dance massive 2013
March 27 2013
dance: installed, immersed, hybridised
keith gallasch: dance massive 2013
quotidian moves, gangnam-style
philipa rothfield: ben speth, wetubelive
dance massive 2013
sounds to dance to, with, against
gail priest: sound design in dance massive 2013
March 26 2013
the life in the work
philipa rothfield: tracie mitchell, dance screen retrospective
youtubing live
varia karipoff: ben speth, wetubelive
dance massive 2013
March 24 2013
dance & disorientation
keith gallasch: tim darbyshire, more or less concrete
more or less monstrous
jana perkovic: atlanta eke, monster body
realtime tv: tim darbyshire, more of less concrete, dance massive 2013
March 22 2013
ritual entwining
philipa rothfield: soo yeun you, [gu:t] [work-in-progress]
strange affliction: dance massive & transcendence
keith gallasch: jo lloyd, future perfect
March 21 2013
a not so private hearing
carl nilsson-polias: tim darbyshire, more or less concrete
realtime tv: antony hamilton, black projects 1& 2, dance massive 2013
something ends, something begins
virginia baxter: dance exchange, dance for the time being - southern exposure
dance massive 2013
the perfection of submission
varia karipoff: jo lloyd, future perfect
March 20 2013
inner fury, seductive skill
philipa rothfield: anouk van dijk, chunky move, 247 days
March 20 2013
old tropes & the new disconnect
carl nilsson-polias: lucy guerin inc & belvoir, conversation piece
March 19 2013
now, then, now
keith gallasch: sandra parker, the recording
realtime tv: anouk van dijk, 247 days, chunky move, dance massive 2013
dance massive 2013
March 18 2013
creating an affective community
jana perkovic: matthew day, intermission
fun and the damage done
keith gallasch: larissa mcgowan, skeleton
more than smoke and mirrors
virginia baxter: ashley dyer, life support
realtime tv: lee serle, p.o.v., dance massive 2013
March 17 2013
realtime tv: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr, dance massive 2013
the body un-mirrored
jana perkovic: anouk van dijk, chunky move, 247 days
the origins of feeling
philipa rothfield: sandra parker, the recording
March 16 2013
realtime tv: stephanie lake, dual, dance massive 2013
dance massive 2013
March 15 2013
a dance for dark times
virginia baxter: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr
brittle bones & internal electricity
carl nilsson-polias: larissa mcgowan, skeleton
in the thick of it
philipa rothfield: lee serle, p.o.v.
March 15 2013
inside the audience
jana perkovic: lee serle, p.o.v
the poetry of pain
keith gallasch: stephanie lake, dual
dance massive 2013
when two become one
varia karipoff: stephanie lake, dual
March 14 2013
blacker than black
keith gallasch: antony hamilton, black projects 1 & 2
life in a puff
carl nilsson-polias: ashley dyer, life support
March 13 2013
dark symmetries
carl nilsson-polias: antony hamilton, black projects 1 & 2
lines of flight
philipa rothfield: dalisa pigram, gudirr gudirr
dance massive 2013
suggestive formalism
jana perkovic: natalie abbott, physical fractals
unsettling the audience
varia karipoff: natalie abbott, physical fractals
February 22 2013
an intense manifestation of dance
philipa rothfield: dance massive 2013, melbourne
dance massive 2013: from the archive
lucy guerin inc, conversation piece; antony hamilton, black project; atlanta eke, this monster body; matthew day, intermission; jo lloyd, future perfect; tim darbyshire, more or less concrete; natalie abbot, physical fractals; ben speth, wetubelive
|
WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013 photo Rachel Roberts |
I’M IN THAT WEIRD PLACE ON YOUTUBE AGAIN. I’M LOOKING AT GRAINY FOOTAGE OF A CONCERT. THERE’S A MAN IN A RED CAPE AND VIOLINISTS IN WHAT LOOK LIKE HIJABS OR BLACK SACKS OVER THEIR HEADS. THE MAN OPENS HIS MOUTH AND SINGS IN AN UNEARTHLY FALSETTO, THE SOUND A MUSCLE-FREEZING LAMENT THAT COULD BELONG TO EITHER GENDER. WITH ONE ERRANT CLICK I GOT HERE.
YouTube is a platform where cats, screaming goats and Korean pop singers go viral, a fever that catches on and compels us to share chosen material. Often, qualities indefinable and undeserving elevate one video above the billions of others out there.
Ben Speth in his WeTubeLIVE celebrates the bizarre, the narcissistic and the occasionally talented, curating 100 live performances appropriated from YouTube. Each performer is presented in a carefully demarcated square—neat and contained with their personal effects and own sound system. The taped square works to create a barrier not unlike a computer screen; viewers walk amid performers without fear of interfering, happy to gaze and gawk as though invisible.
A girl in a green plushie outfit rolls around her square challenging, “Can you do this?” in a shrill voice while shoving her foot in her pocket. It's an example of the truly inane attention seeking that could at any moment mushroom into a global cultural phenomenon. It seems a generation has grown up unfazed at self-promotion and self-exposition in the form of video blogs and status updates. The self is very much at the centre of all this—self-snapped photos are even called selfies.
In an online forum which appears apparently immune to government intercession and where anybody anywhere can upload a video, it is perhaps telling that videos with political intent don't share the notoriety of the largely banal ones that capture our attention. Are there forces stymying revolutionary ideas from making it onto the recommended-for-you list or is it that we would rather watch freak shows? One video in recent memory showed young men in Palestine parody Gangnam Style while pointing a finger at the stark difference between glitzy Gangnam and the freshly bombed Gaza, complete with donkey transport and rubble. Similarly, I was heartened to see a disabled performer rocking out amongst the tiara-adorned beauty queens at WeTube. She was there; you just had to look for her.
|
WeTubeLIVE, Ben Speth, Dance Massive 2013 photo Rachel Roberts |
Many of the WeTubeLIVE performances appear to have been selected for their expressions of personal freedom rather than their storytelling qualities. Hip hop dancers, a girl with her forehead covered in bindis, her square full of talismans, and a make up tutorial are just some of the visions you can tune in and out of. Choreographed moments, when all the performers are perfectly still and silent, intimate the possibility of united action, but it’s unrealised. There have been serious attempts to harness the viral power of YouTube for change, such as the infamous Kony 2012 campaign. Before that, people were buoyed and entertained by community-sprouting flash mobs (my favourite is the dancing inmates in CPDRC, a Philippines prison). Flash mobs were a fad and Kony dissolved with the creator's public meltdown. The potential is there, we're just not sure how to topple governments with it; there's silence still.
What WeTubeLIVE director Ben Speth seems to suggest is that we are still amateurs, singing into hairbrushes, only now our mirrors are laptop cameras. We’re not wielding technology for anything more than instant gratification. The performers are all young, inevitably imbuing WeTube with some sense of hope. However, as I came to a train wreck of a singer, I thought WeTubeLIVE a harsh critique of each of us for choosing the things we watch.
Dance Massive & Ben Speth, WeTubeLIVE, concept, direction Ben Speth, project manager Bec Reid, dance facilitator Adam Wheeler; NGV International, Great Hall, Melbourne, March 24; http://dancemassive.com.au
© Varia Karipoff; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]
Back to top