Seminar 3

The Screendance Network's third seminar ran from the evening of Wednesday 23 June 2010 to Sunday 27 June 2010, and took place during the American Dance Festival (ADF) at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA. It saw the launch of the new International Journal of Screendance, which you can view here: http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/screendance

Report

Wednesday 23 June 2010

The original funding proposal for the Screendance Network had specified ‘Interdisciplinary discourses’ as overall topic for the US-based seminar, including the development of a dedicated journal to accelerate such discourses. Being ahead of schedule, the group came together this time to launch the first issue and to decide on further development. Network guest, Professor Noel Carroll, was not able to join the group at this time, but we were delighted to re-publish an essay of his and a letter in the first issue of the journal.

The Network group met on Wednesday 23 June in order to have four days (instead of the usual three) and to make the most of the fact that members had flown in from all directions. All members of the Network were present, except for Chirstin Whyte, who sadly left the Network due to other commitments. We were delighted however to welcome Simon Ellis, who had just joined the Network. The first evening was dedicated to catching up with each other and to laying out a schedule for the following three days. A first screening from the Dancing for the Camera festival was also shown.

Thursday 24 June 2010

To reflect on the first publication of the International Journal of Screendance, on the Screendance Network's approaches to critical writing and its critical frameworks, the day was dedicated to reviewing the essays that had been published. Constituting a development of existing topics and writings, this gave another opportunity to give individual feedback and also to assess the breadth and depth of the first issue. In view of future issues we were also interested in identifying common strands and key questions that have emerged so far. An overview of the debates will be available to download here, soon.

Friday 25 June 2010

Performer/choreographers Eiko and Koma had been invited to ADF to present new work and we had the pleasure to meet with Eiko on this morning. She showed us her new website and a number of works on video and we discussed the possibilities that this medium was offering for their particular choreographic interests.

Building on the rich discussions of the previous day, the afternoon was dedicated to thinking ahead as to what topics the journal could address in the coming issues and how we could go about developing the interdisciplinary discourse. The debates this day were focused entirely on content, process and research development, leaving any organisational and practical issues for a board meeting the following day. By the end of the day a focus had emerged for the second issue of the journal with the proposition to select four or five key historical texts from the fields of philosophy and film and media theory. The texts would be selected by either Network members or by invited practitioners in the field and each of the texts would be accompanied by a number of responses from contemporary artists and writers. The new structure would also provide a useful means and focus to invite a range of writers and artists to contribute to the journal. It was decided that the third issue would then open out further with an open call for submissions with peer review.

The task of structuring a written discourse led to fruitful debates and members felt that it was not unlike a curatorial process. Further discussions on curatorial processes have been scheduled for the next and last Network meeting.

Saturday 26 June 2010

The morning was taken up by a Board Meeting of the Screendance Network. The group wrote a press release and a call for submissions for the coming issues. Other points for discussion included the development of interactivity of the e-journal, a distribution of roles as to who would approach whom for contributions in the second issue, the inclusion of a new interview and further book reviews, the invitation of guest editors, the development of a style sheet and the establishment of a peer review process.

In the afternoon we celebrated the launch of the International Journal of Screendance, Duke University hosted by the American Dance Festival. We were delighted to welcome visitors of ADF, its director Charles Reinhard, choreographer Laura Dean and dance historian Ann Dils. The launch was followed by a screening of the Dance for the Camera Festival and the day concluded with a joint dinner.

Sunday 27 June 2010

On the last day of the seminar we looked beyond the journal to further activities of the Network, in particular a fourth and last seminar in spring 2011 and a public symposium. It was decided for both events to coincide, so that all Network members could be present at the symposium. We drew up a schedule for the event with the provisional dates 3 – 6 February 2011 and the public symposium on Saturday 5 February 2011. We began to draw up a list as to who to invite and who to aim for, being interested in attracting young and emerging researchers in particular. The focus of the last seminar will be on curatorial practices, while the public symposium will review and revisit a wider range of issues and debates.