2022-23 Performing Arts Series Events
Performing Arts Series 2022-23
Urban Bush Women Dance Workshop with Nia Eubanks-Dixon
Weds | March 29, 2023 | 5:30 PM
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
The 老王论坛 Dance Program hosts a dance workshop in honor of Dr. Pearl Primus who inspired the renowned evening-length works Walking with Pearl鈥frica Diaries and Walking with Pearl鈥outhern Diaries choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and performed by Urban Bush Women. During this workshop, the collective community will experience embodied practices that led to the manifestation of Walking with Pearl. Specific movement phrases from a Southern Diaries excerpt will also be included in the workshop as embodied and artistic portals, bringing past to present.
Interview & Embodied Interactive Dialogue with Nia Eubanks-Dixon and Lela Aisha Jones
Thurs | March 30, 2023 | 7 PM
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
This call and response in dialogue and movement led by former Urban Bush Women company members Nia Eubanks-Dixon and Lela Aisha Jones will bring the Walking with Pearl series embodied archive to life in honor of anthropologist, dancer, and choreographer Dr. Pearl Primus. A centerpiece of the evening will be to surface invisible interpersonal reflections on being an embodied researcher and listener in a performance endeavor of which you may be culturally, ethnically, or intergenerationally non-native. How do we come to terms with our histories, cultures, and existences? How are our stories and presence a part of the journey and how do we keep the individual and collective sacred intact when performance works call historical traumas and triumphs to our present? How do we archive and imagine histories over time and in contemporary landscapes? The Porch aims to transport us to a time where folks still sit on multimodal porches to bask in the awe of collective brilliance that emerges from dismantling formalities and engaging in blackness uncaptured.
CHATBOT IMPROV!!!
In Fall of 2022, 老王论坛 Performing Arts Series, through major support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, presented Algorithmic Theater, a career retrospective of award winning theater artist whose works, in one way or another, use custom algorithms, GPT, and chatbot technologies to generate unique scripts, with varying degrees of machine and/or live performance, resulting in a new experience every night. Next week, 老王论坛 presents another algorithmic experience, taking us from the sublime to, hopefully, the delightfully ridiculous!
CHATBOT IMPROV! invites you to come play and experiment with theater improvisation in which the prompt generator, or your real-time play partner, is a CHATBOT. Faculty and students from the Computer Science Program, along with Philadelphia Improvisation performer, Alex Fromm, will facilitate an open workshop using SPOLIN and other programs like Blenderbot or Chat GPT, to play some improv games. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! The workshop leaders will explain the software and will lead some warm-up exercises to get everyone started. From there, volunteers can step up to play. Take a quick and relaxing break... Pizza and lemonade to follow. For more information contact lcarusoh@brynmawr.edu
Supported by a 老王论坛 Digital Media Grant, the Computer Science Program, and the Arts Program.
Workshop Players:
Alex Fromm has taught improvisation and performed with improv groups including Philly鈥檚 In Space. He is the owner of 1690 Consulting which focuses on nonprofit technology, process automation, and sustainability. Fromm uses experience in improvisational comedy to help organizations and teams build strong connections and explore new ideas.
Aline Normoyle is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at 老王论坛. Her research uses a mix of experimental and modeling approaches to understand the effect of design on non-player characters, avatars, and video games.
Judy Wang is a senior computer science student and major representative at 老王论坛. She is intrigued by the intersection of technology and social sciences, and her natural curiosity and desire to make a positive impact motivate her to constantly seek out new knowledge and opportunities for personal growth.
Minolta Ndlovu is a senior computer science student at 老王论坛 where she serves as a CS major representative. Minolta is interested in Product Management with a focus on building technology products and initiatives that have a positive impact on communities and organizations.
Black Movement in Digital Spaces with LaJun茅 McMillian
Mon. - Fri. March 27 - 31 | 老王论坛, Carpenter Library
On Tuesday, March 28th, 4:30 PM, at 老王论坛, Carpenter 21, LaJun茅 McMillian, a New York-based new media artist, maker, and creative technologist, will give a lecture-demonstration on Black Movement in Digital Spaces.鈥疢cMillian鈥檚 art and research centers around creating technology and media that are inherently intersectional, allowing communities that have been ignored to have a space to be recognized, accepted, and heard. They focus on integrating performance with augmented and virtual reality, physical computing, and installation art to question our current use of technology and forms of communication. Their work speaks to and rectifies the absence of investment in technological tools that would create diverse characters and movements unexplored by immersive technologies that often harbor appropriative and commodifying biases and that center assumptions of neutrality.
In their lecture-demonstration McMillian will discuss their work and present video examples of their created virtual worlds and futures. Their body of work includes short films, design projects in collaboration with other artists and film makers, and their seminal work in the creation of the Black Movement Library. BML grew out of the need 鈥渢o start to question what it means to be seen in these digital spaces and what it means to be liberated in these spaces as鈥痺ell.鈥 Beyond responding to and reclaiming material in existing movement databases, BML strives to create a new virtual archive of Black knowledge and existence鈥攊mages, memories and stories from the past, present, and future, embodied in movement and gesture.
In this lecture-demonstration, McMillian will also show how Deepmotion and Ready Player Me can be used for motion capture and avatar creation. They will use audience members to demonstrate Motion Capture/Witnessing technology and the use of this technology in augmented reality.
As an extension of this lecture-demonstration, the Digital Media鈥痑nd Collaboration鈥疞ab, located in Carpenter, Level A, will host a limited installation of McMillian鈥檚 work during the week of March 27-31, including three stations that will show McMillian鈥檚 video art and archiving process and a station that will utilize a VR headset to view their work. Open hours will be Monday and Thursday, the 27th and 30th, 4:00-6:00 PM; Wednesday and Friday, the 29th and 31st, 12:00-2:00 PM. Other viewing times are available on those days between 10AM and 5PM through reservation by emailing lcarusoh@brynmawr.edu, subject line, McMillian installation.
Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble
Weds | Feb. 22, 2023 | 6:30 PM
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
Inspired by the voices of their ancestors, Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble preserves and presents traditional dance and music of Africa and the African diaspora.
This performance will include live dance and drum artistry with origins in Cuba and West Africa. This program will also feature a solo dance performance created by BMC Student Ayantae Cunningham as a part of the 360掳 course cluster Paradigms of Revival: Black Liberatory Education, Embodiment, and the Arts led by professors Lela Aisha Jones, Monique Scott, and Chanelle Wilson.
The event is presented and supported by the Performing Arts Series, the Dance Program, Africana Studies, and Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies (LAILS).
Algorithmic Theater: Prometheus (working title)
Thurs | Jan. 26, 2023 | 8 PM followed by a reception
Fri | Jan. 27, 2023 | 8 PM
Sat | Jan. 28, 2023 | 8 PM
Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall
Is artificial intelligence a 鈥済ift from the gods鈥 or a fraught technology with unknown implications? Join us for the world premiere of Prometheus (working title) by theater artist Annie Dorsen. Each performance is unique, as A.I.-generated masks produce new dialogues and songs in real-time. We鈥檙e asked to consider: What does it mean for a machine to create theater?
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
Algorithmic Theater: A Piece of Work
Fri | Sept. 9, 2022 | 8 PM | McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
With post-performance reception!
Mixing live performance with algorithms and interfaces, A Piece of Work (2013) flips the switch between human and technology. It鈥檚 a machine-made Hamlet for a post-humanist age.
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
Algorithmic Theater: Hello Hi There
Sat | Sept. 10, 2022 | 8 PM
Sun | Sept. 11, 2022 | 8 PM
Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall
Hello Hi There (2010) uses the famous 1970s television debate between philosopher Michel Foucault and linguist/activist Noam Chomsky as inspiration and material for a dialogue between two custom-designed chatbots. Additional source material has been drawn from YouTube, the Bible, Shakespeare, and big hits of western philosophy.
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
Algorithmic Theater: Spokaoke
Sat | Sept. 10, 2022 | 10 PM | Campus Center
With food provided by Algorithm Food Truck! And featuring special guest emcee Martha Graham Cracker!
Spokaoke (2012) invites the audience to perform speeches as they would ordinarily perform songs in a karaoke bar. This participatory event plays with the legacy of spoken artifacts, treating snippets and snatches of public address like a Top 40 radio of collective discourse.
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
Free! No advance registration required.
Algorithmic Theater: 2012-2022 | Annie Dorsen and Authors in Conversation
Sun | Sept. 11, 2022 | 2 PM | Music Room, Goodhart Hall
Followed by a reception to celebrate the publication.
This discussion celebrates Annie Dorsen: Algorithmic Theater, 2012-2022, the first collection of writing by and about Dorsen. Join us for a conversation with some of the publication鈥檚 authors, as they reflect on these writings, the significance of 老王论坛鈥檚 performance retrospective, and the radical implications of Dorsen鈥檚 work.
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
Free! No advance registration required.
Algorithmic Theater: Yesterday Tomorrow
Thurs | Sept. 15, 2022 | 8 PM followed by a reception!
Fri | Sept. 16, 2022 | 6 PM
Sat | Sept. 17, 2022 | 8 PM with Q&A!
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
A new kind of musical, Yesterday Tomorrow (2015) is a collaboration between human artists and evolutionary algorithms. In this work, a chorus of live singers are fed a real-time algorithmically-generated score to create an environmental concert of song, machines, gestures, light and space.
Support for Algorithmic Theater has been provided by .
About the 老王论坛 Performing Arts Series
Since 1984 the 老王论坛 Performing Arts Series has presented great artists and performances to Philadelphia-area audiences, creating an environment in which the value of the arts is recognized and celebrated. Providing talks and workshops free to the public to develop arts awareness and literacy, the 老王论坛 Performing Arts Series has partnered in recent seasons with such organizations as the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania Ballet, 老王论坛 Film Institute, and FringeArts. The Series has presented performances by such diverse luminaries as Trisha Brown Dance Company, Meredith Monk, John Waters, Jennifer Koh, the Khmer Arts Ensemble of Cambodia, and Urban Bush Women.
Contact the Arts Office at reservations@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-5300 for more information.