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.
With a wide-breadth duration of 5 years, the BlackBox project aimed at developing a cutting-edge model for a web-based collaborative platform, dedicated to the documentation of compositional processes by contemporary performing artists with a focus on dance and theater. The platform enabled a robust representation of the implicit knowledge in performing practices while applying novel visualization technologies to support it. https://blackbox.fcsh.unl.pt/home.html
Stephan has worked as a Postdoc researcher at the NOVA University of Lisbon between 2014-2019 for the BlackBox project. His main focus has been:
Investigation of creative processes on the basis of three long-term studies in collaboration with well-known choreographers.
Development of new media formats and productions (infographic animation films, 360º video platform, VR dance installation) to convey artistic work and research results.
360º Video Multiple Viewport Platform
Fifteen Dancers and Uncertain Time 360º is a multiple viewport platform (computer, tablet and VR headsets) produced by Carla Fernandes (principal investigator of the BlackBox Arts & Cognition Project). The platform introduces the viewer to selected compositional strategies and artistic ideas by the authors of the ballet, João Penalva and Rui Lopes Graça, as researched by Stephan Jürgens (BlackBox Arts & Cognition Project). In collaboration with the dancers of the Portuguese National Ballet Company (CNB) and Rui Lopes Graça, a rehearsal of two sections of the ballet Fifteen Dancers and Uncertain Time was filmed for the 360º video environment by the interactive media company Space Tailor. Stephan Jürgens and Roger Oliveira (Space Tailor) are responsible for the concept and realisation of the platform. The platform is an interactive 360º environment, and presents sections twelve and sixteen from João Penalva and Rui Lopes Graça's ballet. 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 has accompanied João Fiadeiro's latest 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 provides priviledged insights into the rehearsal process of the company, and the conceptual and dramaturgical structure of the work. The film was premiered at the Cinemateca in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 15th of December 2017.
Publications resulting from this research:
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.