Hacking as Performance Methodology

Hacking as Performance Methodology

Reconsidering Hacking

Hacking is a much-misused term

(Jordan, 2008)

Cracking vs Hacking

“a material practice that

produces differences in

computer, network and

communications technologies”

(Coleman, 2013:98)

Repurposes but recognises the original

Low level or DIY

Collaborative/Open-source/Sharing

Post-disciplinary/Anti-disciplinary

Reconsidering Hacking

Repurposes but Recognises the original

“As part of this practical capacity,

the very nature of hacking – turning

a system against itself – is the

processing of using existing code,

comments, and technology for more

than what the original authors

intended” (Coleman, 2013:99)

“Hacking is in a dialogic form, not in

dialetic opposition. Not to operate

with its object as an opponent or foe,

but as a field of gravity. Not regarding

a system of belief as opium, but as a

path of liberation, using it as a

trampoline, as a line of flight and a

force of gravity” (von Busch and

Palmås, 2006:59).

Repurposes but Recognises the original

“As I see them they are operating at a low level, using

existing infrastructure and power of a system to tinker,

twist and modulate it after their own will. Building on the

existing system with local patches and modifications.

Adding small operational programs to the toolbox and

presenting them with a journey of the same stream.

Bending flows of power, but keeping the current on”

(von Busch and Palmås, 2006:28-29)

Low level or DIY

“Hacker knowledge implies, in

its practice, a politic of free

information, free learning, the

gift of the result in a peer-to-

peer network” (Wark, 2004:28)

Collaborative/Open-source/

Sharing

“Whatever the code we hack, be it programming

language, poetic language, math or music, curves or

colorings, we are the abstracters of new worlds.

Whether we come to represent ourselves as

researchers or authors, artists or biologists, chemists

or musicians, philosophers or programmers, each of

these subjectivities is but a fragment of a class still

becoming, bit by bit, aware of itself as such” (Wark,

2004:1).

Post-disciplinary/

Anti-disciplinary

“Hackers have constituted an

expansive pragmatic practice

of instrumental yet playful

experimentation and

production. In these activities

the lines between play,

exploration, pedagogy and

work are rarely rigidly drawn”

(Coleman, 2013:99).

Post-disciplinary/Anti-disciplinary

Anti-disciplinary

Anti-disciplinary Principles (Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab)

● Resilience over strength

● Pull over push

● Risk over safety

● Systems over objects

● Compasses over maps

● Practice over theory

● Disobedience over compliance

● Emergence over authority

● Learning over education

Hacking in Performance

Sophia Brueckner

Singing Code, 2011

http://www.sophiabrueckner.com/#

Lauren McCarthy

Script, 2010

http://lauren-mccarthy.com/script/

Social Turkers: Crowd sourced dating, 2013

http://socialturkers.com

Toshi Ichiyangi IBM for Merce Cunningham, 1960

Hacking Choreography

Sound Choreographer <> Body Code

Dance Hack

Hacking the Body

Hacking in Performance

Hacking in Performance

How do you repurpose choreography?

Ongoing project since 2012

Hacks include: fluxus scores, spoken scores, 'object oriented' scores, drawing scores

Programming Language – Live Coding

Hacking Choreography

Hacking Choreography

Hacking Choreography

movement()

{

move 1 (dancer a=rotate) (dancer b=push)

move 2 (dancer a =pull) (dancer b=swing)

move 3 (dancer a =static) (dancer b=wave)

move 4 (dancer a=throw) (dancer b= twist)

}

Hacking Choreography

loop ()

{

move 1

move 2

move 3

move 4

}

if…then ()

{

if dancer a (move1) 180 then dancer b (move4) facing front;

} Hacking Choreography

quality()

{

quality1 = soft

quality2 = indirect

quality3 = sudden

quality4 = strong

}

{

dancer a function.loop (quality1)

dancer b move3 quality.switch ()

}

Hacking Choreography

run loop(){move1; quality1move2; quality2move3; quality3move4; quality4}

right.left()

{

move1.right

move2.left

move3.left

move4.right

}

{

if dancer a (move4)Right(); then dancer b (move3)Left();

}

Hacking Choreography

{

move1; blue

move2; quality 3

move4

move4

move4

}

run loop()

{

dancer b = interrupt dancer a

} Hacking Choreography

if…then(){if dancer b = beer then dancer a = wine}

Hacking Choreography

TOPLAP Draft Manifesto Hacking Choreography

We demand:

Give us access to the performer's mind, to the whole human instrument. The code allows the audience to view the choreographer and the performer's mind, process and interpretations. Not just their bodies.

Obscurantism is dangerous. Show us your screens. Code is visible on stage to the audience, not just performers.

Programs are instruments that can change themselves. The dancer always has the ability to change the program, ignore the program, or subvert the program.

The program is to be transcended - Artificial language is the way. Choreography transcends dance. Artificial language is one way.

Code should be seen as well as heard, underlying algorithms viewed as well as their visual outcome.

Code is seen as well as the visual outcome of the choreography.

Live coding is not about tools. Algorithms are thoughts. Chainsaws are tools. That's why algorithms are sometimes harder to notice than chainsaws.

Dance technique is a tool. Choreography is thought and sometimes harder to notice than dance technique.

We recognise continuums of interaction and profundity, but prefer:

Insight into algorithms Algorithms are insight into the choreography.

The skillful extemporisation of algorithm as an expressive/impressive display of mental dexterity

The decision making process of the dancer is on display as part of the choreography.

No backup (minidisc, DVD, safety net computer) The show must go on. If there is no score the dancer creates the score. But it is still generated in the performance.

We acknowledge that:

It is not necessary for a lay audience to understand the code to appreciate it, much as it is not necessary to know how to play guitar in order to appreciate watching a guitar performance.

It is not necessary to know the choreographic score to appreciate a dance.

Live coding may be accompanied by an impressive display of manual dexterity and the glorification of the typing interface.Performance involves continuums of interaction, covering perhaps the scope of controls with respect to the parameter space of the artwork, or gestural content, particularly directness of expressive detail. Whilst the traditional haptic rate timing deviations of expressivity in instrumental music are not approximated in code, why repeat the past? No doubt the writing of code and expression of thought will develop its own nuances and customs.

The live coding of dance may be accompanied by typing or other forms of gesture to convey the movement choices. This writing of code is not the dance itself but a way of expressing choreographic thought.

Sound Choreographer <> Body Code

SIT RIGHT LEFT

Collaboration with Marguerite Galizia

Mapping arbitrary movement to a choreographic score

Upcoming Further Development

South East Dance R&D

Kent, 2014

Dance Hack

Dance Hack

Hacking the Body

Ongoing Collaboration with Camille Baker (Brunel)

Soft circuits, DIY electronics, Wearable technologies

Crafting and sewing to make electronic performance tools

3 Workshops last summer in Australia

Crochet Breath Sensor

Hacking the Body

Hacking the Body

Http://hackingthebody.wordpress.com

Other Projects

http://blog.sicchio.com

More on my research