Ballettikka Internettikka 1: Net Ballet, 28 March 2001, Ljubljana, Live Internet Broadcast
Photo: Dejan Habicht, 2001
- authors and performers: Igor Štromajer & Brane Zorman
- theoretical adviser: Bojana Kunst
- live MIDI audio (composed, manipulated and performed) by MC Brane Vs BeitThroN
- live video broadcast: Igor Štromajer
- live cam: Igor Delorenzo Omahen - watchit[tm]
Ballettikka Internettikka is a series of live streaming tactical art projects by Igor Štromajer and Brane Zorman that began in 2001 with the research of ballet dancing the HTML and Java source code. It explores wireless internet performance combined with guerrilla tactics, dancing toy-robots, and mobile internet broadcasting strategies. Their first action in 2001 explored how the ballet can be executed with a serial of still images (via live Webcam video capture) and, automatically uploaded on the internet every 20 seconds - choreographed to be understood in the context of the Webcast. The ten-year project ended in 2011.
# low-res video document, 2001
Special thanks to: Bojana Kunst, Irena Pivka, Jaka Železnikar, Ana Buigues, Julia Höntzsch, Dejan Habicht, Barica Blenkuš, Jurij V. Krpan
".. on the net only ... live with picture and sound ... to dance the HTML codes! ... to use the body, to transfer it to HTML and JavaScript codes, like the dancer's body was used at the beginning of the ballet to perform different alphabetical characters ... to investigate and research the special net.dramaturgy: how the ballet story can be told/shown/danced with a serial of still images (live web cam video capture) automatically uploaded on the net every 20 seconds. whatever the dancer does between those 20 seconds is not published ... the influence that the "story with 20 seconds delay" has on dancer's body, on the story as a unit, and on viewers perspective ... a live-still-images-story ... the dance, the body ... captured every 20 seconds and the image transferred to the net ... to offer the visitors only the parts (every 20 seconds) of the story. the movements/dance/story between those 20 seconds are ... a matter of viewer's imagination. what the dancer does between those 20 seconds? who knows.... smokes a cigarette? eats an apple? ... to e-dance about emotions ... the only occupation! about fear, emptiness, loneliness, anxiety, broken communication, pain, hurt, frustrations ... to dance a story about an individual, a modern man, searching for the land where he could be happy, joyfully, bright and sunny, but that land is so hard to find ... in fact ... does it exist at all?
... no happy end. maybe a ray of light, somewhere, in a very far distance ...
... the fragmented sequences ... an analogy to the digital way of transmission: opposed to the analog in which one must view every single step in a linear manner. it is somehow a mix between the two, and those voids (those invisible 20 seconds) are part of the narrative as well, the narrative of the missing, which constitutes parallel stories - such as smoking or eating an apple ... related to the theories of the viewer-reader-spectator that constructs the rest of the story in his/her mind ... to hypernarratives ...
... not to be protected; to stand frankly in front of the e-audience and to let them hurt the dancer ... but: to fight! a wonderful, extraordinary, but painful intimate artistic experience ...."
(Fotografía del artista, que se dio a conocer con proyectos sobre llos teléfonos móviles que exploraban las potencialidades de los medios de comunicación.)
Igor Štromajer, el net.artista que cantó hace un ano el código HTML de sus proyectos en la Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka, acaba de convertir el lenguaje informático en una danza. Una representación que se podrá ver por Internet en apoyo al mítico Bolshói de Moscú. El teatro atraviesa una grave crisis económica: necesita fondos para sus reformas arquitectónicas y para mantener su actividad artística.
El net.ballet de Štromajer, denominado Ballettikka Internettikka, estaba previsto que se celebrara ayer, día en el que se conmemoró el 225 aniversario de la inauguración del teatro Bolshói: el 28 de marzo de 1776. El evento se cubría en Internet a través de IntimaTV, la televisión del laboratorio de Štromajer.
El artista de Liubliana danza acompanado por la banda sonora de Brane Zorman. "Uso mi cuerpo para representar el código HTML y las aplicaciones Java, así como en Florencia en el siglo XIV había una corriente de ballet que empleaba el cuerpo para interpretar las letras del alfabeto. Quiero contar la historia de un hombre de hoy, que busca un lugar donde reinan la felicidad, la paz y la justicia, pero la búsqueda se complica. ?Existirá ese lugar? Probablemente no, pero seguiré buscándolo en los escenarios, virtuales y reales" explicó Štromajer a Ciberp@ís, quien utiliza las posibilidades y las características de Internet -como interactividad, conectividad y lapso- para crear obras que no serían posibles en otro medio. "Llevo tiempo investigando la dramaturgia en la red y cómo el argumento de un ballet puede ser contado, ensenado, danzado con una serie de imágenes que se cargan cada 20 segundos. Esto es lo intrigante: ?cómo influyen estos 20 segundos sobre el cuerpo del bailarín, el desarrollo la historia y la perspectiva del usuario? La webcam capturará mis movimientos cada 20 segundos, por tanto quedan intervalos de 20 segundos a disposición de la imaginación del usuario. ?Qué haré en aquel lapso de tiempo? ?Fumaré un cigarrillo? ?Comeré una manzana? Nadie lo sabe".
El net.ballet se retransmitía en apoyo a la restauración del Bolshoi, el mítico templo de la danza que atraviesa una grave crisis económica; incluso para mantener su actividad artística. Ahora, el artista montará todas las imágenes generadas en una animación y pondrá el archivo en Intima, junto a sus otros proyectos de net.art, incluida la Oppera Internettikka que le valió el apodo de Pavarotti del HTML.
Štromajer, que procede del mundo del teatro, abandonó las tablas insatisfecho de la relación pasiva que se establece entre el público y la escena. "Mi objetivo es provocar emociones. No se trata sólo de ofrecer al público una interfaz interactiva más o menos flexible y dinámica, sino de transmitir un mensaje. Internet me permite conectar directamente con el usuario y sus emociones a través de la obra".
[El Pais - Roberta Bosco & Stefano Caldana, 29 Mar 2001; Espana]
Wonderful European site for different genres of art, including an internet ballet at Intima.org. What I find really compelling here is the Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka, which was "created and performed by Igor Štromajer on March 18th, 1999, in the Slovene national theatre in Ljubljana." (You can download the 38 minute long performance). This just kicks ass is about five different ways. I have been wondering if I would come across any aesthetic experiments using programming languages as language--and perhaps I just wasn't paying attention two years ago when this work was first performed--so if anyone knows of any more musical or textual works using programming languages, do please let me know. On the other hand, there is a link at the site to a review in [Paris] Liberation ("le Slovène a imprimé la page source de l'uvre qu'il présentait, en 1998, à Skopje et s'est mis à chanter son code HTML") dated February 2nd of this year, so perhaps the work can be considered to be more recent. Stromayer is quoted in this article as saying "La technologie, c'est pour Hollywood, pas pour les artistes" and goes on to say that the Ballettikka Internettikka will be performed in Moscow in 2002. I'm not sure of the disingenuousness of his take on technology--I find that attitude a bit tiresome when speaking of a piece which obviously celebrates technology--but I'm excited about the direction of this work anyway.
[Juliet O'Keefe - Arcadia ECLOGUES - August 27th, 2001 ||| Theoretical Internet Opera]
[Dance Parade - TV Slovenia, April 8th 2001, 15:30]
net.ballet
On Wednesday evening this week there was a live net cast performance of "Ballettikka Internettikka | Part One" a net.ballet danced by Igor Štromajer, with music composed by MC Brane - Brane Zorman. The performance was captured as a video archive which can still be viewed online. The effect was like a cross between semaphore signalling, "the dancer's body was used at the beginning of the ballet to perform different alphabetical characters"2*, and black and white silent film melodrama with electronic musical accompaniment. The ballet is a sequel to the "Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka" (Ljubljana, March 1999 - Opera and Ballet of the Slovenian National Theatre) in which Štromajer sang a score consisting of the " HTML code of his net art projects"3*. The score and sound document from this event are also online. The second part of Ballettikka Internettikka will be performed in Moscow in Spring 2002.
The main motivation behind the ballet was to " investigate and research the special net.dramaturgy: how the ballet story can be told/shown/danced with a serial of still images."4* Essentially it is the space between the recorded movements that is described through the dance. This space gives the viewer the opportunity to imagine what occurs inbetween the captured poses and to interpret the narrative more freely, as hypernarratives. It is also a dance about "... an individual, a modern man, searching for the land where he could be happy, joyfully, bright and sunny, but that land is so hard to find ... in fact ... does it exist at all?" Štromajer is dressed in a suit and dances in front of his laptop. He reads the newspaper and removes his jacket. The dancer's signals express the emotion of the human captured by technology in his working life "emptiness, loneliness, anxiety, broken communication, pain, hurt, frustrations "5*, but that is my interpretation.
Intima say that: "ONE, split into TWO is compatible with the life of NET.BALLET"6*, that is zeros and ones, or continuity and spaces or breaks in transmission. To recognise the actual performing quality of the computer, that there can be breaks in webcasts due to download speeds, is more an appreciation of the digital medium than pretending that webcasts are qualitatively no different to TV. It also ties in with the aesthetics of human computer interaction, which actually use breaks or discontinuities in space/time as part of the communication process. It is in fact these very discontinuities, One split into two, which create the emotional texture or experience of the work.
[Sarah Thompson; Friday, 30 March 2001; www.content-type.org.uk]
[Saša Šavel; 8. Day - TV Slovenia, 12 April 2001, 21:20]
Igor Štromajer zong in 1999 de HTML-code van zijn internetprojecten (!)en noemde het Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka. Eerder dit jaar maakte hij een on line choreografie getiteld Ballettikka Internettikka. Onwaarschijnlijk coole stuff.
Sarà trasmessa stasera alle 19:00, Ballettikka Internettikka - Part One: net.ballet. Una serie di immagini aggiornate ogni venti secondi secondi da una webcam riprenderanno la performance in cui Igor Štromajer interpreterà i codici HTML e Javascript del suo progetto web con la danza, un po' come alle origini del balletto in cui la performance del corpo veniva usata per interpretare altri caratteri alfabetici. Il tutto per supportare il rinnovo del teatro Bolshoi di Mosca e della sua accademia.
[Neural - rivista di cultura cyber, 28 Mar 2001; Italia]
Digital Dancing
To support the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre and its renovation in Moscow, the first part of net.ballet, performed by Igor Štromajer, was broadcast live on the Web. The event explored how ballet can be executed with a serial of still images (via live Webcam video capture) and, automatically uploaded on the Net every 20 seconds - choreographed to be understood in the context of the Webcast.
[NOW - New Media Art News, 29 Mar 2001, Latest global roundup of digital art activity; London, UK]
"We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
(W. Churchill)
