Iterations I, II, & III

Making of Iteration I

My first iteration utilizes a custom 3D model to animate the motion-captured Odissi data. The skeletal model (the default for the Motionbuilder software) maps onto a character generated by the Autodesk Character Generator that provides choices in clothing, skin tone, eye-color, hair color, height, weight, musculature, and facial contours. I choose a brown male body in black overalls to complement her capturing process. Movement in Odissi is not gender segregated. Both male and female dancers perform the same movements, although the attitude of the dancer often represents gender. For example, maleness requires sharper and bolder movements while femaleness is ascribed to softer and gentler movements. I choose a male dancing body to examine my movement’s cross-gender translation in a digital environment. The question of obscuring and surfacing bodies in this digital translation underscores my experiment throughout since I invest in surfacing the Mahari from within her Odissi movement practice. Transposing her movement to an identifiably male character, I question the easy associations of soft movements to femininity in Odissi. Through this maneuver, I resist the easy ascription of the Mahari to soft and feminine gestures that will continue to disavow any artistic and innovative agency of the Mahari.

The purpose of this iteration was to ascribe movement to the fingers of the dancing body, as the choreography of the Mudras (hand gestures) were lost in translation with the first iteration. The addition of Mudras in the avatar and their corresponding visual aids in the environment foreground the movements’ symbolic codifications. This particular sequence includes Mudras (hand gestures) and Bhangas (body postures) depicting an oil-lamp, a bee, a female sculptural figure, a spring time blossom, the deity Jagannath, an Odishan temple sculpture, and a cow. These embodied gestures and postures are supplemented by a series of corresponding images. The movement does not have a linear story as such. The gestural information adds a linguistic understanding to the dancing avatar that is further supplemented by visual images. This iteration presents a collection of images that aid the non-linear narrativity of the avatar. For viewers who do not have access to the highly codified Odissi movement vocabulary, these images provide a visual aid for understanding the dancing body’s expressive communication.

The digitized choreography of the fingers into Mudras (gestures) at certain moments in the piece remains interspersed with the transitions from one gesture to another, which questions the association of the dancing body to its adherence to South Asian aesthetic theory. This creates the possibility of punctuating the linguistic determination of the gesture. The digital iterations create the possibility of interfering with the linguistic codification of the Odissi body. For example, as the animated body holds a Tri Pataka (the single-handed gesture with a sharp bending in the ring finger while the remaining fingers stay upright), the picture of an oil-lamp emerges in the surrounding. Tri Pataka represents the oil-lamp according to Natyasastric principles. Hence, it contextualizes the Mudra for its reception from a cultural perspective. As the avatar spins, the image of the oil-lamp travels alongside the Tri Pataka. However, the initial tightness of the ring finger in Tri Pataka slowly gives away as the fingers arrange in Tamrachuda (the single-handed gesture where the tips of the tall, ring, and little fingers touch the thumb while the index finger bends gently). The Tamrachuda represents a female figure and the picture of a classical female body appears in the environment. The avatar applies computational logic to transition from Tri Pataka to Tamrachuda. This transition is different from that of my live performance while transitioning between the two Mudras. This creates a distinct characterization that is germane completely to the digital sphere. While I manually animate the fingers as Mudras, the avatar reorients my choreography by adding its own logic.

These digital punctuations in Natyasastric aesthetics deviate from the flow of mimetic movement in Odissi, where mimetic movement refers to movement that represents something else. Here, meaning-making through movement happens according to multiple registers spanning South Asian aesthetics and digital processing. The digital processes question the construction of meaning according to the representation of the real world in movement. Other than representation, here meaning is being constructed through digital abstraction that increases the generation of Mudras manifold. The multiple configurations of the fingers while showing the same contextual information opens up the linear connections between gesture and meaning.

Making of Iteration II

 

Iteration II concentrates on the spinal undulations that has both a change of levels as well as a side to side movement pattern which directly connects to the up and down movement of the knees. I attach a trailing black ribbon to my spine to note its trace in space. As I travel, I leave a solid black trail moving up and down in spiral motions. It makes arcs that have varying radius. Mostly these arcs do not complete into neat semi circles as another one starts. The initiation might be side to side coverage or an up and down motion. However, the first never happens without the other. Spatial coverage in Odissi requires an initiation in place that invariably results in a change of levels. The arcs echo the serpentine character of the Meena-Danda. Such a clear mapping of my movement changes my experience of executing the movements. I go back into the studio to hone in more deliberately on the multiple changes of levels and the curvilinear marks delineating the controlled yet undulating motion of the upright spine. I never focus on the spinal trajectories in space until now. The visual delineation directs my focus to the different points in space touched by my spine, which subsequently helps me to sharpen my posture with a keener sense of direction, intention, and force.

I attach a ribbon like material to the base of the neck, the middle of the spine, and the center of gravity in between the two legs on the floor. When the body is upright, the S-curve vanishes into a straight line. But I rarely maintain the Sama Bhanga or the upright stance because the excerpt in question constitutes a dialogue between two people although choreographed for a single performer. Mostly the character on the stage left addresses the character on the stage right leading a slight turn in the upper body and a slight bend at the knees, something that is central to the mode of conversation in Odissi. It is almost a soliloquy of Radha rebuking Krishna for his sexual exploits outside of their sacred love. There are no signposts in the motion captured data to adhere with this logic. This way, the narrative expressivity of my moving body reduces and I can analyze its orientations and curvy movement aesthetics. As the skeletal contraption bends more, the S-shape gains greater depth. But if one has to measure the narrative expressivity od the body without a face, the marked motion captured body is pretty helpful in delineating the technique of Abhinaya. The S-shape deepens when the assumed gestures acquires more and more assertive power. The body turns towards the right, feet remaining in Tri Bhanga, and the arms close to the chest. The distance between the backward thrust of the spinal column along with the hips and the knees determine the curvilinearity of the curve. It is important to note that the S-curve becomes the major means of the sprouting of the Mahari from the skeletal ashes.

Cloudlike patterns permeate the space around the spinal column by navigating in swirling motion spiraling one way and the other in quick beginnings and sustained endings. With the turn of the upper torso towards the right, feet rooted parallel onto the ground, I notice a tiny spiraling trace around the spine. Perceivable clearly in the three dimensional environment, the circular disc like trail in black ink provides a prologue to the ensuing snaky patterns in the space. The body moves up and down as much as it moves from side to side. One can generalize the motion as a series of initiations with a change of levels, a spatial translation or a torso rotation sustained in the middle, and a culmination at a lower level than started usually in the Tri Bhanga with feet turned out. The torso faces one side and the other in quick successions mostly isolating from the hips that maintain a slightly different orientation from the chest area. This creates the principle point of the start of the curvilineal aesthetic. The wavy pattern continues with travels in the space in semicircular shapes. Even when we see the dancer approaching the front to find a seated position on the floor, the pattern created is not linear. It is wavy with a slight change in levels at the beginning and a stark change of levels at the end with the body going down onto the floor.

If I bring in my experience of performing this material, my experience of viewing the abstract patterns gets maligned with its underlying emotional content. I repeat these traces onto a paper a couple of times to embody a sense of their imagery on paper. Both times, I come up with similar patterns on paper curved at every instance circling and twisting its way through one another. I think of my experience in performance as I perform this excerpt from the Gitagovinda. I barely think of the visual patterns I create on stage since in Abhinaya, I only care about the emotional and aesthetic creation of the divine imagery between Radha and Krishna. The visual access to this emotionally dense movement finds some parallel to my experiential information. The concentration of the loopy waves in one spot correlates to its emotional mapping, the denser the loops, the greater is the emotional intensity. I can only say this because I cannot completely alienate myself from the actual choreography and its associated stories.

Iteration II concentrates on the spinal undulations that has both a change of levels as well as a side to side movement pattern which directly connects to the up and down movement of the knees. I attach a trailing black ribbon to my spine to note its trace in space. As I travel, I leave a solid black trail moving up and down in spiral motions. It makes arcs that have varying radius. Mostly these arcs do not complete into neat semi circles as another one starts. The initiation might be side to side coverage or an up and down motion. However, the first never happens without the other. Spatial coverage in Odissi requires an initiation in place that invariably results in a change of levels. The arcs echo the serpentine character of the Meena-Danda. Such a clear mapping of my movement changes my experience of executing the movements. I go back into the studio to hone in more deliberately on the multiple changes of levels and the curvilinear marks delineating the controlled yet undulating motion of the upright spine. I never focus on the spinal trajectories in space until now. The visual delineation directs my focus to the different points in space touched by my spine, which subsequently helps me to sharpen my posture with a keener sense of direction, intention, and force.

Making of Iteration III

With the assistance of my instructor at ACCAD, Vitalya Berezin-Blackburn, I map the spatial trajectory of Odissi movement using multiple colors associated with the different parts of the body. I use blue for tracing the movement of the head and the hips. I use green for the right wrist and the right ankle and green for the left wrist and the left ankle. A 2D viewing of the picture from the front has the appearance of a giant banyan tree having a dense concentration of roots and branches while standing tall with a firm stem. The 2D view shows how the body is always held upright and the footwork and the hand gestures are the most frequently deployed. The winding nature of the trails of the wrists correspond to the curvilinear spatial trajectories by the gestural movements. Unlike the hands, the feet make sharper angles although with a high concentration. The close proximity of the trails to the floor show that the feet rarely leave the ground except for one or two instances. There is a clear sense of juxtaposition in the initial glance at the picture with angular marks by the feet and the winding traces of the hands. The head and the hip always align with each other as evidenced by the blue markings laying parallel at the head and the hip levels. We see only one green line emerging from the ground to the knee level showing clearly the one legged balance in one particular instance. Overall the movement looks pretty symmetrical despite the individual movements do not necessarily have right and left repetitions. It is this symmetry in Odissi that I want to offset in the collaboration outcome, a yearning that the Mahari has expressed in my practice and continues to express in my work with motion capture technology. My Odissi body fails to do it despite consciously deploying a denser variants of her S-curves and her fish-walk.

The hip and the head stay parallel to one another throughout the duration of the piece although they have slight quirks that are particular to them differentiating the direction and orientation. The violet trails function as a horizontal plane containing the the gestural and postural complexity of the hand spirals and the spinal undulations respectively. Although the hip and the head runs parallel, a closer look show that the exact movements differ. Rather the head lags the hip by milliseconds. Also, the head has slightly more movement than the hips as its arc has greater degrees of undulating waves unlike that of the hips. The movement analysis is telling in this case since the moves kind of show the upright nature of the body and also the slight offsets that subtly alter the apparent uprightness.

The hand movements garner the most attention with their curvy trajectories. The ribbons appear the most beautiful in this situation as each hand is never symmetrical but yet present such similar patterns due to their similar curvy movements. The density of the colors directly suggest the increased frequency of the hand motions. The winding and spiral curves drive home the fact about the centrality of the curvilinear trajectory of the Odissi body that has a strong central core with serpentine peripheral edges.

The mapping suggests a high density of the footwork. It is quite clear that the green and the red combine in unpredictable ways. The movement is asymmetrical, which is depicted in the trailing ribbons. The ankles remain mostly closer to the ground except certain exceptions when we see the right foot raised to the knee level and the curling of the green shows the spin on the standing left foot. Even with this tiny excerpt, one notices the tremendous variation of the footworks, stomps, spins, jumps, brushes, grazes, and hits. The closer the feet to the ground, the higher is the density of movement. This 3D rendition of my moving Odissi body speaks shouts the unpleasant truth of my Odissi body despite its attempts to recreate the Mahari. As a failed economist, I believe I also fail in dance and technology for my inability to bring her back in my body. I turn to Conroy to hope for that. Maybe his touch on my abstract data find accents that might accentuate the S-curve. With my limited knowledge and time, I cannot possibly work longer hours on the screen in order to let the Mahari speak. Instead I toss and turn in my studio rolling over my body, bring my head to the floor, accentuate the S-curve of my spine, push my hips back and swing them from side to side, and move full-bodied. I hope to remove the traces of Odissi from my body to let the Mahari breath a sigh of relief.