged in a trickling stream.
Blow into a straw submerged in a pond.
Blow into a straw submerged in a quickly flowing river. 

2.
Press your entire body against a parked car with its engine running. 

3.
Place your throat against the belly of a dog
that is basking in a pool of sunlight.

4.
Pedel a bicycle
with your hands on the pedals.

5. 
Locate a grassy knoll.
Position your body so that your back sinks into the earth,
and your head points downhill.

Take 10 deep breaths.

Move 10 inches downward.

With eyes open,
look to the sky.
Over your right shoulder. 
To the space between your tailbone and the earth.
Over your left shoulder.
To the sky again. 

Repeat, this time with eyes closed
and the bottom of your feet leading.

6. 
At the grocery store, mimic the walk of the first person you encounter in the produce department. 

7.
Turn on an electric toothbrush.
Gently press the bristles against the crown of your head.
Then the soles of your feet.

8.
Take a walk barefoot through a park.
Collect every fallen leaf, stick, seed, trash or rock
that touch your feet.

9. 
Tie  a string to your ring finger for 24 hours. 
Every time you notice it's presence:
       a.) pause
       b.) notice the temperature of the air against your skin
       c.) imagine that the nearest stranger's movements release the tension in every muscle in your body. 
Return to your previous task. 

10.
Go to a coffee shot. Buy a cup of coffee. Find a seat alone.
Once seated begin to drink your beverage. After each sip, 
re-position your sits bones by moving less than a 1/4". 

11. 
Lay on your back on a carpet floor.  Clasp your bag, satchel or purse
in your arms.  Roll about without allowing it to touch the ground. 

12. 
Breathe. 

Dedicated to to Nickels Sunshine and the Spring Whitman Somatics cohort. 
Written in May, 2017

 

---

MORE: ACTIONS (from THE LAB)
or find posts from all categories of THE LAB below.

Operation: GRASP

In 1906 George Bunker Gilbreth designed the Georgetown Steam Plant.  Based on a field of research he and his wife Lillian pioneered called the "Study of Time and Motion," they studied the body at work. They isolated the body's gestures into elemental parts (which they called "therbligs").  Later they utilized (or tried to utilize) this knowledge of the body to design efficient systems/processes and industrial spaces that optimized work flow.  They collected film, made photographs, wrote books, gave talks and transformed the future of what we now call our industrialized nation. 

In 2014, I became fascinated with both the Gilbreths and the Steam Plant.  The couple, the Gilbreth's, dedicated their lives to de-contextualizing gestures (ephemeral actions) for the sake of optimization.  This was before the assembly line.  Work was done slowly.  They studied collections of minuscule moments and questioned how we could re-arrange them to be better... to eliminate pain in the body, to optimize effort.  Initially this wasn't for the sake of the economy but rather so we had more time for happiness.

And then, then there is the steam plant.  The Georgetown Steam Plant was designed to be "cutting edge" and yet now it is a huge, inefficient monument for fleeting moment in time. It's gorgeous, dirty, cold in the winter and summer, wet when it rains hard, vast, resonating with the sound of aircraft over head and your footsteps under foot. And it is still. Very still.  You can feel the time invested in each detail of it's creation and the affects that lack of care have had over time.  

Collaborating with choreographer Tamin Totzke we began to ask: 

How could the body translate these layers of this history?
What role do George and Lillian's "therblig" gestures have on contemporary occupants of the vacant steam plant.? 
How do we reveal answers to these questions within our bodies? 

In May of 2015, with a group of skilled performers, we began problem solving.  Guiding the group from the outside (behind the camera in this instance) I recited basic therblig directives.  This improvisational operation:

Collectively enact each of the Gilbreth's 18 elemental gestures of efficiency and inefficiency. 

Years later I still find myself thinking about these operations... The collective flocking. Arms, hands and fingers plucking at the air. Bodies lifting invisible loads. Physical touch. Intimacy. Task oriented assignments decontextualized from the task but contextualized in the space that the-study-of-the-task designed.  

---

MORE: ACTIONS (from THE LAB)
or find posts from all categories of THE LAB below.

18 types of elemental motion

An excerpt from Wikipedia (Feb 26, 2015):
 

Therbligs are 18 kinds of elemental motions used in the study of motion economy in the workplace. A workplace task is analyzed by recording each of the therblig units for a process, with the results used for optimization of manual labor by eliminating unneeded movements.

The word therblig was the creation of Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American industrial psychologists who invented the field of time and motion study. It is a reversal of the name Gilbreth, with 'th' transposed.

A basic motion element is one of a set of fundamental motions required for a worker to perform a manual operation or task. The set consists of 18 elements, each describing a standardized activity.

• Transport empty [unloaded] (TE): reaching for an object with an empty hand. (Now called "Reach")

• Group (G): grasping an object with the active hand.

• Transport loaded (TL):moving an object using a hand motion.

• Hold (H): holding an object.

• Release load (RL): releasing control of an object.

• Preposition (PP): positioning and/or orienting an object for the next operation and relative to an approximation location.

• Position (P): positioning and/or orienting an object in the defined location.

• Use (U): manipulating a tool in the intended way during the course working.

• Assemble (A): joining two parts together.

• Disassemble (DA): separating multiple components that were joined.

• Search (Sh): attempting to find an object using the eyes and hands.

• Select (St): choosing among several objects in a group.

• Plan (Pn): deciding on a course of action.

• Inspect (I): determining the quality or the characteristics of an object using the eyes and/or other senses.

• Unavoidable delay (UD): waiting due to factors beyond the worker's control and included in the work cycle.

• Avoidable delay (AD): waiting within the worker's control which causes idleness that is not included in the regular work cycle.

• Rest in peace (R): resting to overcome a fatigue, consisting of a pause in the motions of the hands and/or body during the work cycles or between them.

• Find (F): A momentary mental reaction at the end of the Search cycle. Seldom used.

---

MORE: RESEARCH (from THE LAB)
or find posts from all categories of THE LAB below.

10 minutes everyday (assignment)

The following assignment, given to me by my mentor Lin Hixson of Goat Island Performance Group and Every House Has a Door, inspired the production of my “Unperformed Events” scores:

Assignment: 10 minutes everyday

Everyday for one week, use your body to create small actions. Consider these actions gifts. Who or what might they be for?  Would your intention be visible to the receiver?  Should it be?  How long might each action take? 

Set a timer for 10 minutes.  

Begin.

---

A few select results:

Sit in a chair with legs crossed and
lightly tap the foot that is hinged (suspended) in the air.

for: Unknown man in his mid-twenties waiting on the blue line.
duration: 1-20 minutes

………………………………………………………………………

Stand next to (a living) tree. Take deep breaths
into sections of the tree beginning at the
tips of the leading most branches
and moving all the way down to the trunk
Extend into the roots.

for: My shoes.
duration: 1-5 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Slowly break apart, strip, and tear a wooden coffee stir stick
until it becomes a small pile of 1 cm x 30 mm sized pieces.
Place the little heaping pile at the
bottom of the stairs, just outside the entryway.

for: The philodendron plant my friend and I unintentionally killed.
It was a gift to him from my mom.
duration: 1-5 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Rub right eye lid for one minute.

for: The childhood blanket my sister rubbed to pieces.
duration: 1 minute

………………………………………………………………………

Stand intimately close to a standing lamp.
Rub hands against one another until palms are hot.

for: My trusty bedside lamp.
duration: 1 minute.

………………………………………………………………………

Lay on your bedroom floor with half your body
under your bed. Focus on the ceiling.

for: A well used ceramic mug.
duration: 4 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

With your right hand, press the dull end of a pen
into the palm of your left hand.
Increase force over time.

for: Over worn boots.
duration: 1 minute

………………………………………………………………………

Rub the skin on your right ear lob. Listen closely.

for: Warm wind.
duration: 1 minute

………………………………………………………………………

Bend both ends of a q-tip so that they are facing one another.

for: Inner ear drum.
duration: Until task is complete.

………………………………………………………………………

Sit completely still on a chair for one minute.
Remove yourself from the chair.  Slowly,
touch every inch of the chair and
the area of the floor on which the chair is sitting. 
Again, sit on the chair for one minute.

for:  The walnut desk my dad built.
duration:  3-10 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Sit in a train seat, slouch, and roll thumbs.

for: Middle aged woman on train run 239.
duration: The distance between two stops.

………………………………………………………………………

Pick up something that has been discarded on the street.
Closely examine it.  Return it to a home that suits it well.

for: Roxy, the golden lab that lived with me.
duration: 1-5 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Place a glass half filled with water next to a pepper shaker
so that they are touching. Leave them there for 15 seconds.
Move them away from one another.
Repeat.

for:  A dear friend that now lives far away.
duration:  2 minutes

………………………………………………………………………

Set a well loved hat on your kitchen floor
while you cook a good wholesome meal.

for: The last item I lost.
duration:  The length of dinner preparation

………………………………………………………………………

Stand in a corner with your back against one wall
and your arm against another. Lean your shoulder
into the remaining empty space in the corner.

for:  A Latino business man in a downtown elevator.
duration:  15 minutes

………………………………………………………………………

Sit, while hungry, on a cement floor

for: Dreadlocked man who lives on the corner of Monroe
and the Michigan Ave. alley.
duration:  15 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Put your left thumb between your pointer finger
and middle finger (on your left hand). Pull your fingers
closer to your wrist. Relax your palm.
Release your thumb.
Begin again.

for:  An anxious, articulate speaker.
duration:  4 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Sit on the floor of your kitchen
with your back against the refrigerator.
Feel the motor vibrate through your back.

for:  Wilted spinach.
duration:  1-5 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Press your cheek up against a cold window pane.
Move your tongue to touch the inside skin of your
mouth cavity on the side of your face that contacts
the cold glass.
Apply pressure to your cheek with your tongue.

for:  The incoming spring.
duration:  3-6 minutes.

………………………………………………………………………

Shrug your shoulders in exaggeration.
Repeat while sighing deeply.

for:  A lonely colleague.
duration:  60 long sighs.
 

---

MORE: ACTIONS (from THE LAB)
or find posts from all categories of THE LAB below.