As a meeting place for testing performative, documentary and interdisciplinary ideas, STUDIO2 at the International Theatre Institute (ITI) is often the starting point for artistic experiments and productions that are presented on Berlin's stages. Due to its proximity to the Media Library for Dance and Theatre (MTT) and the Media Studio (the ITI’s digital and technological facilities and infrastructure), one of the studio's focal points is the combination of artistic practice, its documentation and the theoretical questioning of the preservation of artistic processes. The STUDIO2 team often works together with artists, scholars and developers, and considers the studio as an extended archive, and the media library as the extended rehearsal room. 

Greek choreographer Eleonora Siarava was working as a residency artist in STUDIO2 from 23.09. until 29.09.2024 as part of the cooperation ITI ♥ MOTION BANK. Through a targeted open call artists were invited to apply for the residency program, requiring a beginner’s experience with the Motion Bank annotation tool. For the duration of one week, Eleonora tested the practical applicability of the tool in the processes of research, production and documentation of artistic work, from the perspective of a choreographer. Her insights are valuable inputs when it comes to making the tool accessible in STUDIO2 for users who have an interest in expanding their practice with digital methods. The residency was process-oriented, emphasizing experimentation and research without pressure for a final presentation.

In the framework of the residency, the following activities took place:

Prior to the residency: an interview was recorded with Eleonora, discussing her artistic practice, her approach to the dancing body and its relationship with technology, and how these influenced her residency experience.

On the first day of the residency, David Rittershaus, director of Motion Bank, gave an introduction workshop on the Motion Bank Systems. He was there to support Eleonora in her work during the first few days, providing an overview of the system’s capabilities and the versatility of media that can be used for annotation. His introduction offered an initial orientation and opened up many possible directions for further exploration.

On the second day, a public event took place in the Media Library for Dance and Theatre, in the form of a relaxed discussion, with Eleonora Siarava, David Rittershaus, the team of the Media Library, and guests. A glimpse into Eleonora's residency experience was followed by a presentation on how Motion Bank's Annotation tool will be integrated into the Media Library for Dance and Theatre and a discussion about how artists can make use of it in their practical and theoretical research.

First outcomes

Throughout the residency period, there were evaluation sessions in STUDIO2 with Eleonora Siarava and the MTT team, which were recorded and are available for on-site viewing at the Media Library. Here is a summary of what emerged:

Eleonora’s focus throughout the week was on the potential uses of the annotation tool in the production development process. With video material as a central point, she experimented with various types of data that she could bring into the system through annotation. For Eleonora, the Motion Bank tool worked as a digital notebook that can connect different types of media. In this sense, it can also be viewed as a personal archive in a way that it allows bringing extracts of old materials as references for new input. During the evaluation conversations, terms like “note-taking”, “video memoir” and “video sketchbook” were used to describe her usage of the tool. Towards the end of Eleonora's residency, an impulse arose to integrate the annotation tool into her upcoming performance, along with a vision of collaborating with a dancer to further develop and refine her ideas using the tool.

As the residency was experimental in its nature, the multiple discussions throughout the week served as exchange points on assumptions and imaginations, as well as critical reflections on potential future applications inspired by the initial experiences of working with the tool. What started as a familiarisation process, very soon became a creative one due to the easy navigation through Motion Bank Systems. Annotations could fulfil multiple purposes, such as linking loosely connected ideas to specific points in the video or functioning as possible additions to (choreographic) concepts shown in the video, including instructions directly attached to visual content. All this has the potential to change the mindset of a creative process and bring new perspectives on capturing and conveying dance (as a bodily practice).

Potential uses of video annotation in rehearsals and creation processes

During the rehearsal period, the tool can be used to take notes and on top of that, the system allows adding different formats of information, ranging from written notes, images or photos from the space or scores, audio material, other videos, extracts from previous rehearsals or any other kind of visual material that performing artists usually bring into the creative process. This enables a wide range of references to be organized within the same environment (on the same timeline), which can also be easily shared with collaborators. That might come in handy when the members of the artistic team cannot be physically in the studio.

The tool also revealed its creative potential, such as by experimenting with different playback speeds, allowing other forms of the same material to uncover hidden aspects of the movement material (e.g., through features like pose recognition and abstract body representations), which can be inspiring. Other than the tool being used in a practical or analytical sense, it could also be used with the idea of creating an artwork within an artwork, by combining the uploaded data in creative ways. This characteristic further blurs the divide between documentation and production development, Eleonora noted.

Another feature of the tool, the Live Annotator, enables capturing annotations in real-time independent of a video. It’s also possible to record a video in parallel, to which the annotations will refer after the recording is completed and uploaded. In essence, this feature enables capturing events in real-time as they happen, which can prove itself useful when thinking of revisiting specific moments from a rehearsal.

Possible challenges

Video has established itself as a relevant medium in the last decades, with literacy and awareness for the medium developing in the dance field over time as well. Dance artists have established ways of working with video which allow engagement with recordings not as exact representations of live performances, but rather with an awareness of the medium's restraints and strengths. While video lacks the shared, communal experience of live performance, it provides unique opportunities for detailed analysis and repeated viewing of specific moments, which is something not possible in a live setting. Nonetheless, using the video when working with performing arts changes the creative process, since it exists as another layer and offers a mediated experience – not the space and time in the room, but a second view and another perspective. It inherently shifts the way an artist interacts with the material and for some, video is something they don’t relate to at all. 

Additionally, there is also the potential for annotation to impose itself on the creative process, due to it being structure and analysis-oriented, shifting the focus from experimentation and spontaneity, which can lead to a sense of being constrained by the need to produce a coherent structure that lends itself to annotation.

In summary

Motion Bank Systems’ annotation tool makes a case for its use as a rehearsal journal, providing documentation of the creative process, and supporting production development. While it shows many advantages, there are also challenges to consider when it comes to integrating technology into a creative process. That said, practice is the main focus of Motion Bank’s research, with exploring different ways of capturing the body at its core—an approach that was also reflected throughout this collaboration. It's important to note that this is a pilot project with no fixed end product and that the software and its applicability for artists in STUDIO2 are still being developed.

If you want to discover Eleonora Siarava’s choreographic works up to now, they are available for on-site viewing as a part of the MTT collection. Before-mentioned audio recordings of the interview, relaxed discussion and evaluation sessions can also be accessed during an MTT visit, and are linked to the article.

If you are interested in using the current version of Motion Bank Systems, you can directly contact the Motion Bank team at office@motionbank.org, and if you are curious about testing it in STUDIO2, you can write to studio2@iti-germany.de 

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