BlackBox Arts & Cognition
BlackBox – Arts & Cognition: A collaborative platform to document performance composition: from conceptual structures in the backstage to customizable visualizations in the front-end.
BlackBox was an interdisciplinary research project at NOVA FCSH (2014–2019), led by Principal Investigator Carla Fernandes and funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (grant agreement no. 336200, EU Seventh Framework Programme). It aimed to develop a model for a web-based collaborative platform documenting the compositional processes of contemporary performing artists in dance and theatre, bringing together multimodal communication, cognitive science, computer vision and novel visualisation technologies. https://blackbox.fcsh.unl.pt
Stephan worked as a full-time postdoctoral researcher on the project between 2014 and 2019. His main focus was:
Development of new media formats and productions (animated infographic films, a 360° video platform, a VR dance installation) to communicate artistic processes and research results to wider audiences.
Investigation of creative processes through three long-term case studies with the choreographers João Fiadeiro, Rui Lopes Graça and Sylvia Rijmer.
360º Video Multiple Viewport Platform
Fifteen Dancers and Uncertain Time 360° (2018) is a multiple viewport platform for computer, tablet and VR headsets. Stephan Jürgens and Roger Oliveira (Space Tailor) were responsible for the concept and realisation of the platform, produced by Carla Fernandes within the BlackBox project. The platform introduces the viewer to selected compositional strategies and artistic ideas of the authors of the ballet, João Penalva and Rui Lopes Graça, as researched by Stephan Jürgens. In collaboration with the dancers of the Portuguese National Ballet Company (CNB) and Rui Lopes Graça, a rehearsal of sections twelve and sixteen of the ballet was filmed for the 360° video environment by the interactive media company Space Tailor. Presented at Festival MONSTRA, Lisbon (2018). To explore the platform, click on the image above.
Infographic Films
In collaboration with João Fiadeiro, each solo work of his SOLOS | ENACTMENTS series was analyzed with a focus on the underlying artistic ideas, concepts and dramaturgical strategies. Subsequently we produced three infographic videos about Fiadeiro's studio space and practice which invite the viewer to engage with his artistic universe. You find the films here:
http://blackbox.fcsh.unl.pt/joao-fiadeiro-solos-enactments-study.html
This article discusses the making of the infographic films in depth:
https://journals.colorado.edu/index.php/partake/article/view/329
Documentary Film
The BlackBox team accompanied João Fiadeiro's stage production O que fazer daqui para trás (What to do with what remains) at different stages of the creative process. The resulting documentary film (2017) – idea by Carla Fernandes, directed by Stephan Jürgens and Carla Fernandes, produced by Carla Fernandes and Stephan Jürgens – provides privileged insights into the rehearsal process of the company and the conceptual and dramaturgical structure of the work. It premiered at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon, on 15 December 2017, in a screening of the InShadow Festival.
Publications resulting from this research:
Jürgens, S. (2022). Dance | Data | Storytelling. In Fernandes, C. (ed.), Evola, V. (ed.), Ribeiro, C. (ed.) Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication. Routledge, 38–54.
Jürgens, S., Fernandes, C. and Kuffner, R. (2020). Choreographed 4D visuals: experiencing Sylvia Rijmer’s Body Logic Method in a VR Dance installation. Performance Research 25, 4. Routledge.
Jürgens, S., Fernandes, C., and Evola, V. (2019). An Infographic Approach to Presenting Dance Data from the Choreographer’s Studio. PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, Vol. 2: Iss. 2 , Article 7. Published by University of Colorado Boulder.
Jürgens, S. (2018), The Sourcing of Somatic Theatre Praxis: Breathing with a goat, contemplating 2000 turkeys and an unexpected interview, Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 10, 2, UK. Intellect, 303-316.
Jürgens, S., and Fernandes, C. (2018), Visualizing Embodied Research: Dance Dramaturgy and Animated Infographic Films. Journal of Embodied Research, 1 ( 1 ), 3 (27:41). Routledge.
Jürgens, S. (2017). How to communicate on the verge of collapse, Choreographic Practices, 8: 1, UK. Intellect, 89–109.
Jürgens, S., and Fernandes, C. (2017), Choreographic practice-as-research - Visualizing conceptual structures in contemporary dance. In Arlander, A. (ed.), Barton, B. (ed.), Dreyer-Lude, M. (ed.), Spatz, B. (ed.) Performance as Research: Knowledge, methods, impact. Routledge, 249-274.
Fernandes, C. and Jürgens, S. (2016). Moving from an artist-led practice into self-emerging educational approaches. Performance Research, 21, 6: ‘On Radical Education’, Routledge, 71-77.
Jürgens, S., Henriques, F. and Fernandes, C. (2016). Re-Constructing the Choreographic Studio of João Fiadeiro through Animated infographic films. PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, Article 3. Published by University of Colorado Boulder.
Jürgens, S. (2016). Three methods of designing a workflow with multimodal video annotation in interdisciplinary choreographic processes. In Fernandes, C. (ed.) Multimodality and Performance, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 159-178.