Theories
Geographic and Social Conditions of Mesoamerican Writing Origins
Theories of Writing
Fall 2024
This is an essay written for the theories of writing paper assignment for this course. This assignment tasked me with further developing and expanded upon a theory of writing we talked about in class readings and discussions. I choose to expand upon the theory of the origins of writing. To expand upon the class theory, I looked at the geographic and social contexts in which writing developed using Mesoamerican writing as a case study for theorizing the necessary geologic and social conditions for writing to have formed.
Semiotic Domains: Multimodal Theory Expression
Theories of Writing
Fall 2024
This was a multimodal project for this class displaying and demonstrating a theory of writing discussed in class. I chose to explore the theory of semiotic domains in the context of dance. This allowed for the production of a multimodal showcase of the different elements, semiotic domains, that go into a dance within a dance show as well as an exploration into the audience of each element. I chose to showcase this in a single web page that scrolls through the semiotic domains and then concludes with an analysis explanation. The page is sectioned by domain and exists in the order in which I, the choreographer, encountered them. This does give the project it's own bias domain of being seen through the lens of the choreographer. This project is very different than anything else I have done academically, and blended my work outside of academics as a lifelong dancer and choreographer as an adult. I have inserted the web page below and this is the one work in the portfolio that follows this display.
Semiotic Domains
A set of multimodal discourses that convey meaning in a specific way for a specific audience.
Dance representing layered semiotic domains, that work independent and collectively with each other as a dance and the elements of a dance. Shown in the order in which for this choreographic process they were experienced or utilized for the choreographer and dancers, and audience.
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Music: Track, Lyrics and Instrumentals
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Concept and Choreographic Process
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The Performance: Program Statement; The Dance
505 - Arctic Monkeys
Edited and Cut Version - Sidney Parker
I'm going back to 505
If it's a seven-hour flight or a 45-minute drive
In my imagination, you're waiting lying on your side
With your hands between your thighs
Stop and wait a sec'
Oh, when you look at me like that, my darling, what did you expect?
I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my neck
Or I did last time I checked
Not shy of a spark
A knife twists at the thought that I should fall short of the mark
Frightened by the bite, though it's no harsher than the bark
The middle of adventure is such a perfect place to start
I'm going back to 505
If it's a seven-hour flight or a 45-minute drive
In my imagination, you're waiting lying on your side
With your hands between your thighs
But I crumble completely when you cry
It seems like once again you've had to greet me with goodbye
I'm always just about to go and spoil a surprise
Take my hands off of your eyes too soon
I'm going back to 505
If it's a seven-hour flight or a 45-minute drive
In my imagination, you're waiting lying on your side
With your hands between your thighs and a smile
Concept Explanation:
The song above was first played by a roommate of mine while studying abroad. It instantly gave me feelings of nostalgia for a beloved time in life, and made me realize it represented a lot of how I would feel when I left study abroad. The more and more I listened to it, I began imagining a retelling of the nostalgic time being expressed.
10 dancers to represent the 10 person apartment, 4 coming into the dynamic and 6 already there. Show a separation/divide in experience/location going into shared time and space.
Start with a coming together of the groups and build into a large group dynamic, allowing the eventual mixing of the group and individuals together, represent various friendships and people throughout the time.
Play with the idea of time throughout. Slower beginning, mixed and more intimate middle. Fleeting, larger and rushed middle going into the conclusion, echo the experience of time lived. Ending needs to have all 10 people going separate ways, but in unity, having just been changed and gone through shared experiences, but pulled away.
Emphasis on specific movement and lyric connection, choreographed without counts, except instrumental sections.
Movements and people dynamics to mimic and represent lived experiences, understanding they will lack some context of the true meaning, emphasis on evoking emotions represented in a dynamic.
Im Going Back To
Choreography: Sidney Parker
Dedicated to the family of people I got to share and explore Australia with.
This layered and dynamic piece explores the fragility of time and the experiential connections made with others. Through fluid and sharp movements the dancers showcase the changing felt pace of passing time. With lyric representations of movement emotional depth is displayed. With forceful formations and strong dancer interactions, friendships and intimacies on a fleeting time scale are represented. A hauntingly powerful and shortened track accompanies and aids in time manipulation and cherished relations. The audience is invited into a personal and universal journey of intimate and rapid nostalgia for a time, place and people who have since departed one another.
Semiotic Domain Analysis
All of the elements for this dance can be looked at and understood separately by the correct audience, or collectively by the correct audience to understand the content shown. As stated above a semiotic domain is a discourse with a specific meaning, presented in a specific way to a specific audience. This can make them highly specialized, without insider information or expertise. This presentation of the dance was set up from a choreographer's perspective in chronological order of how it was experienced and which domains they encountered, but it would be different from the perspective of a dancer or of an audience member. I have chosen to analyze each domain in respect to the different audience impressions due to that being the strongest informant of each semiotic domain for the dance. While being the choreographer, I also chose to be a dancer in the piece, putting me into a space of constantly crossing between domains.
Music Domain:
This has a variable audience, but each audience receives something different from it. The author of this domain is the musicians who created the track, and to a slight extension due to having after the fact edited the music, the choreographer becomes a minor author or editor.
Choreographer- gained initial inspiration from the song and the lyrics. It was played for me all the way through before I fully read the lyrics or delved deeper into the song. However, I then read the lyrics liked the instrumentals and then chose to edit the length of the song. To me the music is the skeleton of the piece. The piece cannot occur in context without it, but the music can support itself without the piece.
Dancer- Uses the song as guidance for the movements given to them and inspiration for their emotional presence on stage. Heard the music after being pitched the concept. Has less time and space to delve into all the intricacies of the music than the choreographer, but typically knows it well by performance.
Performance audience- Hears the music while watching the performance and gets one chance to absorb the lyrics, instrumentals in addition to the rest of the piece.
Concept and Choreography Domain:
The audience is variable but focuses significantly on the choreographer and dancer from an articulation side. The performance audience simple observes this domain, and doesn't see a concept explanation or written verbiage, just the physically displayed movements. In this domain the choreographer straddles between audience and author.
Choreographer- creates the concept and the choreography and must convey this to others. I chose to give a bit of background to help me set my intentions. I also wrote out goals for the piece, before choreographing. I presented these to the dancers, so they understood where I was coming from and the direction I wanted the piece to go. This left space in the rehearsals for conversation later as to if these goals had been achieved. I choreographed using the music as the backbone to then build the choreography in response and conversation to, and in line with the concept goals I had laid out for myself. I then chose to write down my choreography, which not all choreographers do. I did this to help me have reference to what would be happening and in what context of the lyrics and to help me articulate what I saw in my head in a way for others to understand. I then verbalized this to the dancers and the dancers never read the written-out portion.
Dancer- Got verbalized the concept and explanation of where the piece wanted to go. They got told and shown the moves as we learned the piece and used the music after seeing several moves to help put it all together. The concept helped inform alongside the music their intentions and the choreography became their communication with the music and eventually the performance audience.
Performance audience- Watched the finalized choreography presented by the dancers at the time of the show. Saw it in one chance experience with the music and description. They have significantly less context for interpretation and rely on the choreographer's intention to have followed through the choreography and dancers.
Performance Domain:
Here the performance audience is the only real audience of this domain, and instead the dancers and choreographer both become authors. This is comprised of both a show program entry and the dance performance.
Choreographer- While by this stage the choreographer has already created the choreography, they are still an extension of creating the whole performance. I got to help decide on lighting and make sure the dance stage presence was what I wanted. Additionally, I wrote what I wanted to put about the piece in the program for people to read prior to or after seeing it. I also named the piece. Since I had chosen to be in the piece, I was not an audience member of it in rehearsals or at the actual performance, but a choreographer who is not in their piece can become the audience for this stage.
Dancer- Became authors and/or facilitators on the behalf of the choreographer during the performance. They conveyed the movements and intentions how and when was directed of them to the performance audience. Got to direct and curate their own emotional connection to the piece within the intentions which was emulated in their performance persona.
Performance audience- Watched the piece as a whole, without the separation of the building blocks. Had one chance to see all the authors, facilitators and domains working together to show them their meaning with limited verbal and written context. A significant part of their experience is extrapolating and deciding their own meaning and interpretation from what was shown to them. Part of the choreographer's job as author is knowing and accepting meaning gets lost between the sides of the curtain, and therefore must present a dance piece that facilitates this type of abstract and conceptually meaningful performance audience dynamic. It becomes more about the universal feelings or experiences an audience member can gravitate towards within the piece than the specifics of what the piece represented to me.