It was never going to work – the making of Procession.

Procession was performed at the opening of the academic year at The Faculty of Art, Music and Design, Uib. 12.08.2019.

For the last month or so I have been working on two new figures.

Like any other of my artistic endeavours it started with a vision of sorts. If the artwork to be is is a musical composition, I will envision sound, if it’s a figure it will be of movement or the qualities of movement. Common to both will be that the vision is focused on the imagined experience of affect, imagining what the vision could make me experience if realized as a physical object, sonic or otherwise. The vision imagines the sensorial impact of the future experience of the artwork and the associated feeling of that sensorial impact. For a sound work it could be the timbre, the physical effect of an imagined sound world, or of the impact of formal choices in how the sound work is structured in time. Mostly I experience a certain level of excitement associated in imagining it. An expectation of what the experience will be like. I feel connected to these visions.

It’s possible that they are what most people would consider ideas, but they seem to be more than that to me. They are a promise of potential, potential for future affective and emotional impact of the artwork. When I imagine potential artworks to create, it seems that the same excitement I feel when actually experiencing an artwork (of my own making) for the first time, is triggered. I seem to form bonds with these imaginary artworks as I would with the actual artworks that they potentially spawn. It makes sense to me that seeing things with your “mind’s eye” and actually seeing them in physical life activates the same regions in the human brain.1

For me the defining quality of these visions are of an emotional bonding with the imaginary object. The experience is a sense of a vivid and engrossing experience. Like a dream may feel like reality independent of its realism, these visions can be low on details as to how they could possibly be realized into the physical realm. That being said a core element of them is the feeling that they should be possible within the constraints of my own skills, the laws of nature, resources available to me, cost and the time it would take.

When developing artworks, sound works or kinetic sculptures, I have not found any other approach than allowing the tools I use, or the material I am working with, whether physical or auditory, to guide the process of the emerging work. When using technical tools, or assembling or generating sound material, there is a multitude of factors that I on one side make concessions to, and on the other side, mobilize to power and guide the progression of the work. In other words, I strive to be sensitive to the material as it stands, or in the case of a figure, consider the physical changes of the figure as it develops, and allow that to inform and guide the choices as to how I progress.

As the work progresses it develops more and more discrepancies compared to the vision that was the impetus for its existence.

Figures in Procession

The figure I am working on now started as a vision of some considerable complexity. I remember it as involving a machine that had the ability to propel itself across a flat surface, that was quite tall, (at least as tall as myself and I am just about two meters), that it consisted of mostly legs and that the legs where very long. The way it would propel itself, the walking method, would be such that it would generate a lot of additional motion to movement across the floor. I had imagined that the legs could spread very wide, and by doing so make the sculpture cover a lot of floorspace. In this position, the height would be very low but its reach considerable. And conversely as the legs pulled together, that the sculpture as part of its means of walking would become very tall at the other extreme of its stride. The extremely large stride and movement both horizontally and vertically would as I imagined it allow the sculpture to float over the floor with slow graceful movement that still covered a lot of ground relatively quickly.

The figure I imagined would also have additional means of communicating. Here I was again inspired by Heider-Simmel’s; An Experimental Study of Apparent Behaviour.2 In this experiment they demonstrated that movement of abstract shapes could trigger the formation of narratives in the observer. I had, similarly imagined creating some electromechanical mechanism for visual communication using movement of shapes to encourage the formation of narratives in the mind of the observer, and that this would form the main bulk of the figures body, mounted on top of the very long legs. I also imagined that this figure would be in a parasitic relation with a human performer, that it would somehow attach a human being to its own body and use it as part of its movement pattern until the human could not go on. The human would be placed in quite physically demanding positions and would at some point be at the end of their stamina, the figure would then discard the human part of its anatomy like a lizard may discard its tail, to go on.

Another aspect I had hoped to include was some form of circulatory system where a fluid or gas played some role in the functioning of the figure. I was going to name it “Tall with Blood”.

Conception

I created a design in CAD using materials I already had experience with and access to and included some new approaches of actuation. The body was constructed as a combination of 3d printed parts and steel rods of various thickness (1 – 4mm). The legs became quite thin and spindly each one almost 2m long. I was planning to add some rigidity to them by soldering on crossbars and adding 3D printed a central backplate to attach them. In the original design I had intended to have four identical legs, but since it takes a lot of time to 3d print all the components I decided to try the mechanism with just three.

Immediately when I finally got the first three legs assembled it became clear that this was never going to work. The whole structure was far too flimsy to support the weight of the legs, the parts joining the various components having far too much backlash and a woeful lack of precision to achieve the movement I had imagined. The length of each leg meant that there where substantial lateral forces involved in raising the mechanism. Much more than I predicted. Furthermore, I had not properly considered how unstable the sculpture would be when it came to sideways motion.

The mutilation of a vision

The amplification of lateral forces that took place owing to the length of the legs of the mechanism made me think that shortening the legs could be a possible way to make the mechanism work at least partly.

As I got the hacksaw ready to shorten the first leg, I felt a strong discomfort. I felt that I was about to disfigure a friend. I had a vivid emotional attachment to an imagined vision of a specific quality of movement and proportions for the figure, and now I was going to hurt the old friend that the vision represented. I felt a bit queasy as the teeth of the hacksaw dug in.

I put the discomfort I was experiencing during this process partly down to the emotional attachment I had to the vision that had spurred the creation of the sculpture in the first place and also towards the attachment I had formed towards the partly assembled components forming the three legs. They had in my mind having already crossed the threshold from material to enti(es) I had already formed a sense of kinship with. Hurting the figure with a hacksaw felt wrong.

At this point I had already put a lot of effort into the construction of this sculpture. This suggests the possibility that the feelings of attachment I was experiencing might not be towards the vision that started the process of creating the figure, but rather towards the effort and energy I had put into trying to realize it as a physical object. An example of the sunken cost fallacy as hurting the figure felt like hurting myself. I wonder if the sense of loss I experienced as it became clear that I would not be able to realize the in a manner that would arouse the excitement I had imagined I would experience from its movements was caused by the fact it would not be what I had imagined it to be. And that this caused me to feel the effort I had put into it was forfeit.

Report from the time of making

It is now 11 days until the intended premiere for this figure is supposed to take place at the opening of Kmd for the autumn semester 2019. Its “failure” has further ramification as I had intended to use it in the premier of a new composition for sculpture, vocalist/physical performer and electroacoustic sound in November at the 30-year anniversary for Bit20 ensemble in Grieghallen 09.11.2019. So, with a deadline looming, and not wanting to rehash old material, I am looking for some way to make this sculpture work. It seems that the only way it could possibly happen in the time left before august 13^th is by changing the relationship between the electromechanical and human elements of the figure. I had intended the performer-figure relation to be such that the figure would demand something from the human that the human could only deliver for short period of time and that when this time was up the figure would discard the human. This must change, the human must become the central structural element. The figure is not strong and rigid enough to propel itself without aid. So, the role of the human becomes a structural one, to provide this rigidity and power to allow the figure to live. The human must tune themselves to the whim of the figure, balance it, and facilitate its movement. The human must become part of the structure as intended, but cannot be discarded by the figure.

The human will now wear the figure more than the figure wears the human.

Postscript

It is now after the figure had its first appearance as artwork and part of an artwork. It was a figure shown as artwork, but part of something envisioned. Complete as a figure, but to me feeling incomplete as a realisation.

In the days leading up to the performance I made efforts to make a minimal and human aided incarnation of the initial vision a reality. I had originally imagined the figure being quite autonomous and using a human being as part of its structure but having the human being forced into a contorted body position it would only be possible to maintain for a limited amount of time. When the stamina of the human ran out so it could not could no longer keep up with the machine, the idea was that the machine would discard the human and continue on its way by itself. Since it was clear that the current design was not going to be able to achieve the autonomous movement I had imagined, I opted to pursue a reversal of the roles. There would still be a subjugation of the human, but rather than the machine demonstrating superior physical stamina compared to the human, the human would now be forced into contorted body positions in order to «assist» the machine in its tasks. Why the human felt this was an important task would remain inexplicable.

At this point a mere three days before the opening, the plan was still to attach 3 or 4 of the motorized legs I had thus far completed to a spine and backplate, still hoping for it to achieve self-locomotion in the elegant manner I had imagined. Simply being supported and assisted by a human.

This too was destined to “fail”. Because the production of the sculpture for a large part depended on 3D printed parts, this meant it took a long time to produce the various prototypes for the parts for the legs and joining structure. Combined with ordering time for more powerful motor drivers and other infrastructure I decided to change the design from a four to a three- legged machine. In retrospect it predictably turned out that the three-legged solution did not have sufficient balance, or powerful enough motors for the rear leg to suspend itself. In addition, the front legs where now angled and not facing straight forward meaning that it would never be able to propel itself.

Plan B

At this point with the presentation using this sculpture growing close. I felt it prudent to start working on a plan B. This consisted in making handholds for the legs I had created, so the human performer could carry them or use them as a sort of extension to their arms. I joined two motorized legs together with a single handhold, so it created a sort of V shape extending from the hands of the performer, with its “legs” able to straighten out to completely vertical.

We did a rehearsal with the legs and human performer (Alwynne Pritchard) and created a simple choreography of repeated movements with the legs elevating themselves but being balanced and extending the hands and arms of the human. The human then adopted a manner of movement styled after how the machine was moving. Artificially slow, considered.

I had up to this point not really spent any time on the audio components of the composition I had in mind for the performance but knew that the composition would consist of a sonic section; a remnant of the idea of giving the sculpture some method of self-expression. This took the form of equipping it with a speaker and an amplifier hooked up to an in-ear receiver making it possible for additional sounds to those made by the actuators to emanate from the sculpture.

I assembled an audio landscape for a surround speaker setup with quite a lot of the sonic material being emanations from this speaker. This in effect gave the sculpture a «voice» and provided a counter voice for the human performer joined with the sculpture.

I assembled this soundscape mostly from audio material I had previously created and to some degree used in other projects.

By the second rehearsal I had managed to construct 4 legs and had attached them to two handholds one for each arm of the human. In this rehearsal we were able to use all 4 legs at the same time, however there where issues in achieving synchronized movements between the 4 legs making it very challenging for the human performer to control them. This issue later turned out to be caused by an error in the central control software that I had previously developed and used for all exhibitions and performances with the sculptures. It was quite a deep bug and had not caused problems in any of the previous artistic presentations the figures had taken part in. Additional technical challenges included a misconfigured battery charger causing me to suspect that the batteries had been damaged and where not charging properly. Unfortunately I was not able to discover the cause of these problems during the short rehearsal time we had left, which meant that we were facing the performance day without a successful run or a completed composition and suspecting that the sculpture would not be able to run for the 10 – 15 minutes required for the performance of the piece.

Plan C

At this time, I felt it prudent to formulate a plan C.

In the second of the two rehearsals we had we had only two of the legs available, I had at that time only created a short, repeated movement pattern that looped over and over. Simply consisting of two movements where the legs would contract and distend in synchronisation with each other. The sculpture could perform these movements and was with difficulty able to carry its own weight if supported by a human. The figure was also to extend its legs out into the air if lifted by the human.

When combining this simple repeated gesture with the human performer adapting to the simple movement pattern of the figure and mimicking its movement style; one of duress and difficulty, I felt a strong connection to the performer-figure hybrid. It was very simple, but I perceived relational bonds forming between me as a spectator and the figure-human. It also appeared to me that the bonds between the human performer and the figure was strong. On this last evening and night before the performance I still had the inclination to work towards a rendition using all 4 legs but had at long last accepted that there would be no 4-legged autonomous sculpture able to operate without a human component.

I was tackling the issues that had arisen during the rehearsals, the software problem that meant the timing between multiple motors was not communicated from the control computer to the sculpture correctly, and at the very end of the night(going towards morning) the issue with the mis-configured battery charger that had been causing the lack of power and stamina in the actuators. I discovered the cause of this issue so late that there was no way for me too know before the show whether or not the batteries had been damaged to such a degree that they would not last through the performance, but I left the figure charging as I left for a few hours’ sleep.

The attempt to get four legs, rather than just two, ready for the performance effectively ended the morning of the performance. The night before during while debugging of the software issue that where causing the unexpected movements from the sculpture, the software error caused one of the motors to severely overshoot so that the 3d printed backplate of one of the machines snapped in such a manner that it would need to be replaced. At this time (about 2200 the night before the show) I started a print of a new backplate with the idea of possibly replacing it in the morning before the 0800 get-in at the venue. After this break I also inspected the other 3 backplates for the remaining legs and found that 2 of them were also cracked and obviously had limited ability to withstand further strain. A complete breakdown of all moving parts of the sculpture seemed imminent, but would it hold through the morning soundcheck/rehearsal and performance?

I arrived at my studio at 0630 and to my relief seeing the green light on the battery charger indicating a fully charged battery delivering at least the desired 9.6 volts. The print of the new backplate had failed so that it was warped, effectively ending any potential for repairing the other pair of legs. This was most certainly for the better as I needed the time to prepare the performance using the half-figure still operational.

At the time I agreed on performing at this event, the ceremony for the opening of the academic year at the Faculty of Art, Media, Design and Music at the University of Bergen. I had requested a minimum of 1.5 hours to prepare what I had imagined more sculptures and a much more complex sculptural element. I had imagined the technical setup would be much more complex. This was lucky as it allowed us to do a proper rehearsal in the space before the audience and other contributors arrived at the venue.

Final list of performers: Figure #10 – Tall with blood consisting of two motorized lead screw actuated legs with audio speaker. One human physical performer/vocalist (Alwynne Pritchard). Figure #8 - Fingers, a smaller more autonomous sculpture with a somewhat animal/pet like appearance.

The human component

Alwynne Pritchard is an exceptionally powerful performer. She is a very skilled singer and strong physical performer with a very charismatic and strong presence. She is also highly regarded composer. Her performative range is very large and often her performances are very expressive with a great dynamic range.

Alwynne’s job in this part of the performance is to balance the sculpture and improvise vocalisations as a duet with the sounds emanating from the speaker mounted on the front of the sculpture. She performs a simple task completely focused on assisting the sculpture and directing her performative energy inwards. The movement pattern of the sculpture is so monotonous, Alwynne adopts a movement character dominated by restraint. Her considerable expressive capability being directed inwards. What the audience experience is the overflow of her barely containable expressive power as she performs these tasks.

Program notes

“Procession (for lost visions)” is a composition for two kinetic sculptures, a human performer and surround sound audio playback.

Composer/director/audio/live electronics/figure builder: Thorolf Thuestad.

Improvised voice/movement: Alwynne Pritchard.

Movement/creaking noise: Figure #10 - Tall w. blood

Carried always the aspiration to perfection, to go beyond ourselves. We have outstayed our time but persist in forlorn effort.

There are some among us, moving from place to place.

When they contemplate with us the frustration of all striving, they are not dismayed like us, but quiet.

In the presence of such quietness, despair awakens to peace. By reasonable communication, almost by mere sound, our senses are opened, and we become mysteriously filled with exultation.

Yet often their communications are grave.