An Unfinished Canvas: Teacher Preparation, Instructional Delivery, and Professional Development in the Arts

Based on surveys, interviews, and secondary data analyses, identifies deficiencies in teacher preparation, instruction, and development in the arts in California, and recommends minimum training requirements and support for professional development

Voices of Notators: Approaches to Writing a Score- -Special Issue

In this special issue of Voices of Notators: Approaches to Writing a Score, eight authors share their unique process of creating and  implementing their approach to notating movement, and they describe how that process transforms them as researchers, analysts, dancers, choreographers, communicators, and teachers. These researchers discuss the need to capture, to form, to generate, and to communicate ideas using a written form of dance notation so that some past, present, or future experience can be better understood, directed, informed, and shared. They are organized roughly into themes motivated by relationships between them and their methodological similarities and differences. The papers are arranged to reveal four themes present among these authors. The themes are: (1) revisiting notation history to rethink the future understanding of notation, (2) focusing and developing notation so it can function to capture traditions of the movement form being embodied to support accurate learning, (3) working with technology to capture, document, analyze, and research movement; and (4) practitioner’s perspectives papers that examine approaches to notating scores to focus the tool of notation to maximize the teaching and learning experiences of the participants and, hence, those who use the resultant scores

Voices of Notators: Approaches to Writing a Score--Special Issue

In this special issue of Voices of Notators: Approaches to Writing a Score, eight authors share their unique process of creating and implementing their approach to notating movement, and they describe how that process transforms them as researchers, analysts, dancers, choreographers, communicators, and teachers. These researchers discuss the need to capture, to form, to generate, and to communicate ideas using a written form of dance notation so that some past, present, or future experience can be better understood, directed, informed, and shared. They are organized roughly into themes motivated by relationships between them and their methodological similarities and differences. The papers are arranged to reveal four themes present among these authors. The themes are: (1) revisiting notation history to rethink the future understanding of notation, (2) focusing and developing notation so it can function to capture traditions of the movement form being embodied to support accurate learning, (3) working with technology to capture, document, analyze, and research movement; and (4) practitioner’s perspectives papers that examine approaches to notating scores to focus the tool of notation to maximize the teaching and learning experiences of the participants and, hence, those who use the resultant scores

Interactive dance choreography assistance

Creative support for the performing arts is prevalent in many fields, however, for the art of dance, automated tools supporting creativity have been scarce. In this research, we describe ongoing research into (semi)automatic automated creative choreography support. Based on state-of-the-art and a survey among 54 choreographers we establish functionalities and requirements for a choreography assistance tool, including the semantic levels at which it should operate and communicate with the end-users. We describe a user study with a prototype tool which presents choreography alternatives using various simple strategies in three dance styles. The results show that the needs for such a tool vary based on the dance discipline. In a second user study, we investigate various methods of presenting choreography variations. Here, we evaluate four presentation methods: textual descriptions, 2D animations, 3D animations and auditory instructions in two different dance styles. The outcome of the expert survey shows that the tool is effective in communicating the variations to the experts and that they express a preference for 3D animations. Based on these results, we propose a design for an interactive dance choreography assistant tool

Choreographic and Somatic Approaches for the Development of Expressive Robotic Systems

As robotic systems are moved out of factory work cells into human-facing environments questions of choreography become central to their design, placement, and application. With a human viewer or counterpart present, a system will automatically be interpreted within context, style of movement, and form factor by human beings as animate elements of their environment. The interpretation by this human counterpart is critical to the success of the system's integration: knobs on the system need to make sense to a human counterpart; an artificial agent should have a way of notifying a human counterpart of a change in system state, possibly through motion profiles; and the motion of a human counterpart may have important contextual clues for task completion. Thus, professional choreographers, dance practitioners, and movement analysts are critical to research in robotics. They have design methods for movement that align with human audience perception, can identify simplified features of movement for human-robot interaction goals, and have detailed knowledge of the capacity of human movement. This article provides approaches employed by one research lab, specific impacts on technical and artistic projects within, and principles that may guide future such work. The background section reports on choreography, somatic perspectives, improvisation, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, and robotics. From this context methods including embodied exercises, writing prompts, and community building activities have been developed to facilitate interdisciplinary research. The results of this work is presented as an overview of a smattering of projects in areas like high-level motion planning, software development for rapid prototyping of movement, artistic output, and user studies that help understand how people interpret movement. Finally, guiding principles for other groups to adopt are posited.Comment: Under review at MDPI Arts Special Issue "The Machine as Artist (for the 21st Century)" http://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/Machine_Artis

Writing Dance: Reflexive Processes-at-Work Notating New Choreography

The experiences of the notator-at-work are a continuous learning event based on personal discovery, reflection, and trial and error. When in the process of notating a newly created work notators often become engaged with the dance on a unique level compared to the times when they are notating works already in existence. This article examines the notator experience alongside the choreographic process of Bebe Miller, from a case study perspective. Using one instance of Miller’s choreographing Prey (2000) and the notator’s documentation of Miller’s dance, the side by side collaborative processes of the notator-at-work and choreographer-at-work are examined providing a contextual framework in which to analyze these parallel processes. The following provide a format for examining the case study: (a) holistic contexts of creating: what circumstances influenced the making and creating processes; (b) medium: the materials each professional uses while creating; and (c) temporality: how the two processes intersect over time

Writing Dance: Reflexive Processes-at-Work Notating New Choreography

The experiences of the notator-at-work are a continuous learning event based on personal discovery, reflection, and trial and error. When in the process of notating a newly created work notators often become engaged with the dance on a unique level compared to the times when they are notating works already in existence. This article examines the notator experience alongside the choreographic process of Bebe Miller, from a case study perspective. Using one instance of Miller’s choreographing Prey (2000) and the notator’s documentation of Miller’s dance, the side by side collaborative processes of the notator-at-work and choreographer-at-work are examined providing a contextual framework in which to analyze these parallel processes. The following provide a format for examining the case study: (a) holistic contexts of creating: what circumstances influenced the making and creating processes; (b) medium: the materials each professional uses while creating; and (c) temporality: how the two processes intersect over time

Music-Related Media-Contents Synchronization over theWeb: the IEEE 1599 Initiative

IEEE 1599 is an international standard originally conceived for music, which aims at providing a comprehensive description of the media contents related to a music piece within a multi-layer and synchronized environment. A number of o_- line and stand-alone software prototypes has been realized after its standardization, occurred in 2008. Recently, thanks to some technological advances (e.g. the release of HTML5), the engine of the IEEE 1599 parser has been ported on the Web. Some non-trivial problems have been solved, e.g. the management of multiple simultaneous media streams in a client-server architecture. After providing an overview of the IEEE 1599 standard, this article presents a survey of the recent initiatives regarding audio-driven synchronization over the Web

Calder's Violin: real-time notation and performance through musically expressive algorithms

Notation is a central issue in modern western music. Composers have often sought ways of expanding and refining the functionality of notation and, in doing so, have re-shaped the music that they were originally aiming to describe. Other musical traditions have very different uses for notation; some have no use for it at all; each approach creates contrasting musical experiences. The role that electronics and computers have played in music has also influenced the nature and function of notation. More traditional 'live' notation of note/pitch- based music generated algorithmically has proved particularly problematic: musical notation is itself a very complex subject. Composers and technologists have instead used libraries of images, algorithms for the pre- generation of material or simplified notations that can be used as the basis of more improvisatory performances. This paper presents work involving the live presentation of 'traditionally precise' music notation created through algorithmically generated material. This notation can then be performed by a human musician alongside computer-generated diffused sound or other 'real' musicians. Technologies used include the SuperCollider audio programming environment and the INScore notation project with the Open Sound Control protocol used to communicate between them. As well as providing a fascinating musical experience, the process highlights a number of issues concerning performance practice, instrumental technique, rehearsal, time and timing, as well as the nature of notation itself and its relationship to improvisation