Klas had met and engaged in discussions on collective leadership with Camilla Reppen some months ago. The meeting was such that it inspired a joining of forces for some Lab Day experiments.
Camilla and Josefine (Alfredsson, fellow dancer in Arkeolog 8) walked us through some of their strategies and methods of improvisation and we also got to try some of them out together. We then turned to our “Diagram” of attractors and resonators and at first we very openly put these various concepts side by side with those presented by the dancers (see video Quartet excerpt #1, “Flocker, Crystallizer (repeat and refine)”).
An investigation commenced on how the concepts of the Diagram could play out in this specific ensemble. This is an important aspect of the Diagram; that it needs to be processed anew, from the ground up, for each ensemble intending to use it. This process of investigation would ideally be of an utterly collective nature, bringing to the table the totality of what the members of the ensemble has to offer. But also, and maybe more importantly, to get to have unique experiences within the group that discovers it beyond the individuals, with their different backgrounds and possible preconceptions. In addition to that, this process is also crucial in that it allows for all kinds of “issues” to arise. Issues that would otherwise likely remain unaddressed but nonetheless very active in affecting the creative outcome in less productive ways.
We continued with combining discussions and artistic experiments. Our focus was on how to use the attractors and resonators, as well as combinations of them (see video Quartet excerpt #2, 07b Mix Swirler, Bleeder, Distributor”).
The next day was spent in a decimated ensemble, since Josefine was unable to attend. As a trio we continued working specifically with more of the attractors and resonators and different ways of combining them (see video in the header Trio Excerpt #1, “Harmonizer & Flocker” and below in Trio excerpt #2, “16 b Bleeder, Flocker, Decelerator”.
A third day meant a chance to hook up on duo again, which has become kind of a project in the project. All good, great to get to know Camilla and Josefine, very creative spirit and grateful for yet another exiting set of days with Music in Disorder.
-Ricard Österstam
