Troika Ranch : Making New Connections A Deleuzian Approach to Performance and Technology

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Notes

¹This is the U.S. annual celebration of the best in design and technology for live events, and the theme of the award was ‘Bridging the Gap between the Artist and the Technology’. David Johnson, editorial director and associate publisher of Entertainment Design / Lighting Dimensions / SRO , noted that: ‘Troika Ranch, which incorporates interactive video technology with live dancers, takes the relationship of man and machine to an entirely new level’ (2005)<http://entertainmentdesignmag.com/masterclasses/eddy_awards_2005/>.

²Discussion with Troika Ranch (2005) following a performance of Surfacing , Chancellor Hall, Chelmsford, Essex, U.K., 12 May.

³Established in the early 1980s by a group of leading musical instrument manufacturers as an agreed universal standard method for sending and receiving musical controller information digitally, the application of the basic MIDI (musical instrument data interface) interface has developed and expanded, leading ‘to dramatically improved techniques for composition’ (Winkler 1999: 14). Not only does it eliminate the need for digital synthesizers to have keyboards, it also provides a standardized interface for a wide variety of control devices such as breath controllers, drum pads and devices that measure gestures. Its codes have also been adapted to control a variety of nonmusical devices such as, audio mixing panels, theatrical lighting controllers and audio processing devices including reverberators and via SMPTE/EBU and other timecodes to coordinate with video and graphics devices. The development of MIDI has had a strong impact on the accessibility and variety of interactions that can be utilized in performance.

⁴Discussion with Troika Ranch following the performance of Surfacing , Essex, 2005.

⁵Troika Ranch UK Residency publicity leaflet released by Essexdance, 2005.

⁶ The Future of Memory premiered at The Duke, 42nd Street, New York, February 2003.

⁷For Nietzsche, ‘man’ in order to enhance his species had to develop his unconditional will to power by, amongst other things, ‘his powers of invention and dissimulation’ and ‘the art of experiment’ (1973: 54). This idea of free creativity, invention and experimentation is important for such performances as those of Troika Ranch, given their emphasis on heterogeneity and indeterminacy

⁸ The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz premiered at HERE Art Centre, New York, June 2000.