We met Karen Ivy at MOCA's April TNT ("Thursday Night Thing", a monthly event we highly recommend). This has been included without images since a) we have no images on file and b) the idea alone is interesting enough to merit a place here.
CROWD TEST ONE
video exploration of dance as social object
a joint production by Karen Ivy, Greg Leeper and Jonathan Gage
"Crowd Test One" explores dance as a social object by gently disrupting day to day activities in a diversity of urban places throughout Los Angeles. We drop a simple choreographic phrase that highlights and builds upon pedestrian movement into non-theatrical situations. The dance emerges from the crowd as if a dream. While the dance remains the constant or dependent variable, the unknowing crowd is the independent variable. The reactions of the people are discreetly documented by low profile hand held digital video cameras. Each of the locations draws crowds for different reasons, and therefore the reactions within the crowd are different according to place. Locations in this installation include Mann's Chinese Theater (in the heart of Hollywood), Union Station during morning rush hour, and the Santa Monica farmer's market. The end result is a shift in emphasis from the dance to the crowd. Multiple projections allow the viewer to become immersed - part of the crowd. Crowd Test One premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego on April 3, 2003, and was part of the Art And Music Mash Up at the Identical Twin Giants Gallery in Los Angeles on April 19.