Research Catalogue

The author defines the brutal choreography of marching, which indeed can be aestetically pleasing, hence the danger of it. Marching creates an affect on the surroundings, through rhythm, sound and physical presence. The author analyses the movements of soldiers through choreographic and somatic intelligence with a feminist approach.  

I appreciated the notelike writing, it gave me a sense of reading somebody’s field work notes, while the writer was still on the field doing the work. The writing made it impossible to distance oneself from the writer, and from the soldiers’ training. I was indeed also marching with the writer and with the soldiers, and could feel, sense and smell what was happening.

I appreciate the autoethnographic style of writing, and how it collaborated with the description of soldiers looking for their most effective choreography. I particularly liked the point: ‘the (Finnish) military is an example of how to perpetuate a patriarchal system by turning what used to be a site masculinized privilege into a site of feminized marginalization”.

and
"Speaking of a soldier prepared to kill and to die, is to bring war from absence to awareness"
These points are part of the artistic process shown in this exposition.

There is much attention to detail, such as how a water bottle can be a somatic marker, and an important connection between interviewer and interviewee. These details invite us to investigate the athmosphere surrounding the work, to listen nearby instead of listen from afar.

The exposition shows evidence of innovation in content, form and technique in relation to ethnography, dance/somatic/performance studies as well as research on walking . The submission is partly contextualized through the feminist researchers quoted in boxes, partly through the descriptive, and partly through the subjective voice. The methodology is adequate for how the researcher worked with a rather difficult project. I appreciate how the exposition facilitated for readers to stay present in their own bodies, as well as the author’s body, and the soldiers’ bodies.

The design is very easy to follow with boxes shaped like a map. I liked that the sound track was a combination of what I had just read, and what I had just listened to. As if the scene was repeated again, but now with the author in front of the soldier story.  It made me think of Trinh T Minh-ha’s ‘Speak Nearby’. The ethnographic work is innovative – where the author asks questions about a military practice where the killing is only hypothetical, while being outside the field of practice, however slowly working herself in through artistic practices. This is an unusual encounter with the military through embodiment and movement. With the auto-ethnographice voice, the reader knows who to follow. It is a kind and close, empathetic interaction with a group often mythologized. 

This is a very lovely exposition. I am thrilled and honoured that I got to know this, and good luck to JAR who gets to publish this. I adored this exposition, and I had much fun with it. The work is ‘scoring an aesthetic encounter’ with the multimodal — visual, textual, sonic, performative — findings from the artistic research project Choreo-graphic Figures. It is clear that this exposition is based on a long-standing research project where multiple voices are heard and experienced and where the audience's own experience is encouraged to take place. It is very well designed, choreographed, performed and composed. This is one of the best designs I have seen in JAR, very easy to navigate. Each new title gives curiosity and energy to look further, revisit and combine impressions with expressions.

The strength for this exposition is how video, sound, engagement of the reader, doer, text collaborates equally. The possibilities for me as reader/explorer were endless. I would read and reflect on the presentation, on how to present research of practice, then I would leave my desk and walk around breathing, I would stop and shake and listen to objects shaking, look at little squares of people shaking. I could start one voice, add the other, and compose my own choirs of voices, sounds, and also move to this orchestra. I loved that there was no beginning and end, and that I could repeat as many times I wanted.

For future work - note to self and to the field - spend time investigating how shaking, breathing, voicing have been used in meditative, religious, shamanistic practices. The authors might want to look into the genealogy of the movements/tasks/doings presented, and just mention that they are aware that certain ways of being in space, and being together has a history. 

A joy to read/experience/perform this exposition. Thankyou.

The exposition is a very generous and intimate invitation into the artists' creative processes. It strives to equally connect movement with the description of movement, reflection with the description of reflection, body with the description of body, composition with the description of composition, rhythm with the description of rhythm.The text unfolds at the same time as the artistic piece unfolds.
It is an example of how to try to merge theory and practice on equal terms. It is similar to a logbook. The text does not push itself out from the computer screen, pauses and then proceeds, somewhat hesitatingly.
The text finds its structure as in a dance improvisation. I recognize, experience and sense the exposition as a dance piece. This text is of great importance for dance-makers, dance-thinkers, improvisers, choreographers, and performers. I also think it is valuable for fields such as performance theory, visual arts, music improvisation and performance philosophy. It stimulates my own thinking about dance, an artform often hard to grasp in words. I appreciate and can relate to the experimentation with form in the text, how it is set up in different columns – with various personal charges at each corner, quotes by philosophers in the middle, processed ideas of the artists during the project, videos, photos and audio files to the right, shorter sentences about different phases in an artistic work to the left - it is beneficial to explore.
The working methods are familiar, which is interesting when we problematize who (class, race) and what (ballet, contact improvisation, new dance, Asian dance) is dominating the world. How can it possibly be familiar, as we have never met and geographically we live very far from each other? The description of the work (from the inside) is rare, and therefore very important. I cannot stress enough the importance of the spreading of knowledge of and the recognition and identification of working methods for dance. It creates kinship among improvisers, composers and performers.
There is more speed to certain questions and I longed to see more play with that speed. The text wishes somehow to liberate the dancer/artist. From the very beginning the authors humbly wish to reject definition, which I have taken into consideration when reading the text. I miss some clarification of this particular position, however. Why is it needed and why was it chosen? Where is the problem? The questions could be more loud. I suppose because the text loudly appreciates silence, there is a collision here. The importance of silence of space, mind, body - why is it important? A lot of art is created in the midst of chaos and noise.

“Familiar patterns can be easily interrupted and entry to different cultural and geographic spaces negotiated”. Is this a conclusion, something that was discovered in this project? How? How do movements change and interact in “the natural world”? There were plastic bottles, and rusty gear in the photos. It would be interesting with a comment on whether the authors invited these artificial objects as well into this “natural world”.
“As I’m getting older its about a body, moving, still moving, and what that means to be kind of calling on the things that it knows and still calling on the things that it doesn’t know … endlessly finding ways to dig in to what’s possible with the body” (Helen)
It would be valuable with an extension of this. The position of the aging dancer in a very youthful dance community? There is an obscurity here, what does its presence in this text mean? Does it relate to the female dancer´s working situation, the lack of a room of one's own? Because of the intimacy and subjectivity in the text there is space for deepening this question as well.
This is important, like a manifesto: “For example in the eyes of many in our society an artistic practise serves no purpose, and as others would claim, it is not art if it does. We find ourselves in a world of plural values, confronting the question of purpose or function of our dance. “Individuals within communities live subject to complex networks of interdependencies”
Is the author referring to the performers or to the community they encountered in the wetlands? If the exposition fights for the justification of the body, I lack some aggression, some political statements, manifestos, anger, frustration, and failure. I found one more clear manifesto in the text: “Helen: It's my most powerful tool to express myself; to express what it is to be a person on the planet; its a way to stay connected to the world”

I get very curious of the practise and I enjoyed very much all of the video clips and the voices. For example the video of Salisbury in the window; not only is the shot beautiful, as a dance practitioner I read it with my own embodied knowledge. I sense the communication and I see the movement in Salisbury´s spine, because I myself have the physical experience, a unique perspective. I see movement where others might see stillness. How can that be described? Physical literacy. I enjoy Herbertson's walking spiral. I appreciate Mortiss' shapes. I read the silence as integrity and a definite choice. However, one of Asker´s dances is all but silent, a great exception. I savore the experienced performers. All clips are treasures in this context.
Regarding ethical issues, in one instance indigenous people are mentioned as the practise happened near the site of an indigenous hunters´ vantage point. I would like to hear a comment on how the community in the wetlands reacted on the authors' presence. I would like to see more reflection on this matter, as it is something that is lacking in many artists work. The gap is defined. What did you do about it? What can be done? The reaction/resonance of the site/community is described through the performer´s bodies, but how was then the reaction/resonance from the site/community, by the performers' presence?

”We found ourselves in a landscape that bore traces of Aboriginal and colonial occupations and our own understandings and sense of responsibility surfaced. The spaces occupied were diverse and their boundaries fluid and undefined. The experiences of moving between, of being in between, or in different space or place included shifts in physical and emotional state,the traces of which lingered in our body memories. The affective aspects of our experience and its residues could be rekindled as visual, aural, haptic, and kinesthetic memories – bodily sensations that brought a sense of association between past and present.”

The text is very important and rare in the field of dance. It is an honest and profound experimentation in finding a way of transcribing or transforming the process and practise of dance into words. It connects with theory in a graspable way. It could serve as an alternative and a connection between faculties. Thank you.