Re: production calendar for Montreal Workshop Nov 2-13

Hi Pete,

This is the SERRA project website: http://serracreation.weebly.com/
as conceived by Oana Suteu Khintirian, filmmaker from Montreal / Paris, and me
in collaboration with choreographer Ginette Laurin.
This workshop is the third in a series of workshops to generate choreographic material for proposal to get funding for a performance by O Vertigo, Ginette Laurin’s dance company in Montreal: http://www.overtigo.com/
The first workshop was May 2015 at O Vertigo’s Place des Arts blackbox.
Second was ours in iStage.
Third workshop in Nov 2-13. will be with her dancers.  Up to 7.


After Ginette green-lights the next phase — which Oana and I hope will come in the coming week or so.
I’ll introduce you to Adnre Houle, the TD for O Vertigo.
That way, Andre and you can confer directly  about precise specs: e.g. 
floor plan and elevation for O Vertigo’s beautiful blackbox space in the Place des Arts Montreal.

Their blackbox is a professional theater, about 3x the floor footage of iStage, roughly 5’ higher.

One wall (about 60’ wide) is half spanned by a projection surface.
Surrounded by black drapes.
Full dance floor,
Grid, with a standard complement of AV gear.   

Andre has about 30 years in the business, and was Michael Montanaro’s TD for Michael’s dance company.
He worked in iStage about 12 years ago when Michael, Sandy & company were resident here
as guests of ISA.  Nice guy to work with :)  Andre and OV have the experience and means 
to design and install standard theatrical,
and build or obtain scenographic material (like scrims screens).   

The exception would be the gear unique to our media system:
Mac computers
Software
Projectors (spec’ed to be bought or rented in Montreal.
Perhaps we can go to Solotech, I know the VP there.)

The November workshop is NOT a performance — no audience, only dancers and principal artists.
But we will use this to inform the spec for a touring kit.

Thanks,
Xin Wei

PS We need a project blog:  I’ve added the main folks who worked on the SERRA workshop to 
vegetal.posthaven.com/  (Check it out for prior history.)

You can post multimedia docs simply by emailing   post@vegetal.posthaven.com 




________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

On Sep 7, 2015, at 11:31 AM, Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu> wrote:

Hi all,

What workshop will be happening in Montreal? I would be more then happy to create a Production Calendar. But, I need to know all of the details and the people to be involved in AZ and those going to Montreal. Who in Montreal would be handling of the physical in Montreal?

Pete 



Happy Connecting. Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S® 5


-------- Original message --------
From: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>
Date: 2015/09/05 5:47 AM (GMT-07:00)
To: Todd Ingalls <Todd.Ingalls@asu.edu>, Christopher Roberts <cmrober2@asu.edu>, Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu>
Subject: production calendar for Montreal Workshop Nov 2-13

How about if we draw up a proper production calendar for the Montreal Workshop  Nov 2-13:  software, local testing, gear, people logistics, workshop scheduling etc.  With milestones.

I’d like to consult Pete.  (We should not expect much active participation from Oana during this time.  At the right time with OV agreement, we’ll work with Andre Houle, the TD for O Vertigo.  Andre came to ASU with Michael Montanaro.)  

I will to be in Montreal Sep 19-24, so can advance prep for Todd (and or Julian)’s pre-staging trip in Montreal (October?) before the Nov workshop.

I will probably not be able to be in Montreal for the actual November workshop  since I’ll have to be in Phoenix to staff the fort, host Lexing, and do a UK loop.

Xin Wei


________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Serra flyers

Hi Xin Wei,

Okay, thanks!


~Kristi

Kristi Garboushian, MFA
Communications Program Coordinator

School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis Center
The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Arizona State University
work: (480) 727-1161
cell: (480) 993-5405
kristi.garboushian@asu.edu


From: Xin Wei Sha <xinwei.sha@asu.edu>
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 2:57 AM
To: Kristi Garboushian <Kristi.garboushian@asu.edu>
Cc: Matthew Briggs <matthewjbriggsis@gmail.com>, "post@synthesis.posthaven.com" <post@synthesis.posthaven.com>
Subject: Serra flyers

Hello Kristi!
Here are the low-resolution email flyer versions of the three Serra posters.
You have to print not these but the high res that you got via gmail.
Matt Briggs might know how to print if David is busy this morning.

Synthesis events Fall 2015

Hi Chris R, Todd, Julian, Pete, Ozzie, Christian, Dehlia, Kristi,

Here are the events related to Synthesis this term, as far as Chris and I know.   Notice that we need to plan the ECM authoring, with hosted scholars such as Cynthia, Manjana, Ed, + our own event designers.



SYNTHESIS FALL 2015

Sept 2, 3, 4
Ginette Laurin and the SERRA workshop


Periodic:
Thursdays 1:00 - 3:00 (2:30-3:00 Tea)  Lab sessions
brief news
studio lab common time, Xin Wei or Todd in residence, parallel play

Periodic:
ECM authoring sessions, Hours TBA
Cooper Yoo, Cynthia Selin, Ed Finn, Man


September 29 6pm-10pm 
Experiential Climate Model deployment at CCS 15
Doubletree in Tempe
multimodal presentation for complex models
Doubletree Priest and ______ .

November 4
Potential visit from Diemo Schwartz IRCAM 
iStage


November 7 & 8
Guillermo Gomez Pena and La Pocha Nostra working sessions in iStage


November 23
Rob Melani Walton
Stauffer + iStage
Synthesis + AME

————

Rhythmanalytics

Place and Atmosphere 
experiential climate model

Adrià Ferran (El Bulli) research ≠ the production of art

El Bulli

Adrià Ferran
 ________________________________________________

The difference between research and production, between opening paths to new technique, new form, new instruments, rather than (re)producing form, element or genre  or enacting a given recipe.  It goes without saying that this art research goes far beyond the acquisition of skills and mastery of the instruments (that’s the beginning, necessary but very far from sufficient for research that makes a difference).


Ferran listening to suggestions by the French sommelier 
26:49
Thats just the sort of input we want

Our problem is, there are a thousand combinations.
Now we know which direction.

At the moment, the taste doesn’t matter to us.
That comes later.

At the moment, what matters
is whether something is magical
and whether it opens up a new path.

And later, in the restaurant, the dishes are created.

Constructed.
Yes.

Now it’s more research,
and there it’s more: research with creativity.
27:25

 ________________________________________________
The importance of taking notes as you proceed.   The chefs take photos of their work as they g— at cadential points.   In their work, cadences are compositions of the food on plates, in a dish or in a glass.

40:41
Here there’s not even a receipt yet.
Let’s write the recipe here.

That’s the same dish.

Yes but let’s separate it, 
So you can see the two ideas.
At El Bulli [the restaurant], we won’t find anything any more.

Then somebody else should write it.

Nobody else, just more text.
Let’s not scrimp on text.
For dummies, so to speak.
At least for me.

Yes, and I’m dumb too.

I’m dumb and I want things detailed.

You should already start sorting the reports according to 1, 2, or 3 stars…
41:33

This emphasizes the importance of taking meticulous notes of your laboratory work so that you can learn from yourself,, be able to not only do the detailed benchwork but also have the record of what you did so that when you step back, other people can reflect and replicate the process.   Your later self is one of those other people.
 
 ________________________________________________

44:00
We’re playing lottery here. 
No we’re giving it thought.

44:10
They call Ferran over, he glances at their carefully marked list on the wall
…
Do as you think, I’ll look at it later.
44:16

… a moment of carefully scaffolded mentorship / apprenticeship.

 ________________________________________________



________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Harry Smoak, PhD defence, Friday August 21, 10:00 AM

Amici & Colleghi, 

Harry’s conducting his PhD defence tomorrow at 10 in the morning at Concordia (in Montreal).  Public announcement attached.  It’d be great to cheer him on this sea-changing work, based on rich experience!

Take care,
Xin Wei



________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

video sprites, video textures, time warping, video retargeting etc.

A few early works from Irfan Essa’s computational perception lab @ Georgia Tech:
http://prof.irfanessa.com/bio/

2001  Video Textures (loops)
Video-                                                                                                                                                                                                                        retargeting video sprite (fish)

2003 Controlled Animation of Video Sprites 

time operator for diffusion

Friends,

With Adrian Freed, I asked ca. 2010-2011 whether one could invert the conventional time-dependence of our measurable observables.   Can we regard time (or more properly duration) not as an independent variable but as an outcome of dynamic material process, e.g. as an observable, i.e. an operator?   (Caveat, changing the question from pointwise time to duration may radically change the question because I do not assume that “time” must be modeled by a scalar field like R or C (algebraist’s field, not physicist’s field!).)

I remember Mike Epperson’s first response in UC Davis last year was the reminder that in QM, such operators must be self-adjoint.   Cold splash.   However, hope springs eternal :)  I have radically empirical as well as conceptual reasons to persevere in this hunch.

The following may be relevant:

"Time Operator for Diffusion” by I. Antoniou, I. Prigogine, V. Sadovnichii, S.A. Shkarin, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 11 (2000) 465-477.

Abstract
We extend the concept of time operator for general semigroups and construct a non-self-adjoint time operator for the diffusion equation which is intertwined with the unilateral shift. We obtain the spectral resolution, the age eigenstates and a new shift representation of the solution of the diffusion equation. Based on previous work we obtain similarly a self-adjoint time operator for Relativistic Diffusion.






________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis • Rhythmanalysis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

draft milestones

draft milestones from our conversation, no names.

Parallel production streams
Physical AV
Media production
Programming

Friday Aug 7
Find and hire student media production assistant for stop action / plants
Find and hire student dancers

Monday Aug 10
Physical AV set up finalized 
stage: cameras, scrims, projectors, (new) lighting 

Wednesday Aug 19
Feature freeze
eg media resolution, seconds, size, naming conventions

Monday Aug 24
Optimization starts

Friday Aug 21
Final Tech rehearsal

Sat Sun Aug 29, 30
Dress rehearsals


Monday Aug 31
Final checks
Ginette arrives

Tuesday Sep 1 - 4
Workshop
Documentations


Comm needs:
Whiteboard in the iStage for focus
cc everyone,
direct address e.g. @Chris or Chris: when need response ?
Camera on tripod for documentaion snapshots of process...?


________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Complex Biosocial Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________