Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga

Structural Patterns

Reflections on Art, Technology and Society

Archive for February, 2011

Verdensteatret’s “And All the Question Marks Started to Sing”

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Imagine this crazy, detailed mess of small motors, gator clamps, cables, seemingly fragile steel armature constituting a kinetic sculpture set against a beaming light that projects elements of the sculpture onto a backdrop. These sculptures are part of the staging or more appropriately actors of Verdensteatret’s performance titled “And All the Question Marks Started to Sing” which was at Dance Theater Workshop this past week. As a performance, I hated the piece and wanted to leave ten minutes into it, but I would have very much enjoyed the work as an installation. I loved the kinetic sculptures and portions of the interactions between the sculptures and animations projected onto the walls, but as a performance, it was painfully dull.

Verdensteatret's kinetic sculpture

I enjoy experimental work, but if I’m expected to sit in a seat for nearly an hour, I expect to be given something that I can follow, get lost in, or will take me somewhere. There were elements of “And All the Question Marks Started to Sing” which were exciting, but as a whole it seemed disjointed. There was no anchor or narrative that allowed me to follow the work as a staged linear performance. Perhaps it was merely presented in the wrong venue, rather than a seated stage performance, the piece seems to be produced for a gallery or museum environment in which the audience may come and go as well as walk through the staging. Better yet, I would have loved to have interacted with the sculptures and manipulated the playing of the animations and sound.

Verdensteatret's kinetic sculpture

There were four actors that worked with the sculptures to seemingly manipulate video and animation projected onto the walls as well as the sound in the environment. There were a couple spoken portions, but they were not translated into English, so I had no idea what the actors were saying.

Verdensteatret's kinetic sculpture

Written by ricardo

February 28th, 2011 at 9:31 pm

Save Funding for NPR and PBS

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Move On is running a poll to help stop threats to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS:
http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/

Please take a moment to sign the poll and share with others. The government once protected the radio airwaves from corporate ownership, because it was recognized as a public service. NPR and PBS are amongst the most important public services that present a space in the media for intelligent and critical perspectives rather than inane entertainment. NPR and PBS are a citizen service that must be protected!

The Move On page states: “With Republicans back in charge of the House of Representatives, funding for NPR and PBS is in grave danger. Again. The Republicans just released their budget proposal, and it zeroes out funding for both NPR and PBS–the worst proposal in more than a decade. We need to tell Republicans that cutting off funding was unacceptable last time they were in charge, and it’s unacceptable now. A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to your Senators and Representative.”

Written by ricardo

February 15th, 2011 at 4:57 pm

Posted in politics

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