Differentiating (an)notation practices: an artist-scholar’s observation

ABSTRACT

Video annotation is an emergent practice and not (yet) a common method in dance studies or research. Subsequently, there are limited accounts that detail the practice of using annotation in dance but those that are available point to how annotation serves diverse and particular purposes. However, a common understanding of what annotation is does not theoretically cohere. Furthermore, the tendency to use the terms annotation and notation synonymously conflates these practices and risks overlooking the significant contributions of each. In discussing my experience, reflections, and observations of working with four different approaches to annotation I offer an understanding of what it offers in analysing and transmitting ideas about dance from an artist-scholar's perspective. Crucially, drawing from Bernard Stiegler's philosophy of technology, I position annotations as technical memories created in dialogue with existing mnemotechnical forms, or technical objects. Such characterisation illuminates how annotation helps to overcome limitations of documentary forms and highlight information otherwise missing or previously unnoticed. To further emphasise annotation as a method of amplification I compare my experience of annotation and of Labanotation to highlight the similarities and differences between these distinctive methodological tools. While the examples primarily focus on dance the insight developed in this article is valuable for other fields working with time-based media.

KEYWORDS:

• Annotation
• notation
• Labanotation
• Piecemaker
• technical objects
• video annotation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Dance notation scholar Ann Hutchinson Guest argues that dance ‘like verbal language, has basic “parts of speech.” There is a clearly constructed grammar that defines the relationship of the movement words to each other and their given function in the movement sentence’ (2005, 14). Hutchinson Guest equates movement components to language in using verbs to refer to actions, nouns to refer to partners and objects, and adverbs as factors that modify actions such as timing, dynamics, and manner of performance (2005, 14).

2 Stiegler uses the term grammatisation to refer to the translation that effects a transformation of the original spatial and temporal properties of speech into the written word (see Stiegler 2006).

3 Writing a score by hand is an exacting and time-consuming process. Using digital software such as Labanwriter created by the Ohio State University for Macintosh computers (see The Ohio State University 2020) is more efficient. The software features tools that we have been accustomed in word processing software such as copy and paste.

4 In Notation in Movement (2007), Benesh notator Eliane Mirzabekiantz notes the inclusion of quotations and comments on the score, details that emerged in the demonstration and teaching of work, to better capture the movement intention. This text is part of how the work is documented which is distinct to the approach in Example 1 which employs an annotational layer.

5 This was the intention of Piecemaker, which was created by dancer David Kern for the Forsythe Company to organise and retrieve the content of archived video materials. The tool arose in response to the desire to ‘properly document the rehearsals and performances of choreographies that were evolving over time’ (Ziegler 2007, 34).

6 For more about visual ethnography see Pink (2013).

7 For two-weeks each year students and staff from across the music, dance and musical theatre programmes at Trinity Laban come together to develop creative cross-arts collaborative projects. CoLab culminates in a festival of work developed during these two weeks.

8 Provided that the necessary ethical considerations are in place, video annotation could be used to share the findings of ethnographic analysis. However, in this instance video annotation was employed only as a research method.

9 Curtis-Jones (2017) describes Drumming Drumstick as a ‘lost’ work as there is little material evidence of its existence. While few of Laban's works were notated, his schrifttanz (written dance, or notation) was not published until 1928, well after the creation of Drumming Drumstick.

10 At the time of the study, the ability to film and annotate simultaneously using Piecemaker was possible only on specially configured computers. However, live annotation was how the original version of Piecemaker was used almost exclusively by The Forsythe Company.

11 Studies 2 and 4 were undertaken as part of my doctoral research Video annotation for the articulation and transmission of dance and movement knowledge (Stancliffe 2018).

12 While Example 3 combined the methods of observation and the annotation of pre-recorded footage, the study focused only on the live event and the resulting video documents were not studied. However, further research, beyond this initial stage of documentation, could provide further insights and deeper comprehension of the work.

13 At this stage, the annotations are not formalised for sharing beyond those involved in the project but could form the starting point for a bigger research project.

14 In annotation, a representation of the temporal object, rather than the temporal object itself, is the object of study. The exception to this is Example 4 which involved the study of the live event, yet the annotations created were linked to the video documentation.

15 The perception of temporal objects is outlined in Edmund Husserl's thesis of time consciousness (1964) which was later expanded upon by Stiegler to account for mnemotechnics in constructing perception.

16 The relatively recent surge in Labanotation in France counters this trend (see Challet-Haas, Cottin, and Simonet 2016).

17 Nevertheless, annotators may choose to employ notational frameworks and terminology in the analysis of video content and the potential of this remains to be seen.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Stancliffe

Dr Rebecca Stancliffe is a researcher in the performing arts, with a particular interest in the analysis, documentation, and transmission of knowledge and experience. She has a PhD from the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University where she researched video annotation for dance dance. Rebecca is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she is investigating the impact of the conservatoire’s diverse participatory programmes as well as the use of digital technology in performing arts. She is also a lecturer at Trinity Laban teaching contemporary technique, historical and cultural perspectives on dance, research methods, and digital studies. Rebecca graduated with a BA (Hons) Dance Theatre from Laban in 2008 and with a Master of Arts in Performance in 2010 from London Contemporary Dance School.