I’ve only had one week’s exposure to Contact Improvisation but already I feel that this is how humans were made to move.

I first saw this dance at Priceless last weekend. It was past midnight, having just turned July 4. I was wandering around the festival and decided to check out the chill stage. This stage was covered with a cloth shade structure, kind of like a futuristic circus tent. There was only one entrance which was crowded with people standing, so I had to push my way through.

Despite being outdoors — the night sky visible through the holes between the cloth structure — the chill stage was covered in carpeting and this carpet was strewn with large throw pillows. Within the perimeter were people sitting and lying down on these pillows, most with eyes-closed, listening to the ambient music the DJ was spinning.

But in front of the DJ was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Five or six people were moving at about 4x slow motion, writhing, caressing and falling over each other. A multi-limbed, multi-headed, multi-torsoed human mass oozing at 4x slow motion at the center of an audience entranced by psychedelic ambient music.

In my current state, I couldn’t tell whether this was a performance or something that just spontaneously started happening. It was actually so intense that I had to leave.

The next night I hung around the chill stage in a more sober condition and was able to observe how these dancers initiated their dance and the protocols they used to communicate with each other.

I found out that the dance was called Contact Improvisation. And yesterday morning I took my first class here in New York City.

Here are some reasons why I believe that this will be the dance of the future (at least for me):

Intention not form. The form, the shape you put your body in, is not important. The art happens at the point of contact; very subtle pressure changes allow partners to communicate how the point of contact should evolve, whether it be pulled, pushed, slid, or pivoted. But only the participants experience this, everybody else just sees the form which follows from the intention.

Absolute expression. Although there is a vocabulary for common movements, there is no such thing as a wrong move. Other dances require learning fundamentals before one’s own style can be developed, but in Contact Improvisation you’re already developing your personal style on first contact. The personal styles of each partner flower in complexity as they interact. Every dance tells a unique story.

Intimate. All communication between partners is through touch. The dance can be done completely with eyes closed. There is a group that teaches Contact Improvisation to the blind.

Shared control. Like Capoeira, Contact Improvisation is explicitly an action-reaction, feedback-led dance. There is no leader and follower like many partner dances. Instead the subtle energy fluctuations at the point of contact lead the dancers, like the chaotic forces at an unstable equilibrium.

Physics-defying. Here’s the quick principle of a dance like the moonwalk: Michael Jackson goes up the toes of one foot, puts all of his weight on that foot, then slides the other foot (which is flat on the ground) backwards. The illusion in convincing because the audience sub-consciously thinks that MJ’s weight is on the foot that is flat on the ground, so when this foot is slid back it makes him appear weightless/frictionless. Contact Improvisation creates an entirely new dimension of possibilities for movements like this, because weight can be distributed to your partner.

Modular. Any number of “partners” can simultaneously participate in the dance, all linked through touch, the exchange of partners as effortless as the dance itself.

If you’re in NYC, I highly recommend Kayoko’s class. She gradually introduces the concepts of the dance in a comfortable way, has the class go through exercises which help you learn to communicate your intention, and makes very constructive suggestions on ways you can go deeper into the dance.

I am compiling a list of magical items. Magical items are fun to play with and inspire creativity. If I’ve found it, I’m also noting the best place to obtain such items. Please add your own magical suggestions.

Crystals

I hang these from threads and tape them to the ceiling next to my window. When the sun shines through it makes rainbows on my walls.

There is a proliferation of new age websites which sell crystals and talk about them. These unfortunately tend to drown out any other discussion of crystals.

I finally found this cheap place to order good sun-catcher crystals.

For hanging rainbows, I found these 38mm tear-drop ones to work the best. The tear-drop is definitely the best shape for making rainbows, and any bigger than 38mm is too heavy to hang from tape.

The above image was made with a 76mm tear-drop crystal.

Magnets

Neodymium magnets are super strong! There are a bunch of places to order a variety of shapes, I don’t know what vendor is cheapest.

A special mention has to be made for acquiring large amounts of small spherical magnets. Here are a few pictures of sculptures I’ve made with them.

You can order these from Neocube.

Finally ferrofluid is an amazing magical substance, but messy. It is an oil-like liquid that is magnetic. When placed near a magnet it makes these amazing spikes due to the interaction between the magnetic forces and surface tension.

Mirrors

I have been having a lot of fun playing with mirrors recently. I’m not sure the best place to acquire them online, but I found a place in Manhattan, TT Plastic Land, that cuts acrylic mirror to any size you need. They also sell one-way mirror (transparent on one side, mirror on the other) which I’m psyched to do a project with.

You can do video feedback with a mirror and laptop webcam.

LED’s

Deal Extreme (which sells many other magical items) has a 10-pack of colored super-bright LED key chains for $4-5, free shipping! Warning: It takes weeks to get your stuff from Deal Extreme, they ship from Hong Kong by boat.

More

Here are other magical items that I don’t have as much experience with:

Miracle berry temporarily blocks your sour and bitter taste receptors. Get the tablets and try eating a lemon, etc.

Electronics are a lot of fun to play with, I only started programming my own stuff a couple days ago. Arduino boards are very easy to get going. Order one with the USB port. I ordered from SparkFun which seems good enough. This ITP page has tutorials to get you started.

Little mannequins that you can pose in various ways are fun. No idea where to get them.

Dichloromethane is used in those drinking bird toys to create a heat engine. Might have some potential.

You can order tapioca balls and fat straws and make your own bubble tea. Magic?

Oh, I’ve started a Tumblelog, here.

There was a time period where I had Resolume and Dan Jacobs going on in my room 24/7. I have so much footage like this of people wandering in and watching themselves through layers of Dan’s distortion. This video is footage from what must have been our final session.

Dan you should be a VJ!

Fast forward 1302 days.

I’m at this art show/club environment, and I notice that the VJing grammar is the same as it was 186 weeks ago. The standard filters. Random clips on loop.

Eventually a grammar will evolve for more multi-dimensionality.

The closest I’ve seen to this is Hifana performing live.

Too often VJing has a kind of consistency to the motion that strips it of all engagement. Unmoving moving images. Here the performance had percussive feedback, synchronizing our heartbeats, building and releasing tension. A shape.

Bonus!

Catherine as a redhead! I’m pretty sure this was shot in Jen Chia’s old room, when she had the double to herself. Date on the file is September 2003.

Sundialtone - Not Speaking Gibberish.mp3

For a blast of reality, use headphones to employ the space plan.

I’ve been working on developing habits recently. Lots of creative work, regular physical exercise, eating breakfast, things like that. One habit is keeping a dream diary. I’ve kept some awesome dream diaries in the past. I highly recommend this practice!

The key is to have the recording implement right next to you when you sleep and be consistent about getting dreams recorded. This way you start getting better at recalling details from your dreams. You also end up having more lucid moments since you associate dream-flavored events with the recall of those events. Dream diaries are also good for creative material and doing long-term analysis of your subconscious (whatever that is).

So far into this diary, my dreams (as remembered) have been pretty lame. But I’ve kept at at it, and this morning I had my first “interesting” one.

was living in some place with two floors, sort of like danny and dmax's place. had two stories and lots of outside light but was night. place was kind of lonely. was "figuring out some fig-v's", that is, practicing breakdancing from diagrams on the internet. was talking to.. cha? about it? also talking to chuva about it. she said she could do a turtle. i said she must have strong wrists. we tried to exchange a torrent file. i thought maybe she was into me (non-platonically).

I wake up, write this down, and go back to sleep

i'm in highschool. trying to figure out the three axioms of frege (logic). had been wondering for a while. mentioned to chuva that it’s super hard to remember these axioms, it’s not like just symmetry, transitivity, reflectivity, they’re like weird. phil wadler was in my school but when i went to go ask him (in teacher’s lounge) he just started having some personal conversation with another teacher so i excused myself, “i’ll just ask wikipedia.”

wadler actually had "the three axioms of logic" printed on his office door, but the three things listed were some joke (you know, about academia, like teachers have). this was originally what got me interested in what are the actual three axioms of logic.

i ask a few other people but they don't know, of course.

so i'm in the teacher's lounge, i can't get a school computer to work (totally busted with old windows and malware) so i go back to where my laptop is but i'm sort of lost. dr marchitell is there he's administering some "computer science" (something with databases) test with mr rafson (and the testee (redhead? boy) there in front of them, and several other people) and looks really bored/upset about this.

not sure where i'm going, i end up in a stairwell going down, then see a short dark passageway (that must've been blocked usually) ooh that's weird, this must be the fourth floor. go through the passage, end up in another stairwell that i've never seen before.

see a really interesting looking girl (one eye bigger than the other, skinny, black hair, small, kind of pasty) walking. i say hey, introduce myself shake hands. small, slightly cold grip. never seen you before. yeah i transfered from -some other school-. i say you look really interesting. i'm really glad i found this girl and this new place.

we're going up the stairs. (it's sort of normal white fluorescent light. stairs go up counterclockwise, just normal stairs. walls are brick white. just stairs so far, no exits.)

we find a perfect mini replica of the girl sitting in a corner. we're like whoa super creepy (but not scared, we're having fun). i pick it up and compare, it's really really similar, even the eyes. not sure what it's made of, but it's dark grey, maybe hardened clay (but it's not brittle). then keep going up the stairs and find another smaller one! isn't this weird, there are just these things that look exactly like you left here years before?

then go up more and there are some doors to classrooms. we go into one and there are a few rows of long tables (like mit). there's an old lady with long silver hair in back and several black girls with buzzed hair and no eyes (taking a test it looks like). the old lady looks at us when we come in.

At this point i got excited that this place was so cool, so woke up and wrote it down. Now i’m fully awake.

Observation, not judgment.

Sundialtone - Jay looks like a retard.mp3

Play my Flash Game! (has sound)

From September of 2005 for an attempted second semester of Joe’s video art class. Was to be one part of a three part installation on interactivity, about a man from the year 10000 traveling back in time to the year 3300.

Last night I started watching Ryan Trecartin’s I-BE AREA (full video) which I think captures really well the vision of the virtual future I was going for in Joe’s class.

My final project for that class from spring 2005 (or fall 2004?):

I thought these tracks were horrible at the time. But they sound sort of sweet taken out of context coming out of laptop speakers three years in the future.

toby schachman - peter slime (feb 6, 2006 430am).mp3
This one was dedicated to Danny!

toby schachman - lava larvae (featuring dan jacobs) (feb 8, 2006 215am).mp3
What makes a melody sound Russian?

A nice Valentine’s treat, I think!

Sundialtone - Boundaries (demo).mp3