ZUGZWANG - under pressure -
-pure exercises in a repetitive space
Duration of performance: ca. 40 minr dancer and computer (world premiere)
Composition, programming, live-electronics: Michael Iber (D)
Choreography and dance: Canan Erek (T)
They were the three great refuseniks of the 20th century. And they were three artists who contributed decisively to the 20th-century aesthetic. Samuel Beckett, dramatist, John Cage, composer, and Marcel Duchamp, artist. What the three had in common was an interest in the game of chess, a passion reflected variously in their works. In his legendary book on chess, Duchamp revealed what was perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the game for them: the symmetrical patterns of movement made by the two kings in the end game. The dancer is White, the music computer is Black. She can hear, he can see. She is human, he is machine. Constant movement and yet a standoff. Both are seemingly moving within their own spheres, somewhere between Beckett-like disembodiment and Cage's strict regulating templates. And yet both still perceive the other, waiting to pounce on the slightest infringement of the rules.
- Towards the end of the game there comes a phase where almost no pieces are left standing on the board, and where the outcome of the game depends on whether one king is able to land in a specific square at a specific distance from the other king. Only rarely does the king have a choice between two alternative moves; he can merely try to pretend that he has lost any interest in winning the game. Then the other king, if he is a true sovereign, can try to give the impression that he is even less interested in what is happening, and so forth. Thus the two monarchs watz their way across the board move-by-move, apparently carefree, as if they were anything but embroiled in a fight to the death. However, for every move they make there are certain rules that must be obeyed, and the smallest mistake inevitably has deadly consequences. The idea is to provoke the other to make just such a fatal error, while coolly maintaining one's concentration. These are the rules that Duchamp brought to light (the free and the forbidden fields) - anything to reinforce and prolong the lofty amusement of the kings. (Henri-Pierre Roché)
Zugzwang is based on music exclusively generated by the computer without using any prerecorded samples. Physical Modeling is the name of a technology which simulates the qualitites and playing techniques of real instruments - like the length of a violin string, the stiffness of a clarinet read, or the plucking of a string. One of the most interesting aspects using this technology is exceeding the limits of the real instruments, e.g. building a trumpet with a tube of several meters length, or crossbreeding the qualities of a flute with the ones of an electric guitar. This computer built orchestra is controlled by the moton tracking of the dancer. Yet the intension was not as much to create a one by one transmission of the dancer's movements to the musical layer as rather the recognition of sequences of movements/moves to which the music computer could respond in one or another way.
Concerning the compositional aspect of the piece, mainly two procedures developed by John Cage - which were quite influential to the 2nd half of the 20th century - come into play: On the one hand, there is the simultaneous coexistence of apparently independent sound sources, like the radios in Imaginery Landscape No. 4. On the other hand, there is the principle of determined chance, a game between destination and freedom, like Cage realized in pieces like e.g. Cartridge Music. (Michael Iber)
Pure exercises in a repetitive space (excerpts of an essay by Michael Glasmeier)
1. Opening
If we observe the course of Samuel Beckett's life up to the end of the Second World War, what surprises us most - if we leave out his dangerous "boy
scout games" for the Resistance - is a listlessness and aimlessness that seems to avoid making decisions of any kind. There are constantly recuuring illnesses, an aversion to his mother and to the cultural scene, the
addiction to endless walks, to endless benders, to endless sleep — anything to avoid taking a position in, for, or against life. (...)
Other heroes of the modern found other ways to evade any possible reputation for
self-exposure and public responsibility. (...) Marcel Duchamp seemed to do nothing all day long but play chess and sit around and spout clever phrases. And John Cage was stuck in his studio calculating, calculating and
calculating coincidences, if he didn't happen to be overcooking mushrooms. Incredibly, this was the background against which the most meaningful works of the modern period emerged. What also links these three figures together
is their love of chess. Samuel plays Marcel, Marcel plays John. Samuel writes about chess, Marcel writes about chess, John composes like chess. (...) Chess is the game of extreme self-absorption and silent communication. The
rules are fixed, and the constellations of the figures shift move by move. Intellectual and aesthetic pleasure come together in a simulation of battle that provokes thought rather than blood. Chess engrosses the players in
concentration on the chequered board. Everyday routine melts away - as does, of course, time. In short: chess conveys the feeling of doing something, of being creative, being artistic, but rarely does it carry any real social
relevance in terms of costs and benefits. It is thus seen as a purely leisure-time pursuit. (...)
2. Mid-game
Chess is hence a model for an artistic attitude towards life. Practice as a way of improving performance tries to outfox life. Practice as a form of action
endorses life and is open for responding moves. Both of these modalities can bring forth artworks. The first is open to the pragmatic demands of profitability, while the second insists on a subjective sense of time.
If we
therefore regard the inactivity of Beckett as pure practice beyond the intention of reaching any goals, it becomes a form of life that naturally does not exhaust itself in generating a result, but that rather, in the permanence
of repetition, continually brings about new results, which in turn can never be final. (...)
3. End game
But whenever it's a question of reality and not one of God and the god-like, a great deal of practice is required. Practice is never over, because there is
no goal in sight, and if one happens to appear on the horizon, it will be evaded in a practiced, indifferent manner - after all, the public is continually setting the artist lucrative traps in the form of fame, awards and
market strategies. For the pure practice here does not seek friction with representation, but rather tacitly follows the clear and impressive theorem put forth by the cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster: "It's possible to
learn something even from the dumbest person."
Dr. Michael Glasmeier (first published at: Marina Abramovic Class, fresh air, for the exhibition fresh air at the “Weimar 1999 –Kulturstadt Europas”)
REVIEW
6 Tage Oper 2004. 4. Europäisches Festival für neues Musiktheater. 9. - 14. Februar 2004
RHEINISCHE POST- DÜSSELDORF 16.02.2004
6-Tage-Oper: „Zugzwang"
A Desperate Chess Game
"Pure exercises in a repetitive space" - thus the ambitious and at the same time deterrent subtitle of a world premiere at the Tanzhaus, which indeed drew attention to just a quite moderate number of people. The event was worthwhile seeing though, for there was quite a reason for the porgramme notes referring to those three giants of 20th century arts, who put chance, repetition and the absurdum as complete absense of sense and purpose into the focus of their artistic lives: Samuel Beckett, John Cage, and Marcel Duchamp. And there was one further association between them: chess.
"Zugzwang" ("Under Pressure") is a danced game of chess. The opponents are a dancer and a computer, which only is perceptible acoustically . The dancer wears a white dress. On the floor, there is an outline of lines and squares showing the way to a bewildered dance between nervous spasms, mechanic automatisms and eruptive outbursts. Staring without expression Canan Erek (choreographer and dancer) moves like being controled by an outside force. Dancer and computer (composer and programmer: Michael Iber) are bound to each other by some fatal interaction. The less intentional her movements appear and the more she purely seems to react, the more ominous the machine-like sounds reaching from rhythmic knocking, high pitched chirping to threatening rumbling become. By the alleged absense of expression and intention a kind of silent despair arises, perfoming interdepend interaction by means of mechanic precision.
Dancer and machine follow rules. At the same time they are mutually watching out for an opportunity to outwit their rival by breaking the rules. A desperate version of chess, a senseless game of repetitons one doesn't get tired to follow. Canan Erek abandons herself to intentionlessness and obtains great intensity just by avoiding any subjective expression. A short and strong performance. (REGINE MÜLLER, translation: Michael Iber).