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Design Choreography considers things to be non-human choreographers. No matter what, things affect the way we move, how we dance, what we can do with our bodies. The invention of pavement, for example, introduced pedestrian traffic; shoes prolonged the step; while the fact of buildings eventually gave rise to parkour. Shifting our creative attention from conventional design goals, e.g. usability, beauty, economy, ecology, and safety, to the conditions and effects of design choreography, I propose an alternative and dance-experience-oriented approach to design. In this way of thinking design focuses on kinaesthetic2 and engaging the whole body. This kind of design is about putting bodies into motion instead of pushing a style or a catchphrase. Vehicular poetics concerns “en route aesthetics”. Think of the automobile as a peculiar cinematographic device that introduced a unique ‘live road movie’—the passing landscape imagery we see through the surrounding car windows. Vehicular poetics is neither vehicle design nor poetry about transportation. Not interested in the comfort or ergonomics of travel, this design approach shifts its creative attention from the efficiency of displacement—the design metrics of moving from A to B—to the experiential poetics of the very act of commuting itself! The design object functions as a technical means of transporting people, but also, and more importantly, a narrative vehicle carrying its passenger to the aesthetic realms of poeticised travel, be it physical or imaginary. Having laid down the contours of g-design, one may start wondering how those approaches actually manifest themselves in creative practice. Here my project Airtime may serve as an example epitomising both the strategies. Airtime is a dropping floor, which fuses elements of a participatory kinetic sculpture
with elements of performative architecture—an anti-gravity machine and a thrill ride! Special equipment under the floor raises and drops those walking on it, occasionally causing a state of weightlessness. ‘Airtime’ is an expression that amusement ride designers use to describe the free fall sensation that passengers feel when they come out of their seats during a ride. Having no equivalents3, its vertical trajectory forms a unique choreographic and psychosocial space. Those standing on it start to behave and move abnormally, unsure of what to do or how to react, and aware of the inevitable fall. Some look at each other and stiffen. Others crouch down, sit, or lie, trying to find the best position. Some hold hands, to relieve the tension of waiting. The fall lasts less than half a second, but at that very moment the most unique dance occurs. It is difficult, if not impossible, to come up with an example of when a group of open-mouthed people perform a primal dance, balancing in the air and expressing ambivalent sensations of pain, ecstasy, and fear. After the fall they scream and laugh, and sometimes run away. “Modern dance spends an enormous amount of time and effort ignoring gravity. They rarely fall. When they fall, they don’t fall. They carefully let themselves down. I’m thinking, You’re a bunch of sissies”, Elizabeth Streb, a contemporary dance choreographer, comments on dancers’ obsession with the vertical dimension. Such criticism may be applied not only to dancers, but to absolutely any individual. Falling, or more specifically, the avoidance of it, was once crucial for evolutionary survival; today it is more a cultural phenomenon that is either stigmatised or pushed to its limits. Our contemporary relationship with falling is so prevalent and pervasive, yet we are rarely, if ever, aware of it. Of course, until we lose our balance in front of
1 For more details on the biomedical and aesthetic background of the project, please visit the project’s website http://julijonasurbonas.lt/euthanasia-coaster/
Proprioception, especially when connected with movement, is sometimes called kinaesthesia; this later term emphasises muscle memory and hand-eye coordination. Closely connected with these two systems is the vestibular system, a remarkable sensory organ near the auditory sensory complex, which carries out a wide range of coordinated activities. It is connected to the eyes and ears, whose neurones respond to vestibular stimulation; it receives important input from the hands and fingers as well as the soles of the feet; it activates facial and jaw muscles; and it affects heart rates and blood pressure, muscle tone, the positioning of our limbs, respiration, and even our immune responses. All of this is done to allow us to stand vertically and move through space with a rhythmic sense of balance.
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Mallgrave, H. F., Architect’s brain: neuroscience, creativity and architecture, (WileyBlackwell, 2010), p. 201. It could be compared to the thrill ride Drop Tower, a mechanical tower from which a cabin with a group of people is dropped. Yet the key difference with Airtime is that Drop Tower imprisons riders in their seats and harness, whereas Airtime riders are free to indulge in choreographic and social experimentation.
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