Choreography as Reading Practice

Simo Kellokumpu

ENG My doctoral artistic research project (2013-2019) examines choreography as reading practice. In the research, the notion of choreography operates simultaneously as an analytical device, problem to be examined, and an artistic outcome. The primary method for the research is choreographic experimental practice that delves into the process of dynamic place-taking in which the human body couples with surrounding movements, from microscopic to telescopic, without the aim of mastering the movement. The research project contains two examined artistic parts; the first one consists of five choreographic projects and the second materializes choreoreading practice as performance with three performers. The research practice delves into the conditions of movement and choreography through the following transformations: from choreographer to choreoreader from choreographing to choreoreading from grounded embodied choreographic construction to astroembodied choreostruction from human vessel to human atmospheric organism In the framework of choreography studies, the research contributes to the shift and expansion from the historical notion of choreography as writing practice, in which the human body masters the movements to a choreoreading practice. The research project also contributes to the genealogies of site-specific and context-responsive practices, extending the notion of site to outer space. Errata On the cover page of the exposition, the peer review logo of The Federation of Finnish Learned Societes should be ignored as the publication has not undergone anonymous peer review. The logo was inserted by the publishers. FIN Tohtorintutkintoon johtanut taiteellinen tutkimusprojektini (2013-2019) tarkastelee koreografiaa lukemisen praktiikkana. Prosessissa koreografia toimii samanaikaiseseti analyyttisenä välineenä, tutkimuskysymyksenä sekä taiteellisena lopputulemana. Ensisijainen tutkimumetodi on ollut kokeileva koreografinen praktiikka, jossa paikantuminen ja paikan ottaminen toimii taiteellisena strategiana jossa ruumis linkittyy sitä ympäröiviin liikkeisiin mikroskooppisesta teleskooppiseen mittakaavaan ilman liikkeen mestaroinnin tavoitetta. Tutkimusprojekti sisältää kaksi tarkastettua taiteellista osaa; ensimmäinen osa koostuu viidestä koreografisesta projektista ja toinen osa on koreolukemista materialisoiva esitys kolmelle esiintyjälle. Tutkimuspraktiikka tarkastelee liikkeen ja koreografian olosuhteita seuraavin muutoksin: koreografista koreolukijaksi koreografioimisesta koreolukemiseen maadoittuneesta ruumiillisesta koreografisesta konstruktiosta astroruumiilliseen koreostruktioon ruumis-säiliöstä atmosfääriseen ruumiiseen Tutkimus asettuu siihen koreografiaa koskevaan historialliseen jatkumoon, joka laajentaa koreografian ymmärrystä kirjoittamisen praktiikasta, jossa liike ymmärretään mestaroituna materiaalina. Tutkimuksen esittelemässä koreolukemisen praktiikassa ruumis kytkeytyy liikkeeseen taiteellisessa prosessissa toisenlaisen asenteen kautta. Tutkimus sijoittuu myös paikka-, tila- ja kontekstisidonnaisen taiteen historian jatkumoon venyttämällä paikan ja tilan käsitteen ulkoavaruuden mittakaavaan. Errata Ekposition avaussivulla oleva Tieteellisten seurain valtuuskunnan vertaisarviointitunnus tulisi jättää huomiotta, sillä tätä julkaisua ei ole anonyymisti vertaisarvioitu. Virhe on julkaisijan.

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Critical Path Sydney 16.- 17.7.2016

The first workshop that initiated the series of workshops and practical try-outs of Choreography as reading practice happened in the choreographic research centre Critical Path in Sydney, Australia. The title of the workshop was Contextual Choreography like the title of my research project at that phase of the research process.

During two days I had a chance to experiment with the local artists the questions that I was processing in the very beginning of the development of the reading practice. The workshop did not achieve any specific form or conclusion, but it impacted my process in a significant way, namely encouraging to move further to the tentative direction of reading practice, which I had had doubts about. It is difficult to locate when the title of my research project changed but after this workshop the name of my research Contextual Choreography turned little by little towards Choreography as reading practice.

The content of the workshop was described like this:

Movement with its manifold definitions, multisensory perception and experience forms the starting points for choreographic thinking and art. Taking a look at to the movements that form the surrounding circumstances and choreographies, which the human body is part of – the relations between the movement, place and space, and their various materialities. Participants will process and discuss these relations through their own artistic practice and various methodologies.

In the workshop a choreographer is thought of as a person who does not master the movement(s) but couples him/herself into the surrounding movement-world and articulates this porous corporeal process. The aim of the workshop is to share various choreographic methodologies through discussing and presenting artistic experiments done during the workshop. (source: http://criticalpath.org.au/program/workshop-contextual-choreography/, accessed last time 12.4.2018)

With the group of local artists I had a chance to experiment with an open question of understanding the surrounding material being constituted by various movements. I could say that the process of my second artistic part started from this workshop too. The question of “If everything moves, how do you take place here?”, which was one of the main questions in #CHARP, can be understood as one outcome and result of this workshop. To have a chance to experiment with unclear questions and perspectives with professional colleagues in such a framework is extermely valuable. Two days is a very short time to experiment with such questions but however, working with the great group initiated and supported my obscure process, and even if I was nervous to expose the ambiguousity of the research process and not having a very clear viewpoint to offer, the group welcomed my uncertainty in a very supportive way.

The main focus in the workshop was to examine the relation between the body and its material surrounding as a choreographic starting point. Having this possibility to spend time with this question in the unknown residency surroundings also encouraged me later on in other workshops to expose the unfinished, sensitive process and the unfinished questions to the collegian scrutiny.

During my residency I also made long walks from the residency. I documented some places which drew my attention as kinesthetic fields from these walks, and later on I wanted to combine these images with the documented images from the workshop. After returning to Helsinki I discussed with my collaborator Vincent Roumagnac how the documented images could be re-made in order to meet the transformation which was happening in the title of my research. The images here are his response to my question.

(images: Vincent Roumagnac)

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