Saleye Origin Story

Here is a very rough draft of two aspects of the assignment:

1) I wrote out a rough draft of the origin story

2) I started developing the look of a comic--like version (only beginning and an image of her "signature move").

Both aspects rough drafts!

Story

Not too long ago on PLANET BOLLYWOOD, there was a girl by the name of Saleye. She was a quiet girl, living in her own world, while her family was a mainstream, busy, beautiful, successful Bollywood family. Their life was picture perfect: father and mother happily married, with the customary ups and downs to work through. They were living in a big suburban house, with too many rooms, furnished straight out of a catalog. Saleye was an only child, and was living in an own flat in the parents house. The relatives of the extended family were living in the surrounding houses. They had everything they needed, and more: living in luxury and harmony, with a healthy dose of solvable conflicts that were blown up to melodramatic episodes to spice up their lives.

The lives of their friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and colleagues were similar: predictable, uneventful, stable, fixed.

But Saleye was growing increasingly anxious. She did not trust the outward contentment and peace. She was bored of the melodrama, of the predictability of all of their lives. She was longing for something “real”- “real” life – not sugarcoated, melodramatic luxury problems: and she was longing to be looking for it on PLANET EARTH, because she heard that that is where one could still find “real life.”

In order to get to planet earth, she had to devise a plan. Since Planet Bollywood's main industry was entertainment, the way to get permission to travel was as part of the crew of one of the stars. She there decided to go out more frequently to hang out in the vicinity of one of the big stars of the planet, who can travel the neighboring planets like planet earth for public relations: The stars contribute to the fame of the planet and give the economy a boost.

After some time Saleye managed to sneak in with the entourage of the big star, RSK, but only as someone to iron his undershirts. It was not her preferred job description, but hey, if it got her traveling, why not.... they are, after all, about to leave on a trip. And as one of his entourage she got permission to travel to planet earth. Her family had no clue. So she  packed secretly to sneak out to the interplanetary airport...

All went smoothly, they are leaving Planet Bollywood. She looks out of the window of their interplanetary travelship and watches the lights of Planet Bollywood fade.

As they arrive on planet earth, the star and his whole entourage are stopped by immigration.

The star is the main focus of attention, but not because the officers are starstruck-- but because they don't recognize him and think he is a threat. They don't want to let him in.

Saleye gets nervous. She is not even supposed to be there, and now she is stuck in this situation!!!

When the officer comes to her to question her, her heart is beating, her hands are shaking (but she can hide it), she feels as though sweat is running down her back. To mask it all, she decides to follow the melodramatic conventions she grew up with and is overly nice. She a huge smile and is her most charming self, to not arouse suspicion.

As he questions her about her passport and permission to enter planet earth (even though he has her complete papers in his hand), she suddenly is taken over by reflexes. Before she realizes, her reflexes to take over. She cannot control it, but finds herself looking him straight in the eyes, lifts her arms to frame her eyes and moves her neck and eyes right to left- she loudly says: CHUMMA!¹

The officer's expression suddenly changes to open and friendly. She returns her papers and says “enjoy your stay on planet earth”!
Confused about the sudden change in attitude Saleye takes her papers. Quickly she takes her belongings and swiftly proceeds into the world of planet earth.

But she remains to be confused.... what just happened? What caused his change of attitude?

And what were those reflexes that suddenly took over?

To be continued....

___________________________

1Tamil for “Just like that”-- not to be confused with Hindi “Kiss”

Visual Draft:

Feedback Questions:

1) How do you think the story works as an origin story for the character. What potential for development of the character does it set up, or limit?
(2) Can you make connections to the character in Assignment 1?
(3) Can you follow the story? What parts seem to obvious, too confusing? Which aspects do you think have potential?
(4) How do you like the visual rendering? Does it have potential? Is it worth developing further?

Super Ruwaxi's Origin Story

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Here's a super rough draft of an origin story for my character.  I wrote it in short story form and intend to transform it into a comic book form soon.  The writing will probably transform substantially in the process.  I'd like to use more of the over-the-top melodramatic humor of the comic book, and am hoping to draw some structural parallels with Superman's origin story (http://supermanthrutheages.com/origin/), though the premises are so different that I'm not sure it'll be possible.  I also need to transform Wu Ruwaxi into a semi-reasonable Chinese girl's name.

The Origin of Super Ruwaxi

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Once upon a time in the Middle Kingdom™, a gated community nestled in a bedroom suburb nestled in the urban sprawl of the City of Angels, there lived a girl on the brink of womanhood, Wu Ruwaxi.  Ruwaxi was the only living child of a hard-working Asian immigrant family, as her elder brother had died during childbirth.  Though she was not a boy and thus could not carry on the family name, she was the perfect filial child: loving, dutiful, obedient, and the embodiment of the Asian-American dream.

But Ruwaxi lived a double life.  By day she studied assiduously at her elite prep school: mastering calculus derivatives and doing Euclidian proofs, writing perfect 8-legged essays analyzing the English literary canon, and formulating economic theories to explain key policy moves in recent Sino-US relations.

At night, however, Ruwaxi put her books aside, as well as the modest, unfashionable clothes that her mother had lovingly stitched for her.  Binding her already small breasts, she would don combat boots, a wife-beater, camouflage pants, and sundry other items from the army surplus store.  Stealthily, she would slip out of the gates of the Great Wall of the Middle Kingdom™ and drive to the Promised Land, a club in Deep South Central LA where heavy beats and hip-hop prevailed.  There she would dance.

And when she danced she was fierce, unbound, and in her power.  Grounded, syncopated, percussive, and terribly musical (thanks to her extensive concert piano training), she could dance b-girl head-spins around the best of them.

One night at the Promised Land, a slight yet muscular young man called Fedora Boy, aka the Fed, approached her while she was dancing.  He wore a fedora with a bright red feather and had the whisper of a mustache: classic Asian boy wanna-be pick-up artist.  “Hey baby,” he said, and started grinding against her.

Alarmed, Ruwaxi shrunk in her skin.  “You’re a bad girl, aren’t you?” he said.  And he moved in.

Thrusting his pelvis against her, he continued, “I like to role-play.  Why don't we go back to my place, and we’ll see what we can do with that leather belt of yours?  And don’t worry, your parents will like me.  I’m in med school.  We can say we met in the library.”

Ruwaxi seethed.  She had been plotting an escape, mentally calculating the time it would take for her to run to the door and jump into her car, while the Fed was jabbering and grinding away.  But a hot flame of righteous anger engulfed her body.  Aggressive and erratic, her dance transformed, slipping skillfully away from the Fed’s pelvic thrusts, which fell predictably on the downbeat.  Her muscles popping and clenching, feet beating the floor in angry cross-rhythms, she danced faster and faster, while sweat poured from her brow and armpits, until a red fog and pungent odor filled the room...

As the fog and stench cleared away, Ruwaxi was shocked to find that the Fed was no longer Fedora Boy.  He was...Fedora Girl.  Sleeves hanging loosely around his lithe, lily-white arms, green mango breasts pressing against his T-shirt, he looked down at his lovely body in horror.  Then he looked up to see the steely, cold-fire gaze of Ruwaxi...and scurried out the door, clutching his breasts painfully as he ran.  The crowd watched as he ran, a sea of confused and surprised faces.

That night at home, Ruwaxi considered the evening’s events in disbelief.  “Perhaps I made it up,” she thought.  “How could that creep suddenly turn into a girl?”  She searched through her books and on the internet, reading theories of gender performativity, scientific studies on intersex people, anthropological fieldwork on dance-induced altered states of consciousness, to see if there was any rational explanation.  As happened often with her, book-worm that she was, she nodded off over her books, her bedside light still blaring on full.

While she was sleeping, she had a vision of a beautiful woman: sensual, fish-eyed, and copper-skinned with an hour-glass figure, dripping in jewels and dancing Kaisiki Vritti, the celestial dance of the apsaras.  “Who are you?” Ruwaxi asked, breathless with admiration. 

“Why, don’t you recognize yourself?” answered the beautiful woman.  “I am Urvashi.  Like you, I’m a damn good dancer, terribly sexy, too smart for my own good, and have the power to change people’s genders when they piss me off.  Why, I turned Arjuna himself into a female court dancer when he refused to sleep with me.”

As she listened Ruwaxi felt heat spreading in her loins, for she was finding this mysterious woman, so feminine and yet so compellingly crass, rather attractive.  “But wait,” she said.  “What do mean, ‘recognize myself’?  And why are our names so similar?  Wu Ruwaxi and Urvashi?”

Urvashi cocked an eyebrow in disbelief.  “What must I have done in my later lives to become this stupid?”

Ruwaxi said slowly, “But wait...no.  I don’t even believe in reincarnation.  I’m an atheist!  And you’re...Indian, right?”

Urvashi said impatiently, “Girl, if a human being can reincarnate as a dog, do you think we can’t switch races?  Yes, you were Indian in a past life.  Why do you think you have such a good sense of rhythm?”

She continued, “Anyway, as you can tell, we clearly have some unresolved karmic shit to work out.  I fought our fight – for a woman to be a public dancer, to own her sensuality, to not be legally tied to any man – during my time.  But now the issues are different.  You were put on this earth to fight the battle for Truth, Gender Justice, and Freedom of Sexual Expression.  And you might think it’s an ironic twist of fate that you were born into this conservative East Asian family, but that’s where your work is most needed.  It’s time to break down the house of oppression. 

--> And your most powerful tools are your righteous rage and the womanly stench of your body odor.  Yes, you’re Super Ruwaxi, the Hairy-Arm Pitted Feminist.  Never shave your pits or you’ll lose your power.”

Here are a few mock comic book covers:

And some pages in progress:

page 2.  thought bubble reads: "Maybe Ba would be more comfortable if I brought him his slippers..."

page 3

page 4 (those are confucius and shakespeare)

  FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) How do you feel about the "dream" device?  (Part of me hates it because it's such a "cheap" trick in fiction, but it might be fitting for an Amar Chitra Katha take-off, given the prevalence of visions and miracles in Hindu mythology.)
(2) Do you think this origin story resolves some of the problems in intersecting Urvashi, the Hairy Arm-pitted Feminist, and the Good Little Confucian Girl?  Specify how it does or doesn't.
(3) What connections, aesthetic and otherwise, do you see between this story and my Super Urvashi trailer?  How might you imagine the two intersecting in performance if at all?
(4) Any parts of the story you particularly like?  That you find confusing or less compelling?  Any unanswered questions or parts that need to be developed further?
(5) Any ideas about visuals?  Which comic book cover do you prefer and why?

Un(Epic) Wonder Woman Assignment #2: Storyboarding your Super-heroine’s Origin Story

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Here's your May assignment!  Please upload studies by May 16, and give feedback by May 23.

ASSIGNMENT:

Write (or otherwise compose) your super-heroine’s origin story.  What was the crucial, formative moment in her past that made her what she is today?  If she has a superpower, how and why did her superpower emerge at this moment?  Tell this origin story through a comic-book story-board style.  As per Amar Chitra Katha’s style, there should be 3 major kinds of text/narration (with 4-5 as options, but not requirements):

(1)  Omniscient narrative, which is enclosed by horizontal straight lines across the page.

(2)  Dialogue: indicated through dialogue balloons

(3)  Thought bubbles: indicated by bubbles, and sometimes including imagery instead of text

(4)  Footnotes: asterisks which explain culturally specific terminology and/or non-English language

(5)  Voice of God: used when you don't actually see the god

Here are examples of ACK storyboards illustrating these 5 types of dialogue:

from "Bheesma," illustrates 1, 2, 3

 from "Kabir," illustrates 1, 2, 5

 from Kabir, illustrates 1, 2, 4

BACKGROUND:
This assignment takes inspiration from Zhan Li’s insightful theorization on super-heroes, as well as the technique of developing back-stories for character development.  These back-stories may or may not appear in your final product (short story, dance, video, comic-strip, screenplay), but deeply inform the character’s inner motivations, personalities, and actions in the plot.

As Zhan wrote (see his comment on our earlier post for his full discussion on US super-heroes):

"Origin stories are a more universal attribute of US superheroes than superpowers - a significant minority of prominent US superheroes lack superpowers (e.g. Batman, everyone in The Watchmen except Dr. Manhattan) but all virtually all prominent US (superheroes and supervillains) have origin stories - the moment in their past which made them what they are today. This typically might involve an incident or series of incidents which gives them superpowers (The Incredible Hulk), or an incident which is traumatic and the trauma moves them to adopt a new heroic (or villainous) role (Batman) or often it might involve both (Superman, Spiderman). (There are other cases which don't quite fall into these categories - e.g. Wonderwoman's origins are mythological and divine)." [emphasis added]

OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT: BACK STORY

If you find it useful, you can engage in further back-story writing apart from the origin story itself – figure out aspects such as your character’s parents, hobbies, job, childhood environment, where she lives, first love, etc and how those impact her convictions, values, personality.  Here is a quick example of questions you might address:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/creating-the-backstory-for-your-screenplay.html

(Un)Epic Wonder Women Research References

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I've started dipping into research on comic books, both American (super-heroes) and Indian (Amar Chitra Katha).  While I'm still in very preliminary stages of research, I'm intrigued by how both forms seem to participate in nationalist political discourses (Superman fights for "the American Way," ACK often propagates Hindu ideals).  How we might appropriate these genres in a critical, parodic way?

Here are a few references that I've come across.  Please feel free to add in more references and/or notes on whatever reading you might do!

Queer Comics - No Straight Lines:
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/comics-and-graphic-novels/2012/07/11/celebrate-history-queer-comics-no-straight

http://no-straight-lines.tumblr.com/

Superman's Origin Story:
http://supermanthrutheages.com/origin/

Dulce Pinzon (immigrant workers as superheroes) (from Kayhan):
http://www.dulcepinzon.com/superheroes.htm

Chitra Ganesh (queer feminist diasporic translations of ACK)http://www.chitraganesh.com/dc9.html

Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (from Sangita/Zhan)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743034/

CNN's 2 part series on the Indian Comic Book Industry:
Part 1
Part 2

Spiderman, Indian-style (from Zhan):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_India

Superman renounces US citizenship (from Zhan):

 http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/superman-renounces-his-u-s-citizenship

Wonder Woman and alternative gender and sexuality roles (from Zhan): http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=7921

Reading Culture: Theory, Praxis, Politics, Pramod K. Nayar

Includes theory on super-hero and ACK comic books in India.

"ACK enables a construction of a certain kind of Indian identity: an Aryan, upper-class/caste, Hindu identity, which is projected as a secular 'Indian' one." (118)
 

Sculpting the Middle Class: History, Masculinity and the Amar Chitra Katha, Deepa Sreenivas

"This book is an analysis of the Amar Chitra Katha genre, historicalcomic-books that capture and promote a middle class masculine identity, as culture became the new site for right-wing hegemonic politics in India over the last 4 decades of the 20th century."

The Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales from Hindu Lore (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies).  John Dececco Phd (Author), Devdutt Pattanaik

Has stuff on Urvashi and Arjuna, so perhaps most relevant to my individual investigation or if you're interested in gender/sexuality.  There are some brief ACK mentions though.

Assignment 1, Babli

password: bablib





Feedback questions:

1. Can you detect a Superheroine in this video?

2. What do you think her superpower is?

3. Which one do you read as her signature move?

4. Can you figure out the story of this heroine, or a possible story?

5. Does the structure of the video work to tell a story?

6. Which elements work, which dont?

Shy's response to Assignment 1: Ganga Comic

This is a series of slides, made in powerpoint...

Here is a version where each slide is 6 seconds. if that's too fast, there's a 10 sec version below...

Vimeo:

Ganga Comic Study from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

10 sec slides:

Ganga comic with longer slides from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Questions:

1. What do you enjoy about this "comic"?

2. What do you think of the comic book format?

a. What coud I do to make it more comic book like?

b. Were there too many photos on a page to take in during a movie format?

c. How were the speed of the slides (they're all 6 seconds right now, I'm not sure but I may be able to vary the timing for each slide.)

d. Should I "animate" things within each slide...so for example each photo could add in until you get the complete page, and I can add thought bubbles coming in sequence as well.

e: other ideas?

3. How was the superhero aspect?

a. Did you understand her superpower?

b. Do you have any ideas related to what her superpowers cover? I had a thought that human version of her is a clean freak and is always cleaning....and she looks into the toilet bowl like a crystal ball to show where troubled people are. Is that funny or just gross?

c. What are ways to make Ganga look more interesting...I think I want to give her rubber gloves and a blue eye mask. Anything else you can think of to make her costume more superhero like?

4. If this were a part of the live performance, I am thinking that the beginning could be projected, then the live dance could start with ganga's transformation and plunging...and it could end with the last slide of the yoga guy's reaction. Do you have other ideas about how this could be integrated into live performance?

5. Is there nything you would change?

Any other comments or ideas?

Bhumi --Modern Wonder Woman

During the 21st Century there exists a (dis)ease that is multiplying in Epic proportions. Anxiety/Stress is the silent plague affecting every mortal on this planet Earth. The age of technology and electronic gadgets has erased the ability to focus and affected our ability to see clearly. We exist in a haze. Multi-tasking has morphed us humans into frenetic, flitty cyborg folk that drive in one gear and one gear only: Autopilot.

Do not fear, Bhumi is here. She is Mother Earth incarnate. Always giving of her resources, a bountiful fountain whose waters never deplete. She offers of herself unconditionally in service to all. She can jump high but she cannot fly. What more can she give you ask. Her dance transports her to the land of mortals where she uses the power of her gaze to transmit instantaneous piece of mind to those in distress. Bhumi is saving the human race by Awakening a consciousness that has been lost.

Part 1: Face awakening: Looking into and beyond the mirror...who can it be now?
Password: Alter

Part 2: Bhumi signature movement/dance that transports her
To be posted Sunday


Feedback questions and Notes:
Note: I am really interested in seeing what can happen between some live action and animation in the medium of video and want to discuss possibilities with Doug
1) What/ how do you view the mirror framing this piece? Is it adding to the intrigue of the internal dialogue happening with the face or taking away from it? Suggestions for other framing options
2) What do you think of seeing the entire face versus doing a similar study with only focus on the eyes since I"m so interested in her gaze being Bhumi's superpower
3) Is the Bhumi dance physicality interesting as a movement signature to establish her character or do you have other suggestions for how she moves from mortal to immortal worlds?

Cyn's Response to Creative Assignment #1: Super Urvashi

Please take a look before reading the context and feedback questions!
password: "amar chitra katha"
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
1.  The video switches from close-ups of mudras to video of my face and body.  Do you like the combination or would you prefer that I focus on one approach.  If the latter, which do you prefer?
2.  What do you think of the combination of the cultural stereotype of the Hairy Arm-Pitted Feminist and the (usually lovely, feminine, and seductive) apsara, Urvashi?  Is it interesting?  Problematic?  What might need to be further fleshed out, if anything? 
3. Comments or suggestions on the text?  The movement vocabulary?
4. How would you like to see this further developed?
5. What do you know about Urvashi, the mythological character, if anything?
6. Other thoughts?

CONTEXT:
This video is a rough sketch that parodies the original Superman TV trailer, drawing on and translating its text, music, and imagery.  (I will eventually have to get different music if we want to further develop this.)  See the following link to see the original video:
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/superman.htm

Here is my script:

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Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to blast through expectations in a single bound.

Look!  Striding angrily through the street!
It's a butch. It's a femme. It's...the HAIRY ARM-PITTED FEMINIST!

Yes, it's Urvashi, the Hairy Arm-pitted Feminist - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powerful body odor far beyond that of mortal men.  Urvashi, whose reek induces gender-bending reincarnations, whose stench can change the course of patriarchal oppression, and who, disguised as Good Little Confucian Girl, dutiful daughter of an Asian immigrant family, fights the never-ending battle for Truth, Gender Justice and Freedom of Sexual Expression.

 
According to Ravi, Urvashi was an apsara in the Mahabharata who transformed Arjuna into a woman as a punishment for him offending her (she was attracted to him, but he regarded her as a grandmother).  Later she turned it into a boon when he acknowledged how difficult it was to live as a woman, allowing him to switch genders at will; as a result at one point Arjuna became a court dancer.  There seem to be competing versions of the story; Wikipedia says that Arjuna was transformed into a eunuch rather than a woman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna#Urvashi.27s_curse.  I need to do more research, as I'm not so familiar with her or the story myself.

Epic Women Creative Assignment 1

Choose a superheroine who is your Alter ego. (It should be your own twist/version of a known superheroine). Inspirations may come from but are not limited to Comic Books, Amar Chitra Katha Indian Comics, and/or cultural stereotypes

What is your alter ego’s super-power?

Create a signature movement that is specific to your Superheroine/Alter ego

Show us how your superheroine moves from the mundane world of mortals into the realm of superheroine ---you are encouraged to use text, movement, costume, props, and/or video.

Please upload your study with feedback questions onto the blog by Apr 12.  Feedback from everyone is due Apr 16.

(Un)Epic Wonder Women: our newest project!

We're excited to be launching our newest creative project/exploration!  We've been invited by Anita Ratnam, along with Ketu Katrak, to be part of their Epic Women conference in Chennai, India in December 2012, and will be using our long-distance collaborative process to develop material for the work.  Here's what we've got bubbling in our minds thus far:

(Un)Epic Wonder Women

Collaborating through digital media and across distance, the Post Natyam Collective uses live dance, spoken word, film and comic books to bring to life the magical-yet-hard-hitting worlds of un-epic wonder women.  Humor and parody come to bear as the artists challenge, re-write and perform notions of women that oscillate between the ordinary and mundane travails of contemporary women juggling home, family and career and the astounding and larger-than-life worlds of wonder women and super heroines embroiled in epic battles between good and evil. Flipping accepted narratives, the Collective challenges these binaries to find the wonder in the mundane and the ordinary in the epic.

Cyber Manifesto Music: DONE!

Here it is, y'all, our final soundtrack for the Cyber Manifesto!  Super huge thanks to Loren for all his meticulous sound engineering on this last go-round...

Cyber Manifesto5 by cynthialinglee

Cyber Manifesto: updated soundtrack

Here's the almost-finished version of the Cyber Manifesto soundtrack!  It still needs to be cleaned up a bit in terms of balancing levels, etc, and Sandra wants to replace her solo to tighten the rhythmic alignment, but the content is all laid down.  Thanks to Loren and Ravi for their amazing musical and technical help putting this together.

Cyber Manifesto: Cynthia's face and feet

I had been making my background consistent for all of my videos to maintain the illusion of a Skype call, but since Sandra filmed her solo outdoors (quite beautifully!) and Shyamala has been using varied backgrounds, I tried varying the background this time.  I see this as visual material that Prum can cut in as he likes rather than being specifically choreographed with a clear arc.

Here's my face video of listening to Sandra's solo (audio will likely be stripped out).  I thought the contrast of the painting of the couple, who look like Radha and Krishna, with my gay shirt was funny.

password: "sandra"

And I filmed a different shot of my feet in the garden (to connect with the use of outdoor settings) in case we don't use my tatkar.  Clearly the music won't be there, but I was having fun.  :)

Manifesto audio draft 2

Here's the second draft! Text is at the bottom of the post.

-We will be adding skype rings, maybe a few more yeses peppered throughout, maybe Cyn's foot rhythms....and anything else that inspires our magical music men (Loren and Ravi) :-)

-Can it be tightened anywhere? Shy cut her solo already. Cyn is contemplating cutting hers too.

-What about the order it unfolds? Should Babli and Anj's solos be switched cause Anj's will have lots of feet? or do Shy, Cyn, Babli and Anj? Only problem is that someone's yes solo will be right next to their solo....

Video still needed:

Anj: Redo solo music, solo video, and solo face, torso and feet, and new video assignment below

Babli: record composite body face and new assignment below

Cyn: record composite body face and new assignment below

Shy: record composite body torso and feet and new assignment below

NEW VIDEO ASSIGNMENT:

-I'm interested in everyone doing a little skype-like waving, gesturing, listening with headphones to reference the skype call and to create more interaction. Cyn had neat idea of recording her responses as she watches someone else's solo. So I'd like to add assignment if you want to change the person you're watching swap with someone and let me know!

1. Video yourself smiling and greeting everyone with a gesture (like a wave or a nod)

2. video yourself while watching the person's solo you are assigned to with headphones on.

-Respond with face, hands, torso and maybe voicing an occasional yes or uh-huh or some kind of affirmation or encouragement.

-Anj watch Cyn, Cyn watch Babli, Babli watch Shy, Shy watch Anj

TEXT REVISION 2:

SHY SOLO: “Shysolo” grey material is cut out (can use other material from solo that’s cut out if want)

WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
we are not a company
we are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach...(cut 2 lines)
our open-sourced voices echo across continents in harmony and sometimes in dissonance
we embrace change and our roots are deep
in sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities
to create... change

Yes Section 1: Video = PNC composite body

CYN YES: “yes to process face” 1^st take, and if want composite body of any sort
Yes.
Yes to process.
Yes to complexity.
Rooted in the local --

Rocking the global.

ANJ SOLO: “Anjsolofeet” and “Anjsolonew” (she also has Anjsoloskype, Anjsolohead, Anjsolotorso)

We collect our many voices to create and translate choreography,writings, and art across distant boundaries, overseas, here and there, everywhere that dance happens in the “liminal” space between Classical andContemporary. Constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing, we grapple withSouth Asian aesthetics, in dialogue with each other and informed by the spacewhere our lives and art intersect.

SANDRA YES: “Babli Solo Part II Yes to Interrogating” hand section plus PNC composite body
Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.
CYN SOLO: “cyn_solo”

Cyn:
Bite down hard into our naughty knotty histories
How nation-state clamped down
domesticating our bodies
Remember the unthinkable
the intimate erotic exchange between women
powerfully sacred and profane
bending borders of caste class religion and culture
Their songs reenter my body with its American stride its yellow skin its postmodern leanings
I spit and twist and breathe and say,
Make room for the funky
for the butch-femme genderqueer
woman lovin’ hard-hitting rhythm-rappin’
rasa as you ain’t never felt it before.
SANDRA SOLO: “BabliSolo2” can mix with “BabliSolo3”

Yes to coalition.
Yes to trust.
Yes to honesty.
Yes to respect.
Yes to consensual collaboration.
Yes to process without product.
Yes to creative recycling and reusing.
Yes to open-source.
Yes to multiple voices, multiple aesthetics, multiple authors.

OVERLAPPING YES ENDING: Video: Can put faces and/or composite body or any material from whole thing below, (could use old skype call material?)

everyone: yeses

Shy: Yes to performing across disciplines.

Babli: Yes to each other.

Anj: Yes to community. Yes to Post Natyam

Cyn: Yes.
Yes to process.
Yes to complexity.

Shy: Yes to natyam. Yes to “post”

Babli: Yes to radical dis/agreement.
Shy: Yes to multiplying energy

Babli: Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.

END: Shy “end yes”

Babli's Manifesto Solo

Here are three versions of my solo for the Manifesto video-- camera: Peter Arun Pfaff

1.
password: bablisolo2


2:
password: bablisolo3



3.
password: bablisolo4

Cyber Manifesto Soundtrack (in progress)

Yesterday Shyamala, Ravi, Loren and I met to mix the sound for our Cyber Manifesto soundtrack.  It took quite awhile to align the backbeat, so we didn't quite finish laying down everything - the group dialogue after Shy's solo, ending with the multiplicity of yes's, is not there, which means it sounds like there is extra backbeat at the end.  We also haven't started adding additional sounds -- something Ravi plays/creates, the sound of my tatkar, the Skype ring throughout.  There's also a lot of clean-up - lessening background noise, balancing the mix, and tweaking Sandra's solo to make it align better -  that has not been done yet.

Hope this is useful as we record our additional video footage!  The sound file is also in our Dropbox folder, should you wish to download it.

 FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
1. What do you feel about the musical arc of the soundtrack?  What would you like to change, if anything?
2. How do you feel about the current order of the sections?  Would you change anything?
3. What additional sounds would you like, if any, and when?
4. Currently we've laid in the different solos taking into consideration the pulse but not always being true to the taal structure.  Does this bother you?  What adjustments, if any, would you make?
5. Other comments or ideas? 

Next steps for Cyber Chat Manifesto

Based on an on-line meeting PNC had today on google plus hang out, a music meeting in LA with Ravi and Loren, and individual conversations with Prum we are modifying the Cyber Chat.

New ideas:

1. We reduced and redistributed Sandra's Yeses, to cut some of the text and reflect that they are more about the group then one individual. One of the yes sections will become Sandra's solo which she will dance to her pre-recorded voice similar to the other solos. The other 3 of them will be said by different people while the visual will be a changing composite body of different dancing body parts (we will each make a new torso solo, a head solo and a feet solo like the background rhythms but expanded vocab, not necessarily rhythmic).

2. We thought the end "yes to Post Natyam" was a little corny and like Ravi pointed out, like a political ad....so we removed the line and are trying a cacophany of "yeses" instead, so each of us will record several different yeses.

3. Tone: overall light and fun twist on traditions with moments of tongue-in-cheek humor, and moments of in-your-face political.

4. skype call: would be good to reference more of the cyber chat and thus help situate us in different places with different looking and sounding rooms and maybe play with frozen, degraded, or warped image for humor and reality check.

Because of the new ideas we need to:
1. PNC re-videoing some aspects 2. PNC adding a few new video aspects 3. Ravi n Loren editing the sound score and 4. Prum editing the video.

Here are the assignments and proposed deadlines. I know they work for PNC and am hoping they work for Ravi, Loren and Prum?

Sound (and video) elements: (if possible, use an external mike and try to maintain the same distance to the mike the whole time.)

By Oct 28, Friday:
1. Anj and Sandra re-record audio for solos (if you use video camera you can get face too skype style, might be useful to get a feeling of the skype call for a moment simultaneous to the dance?)
2. Shy and Cyn record Yes sections (Babli, we can record yours too, but we do already have audio from your previous one we can use. Please video face too with earphones skype style in case we want to establish skype feeling momentarily here and there)
3. Anj, Sandra, Cyn, Shy: video of self saying "yes" 4 different ways and 1 "no" (just in case that's useful)

4. Cyn: record kathak feet for composite body

Oct 29, Saturday:
1. Loren, Ravi, Shyamala and Cynthia meet to finalize the timing of the sound score
2. Shy will drop box draft of sound score to group for video recording

By Nov 6, Sunday: Loren draft of music

Nov 6, Sunday:

1. Loren, Ravi, Shyamala and Cynthia meet to finalize music and foley in sounds (can u all meet this day?)

2. Shy will drop box music to all

Video elements: (please try to avoid: night shots or low light shots, use still frame like skype call)

by Nov 7: Drop box the following

Anj: reshoot solo

Babli: reshoot solo (you will do on 8th which will still get to us 8th morning because of time difference)

all: each video 1-min solos of the body parts dancing (whichever parts didn't already do in backbeat: head, torso, or feet) These cannot have sound elements unless you do them by Oct 28

by Nov 10: Prum posts draft 1

by Nov 17: Prum posts final draft (Prum is this possible?)

Possible showings:

Nov 19: Highways?

Nov 25: Dance Your Revolution, Vienna?


REVISED SCRIPT

I. Yes Section 1: Video = Post Natyam composite body

Cyn:
Yes.
Yes to process.
Yes to complexity.
Rooted in the local --

Rocking the global.

II. ANJ SOLO

Anj:

We collect our many voices to create and translate choreography,writings, and art across distant boundaries, overseas, here and there,everywhere that dance happens in the “liminal” space between Classical andContemporary. Constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing, we grapple withSouth Asian aesthetics, in dialogue with each other and informed by the spacewhere our lives and art intersect.

III. Yes Section 2: Video = PNC composite body

Babli:
Yes to interrogating our legacies.
Yes to queering.
Yes to combating exoticism orientalism colonialism racism sexism classism casteism communalism.

IV. CYN SOLO

Cyn:
Bite down hard into our naughty knotty histories
How nation-state clamped down
domesticating our bodies
Remember the unthinkable
the intimate erotic exchange between women
powerfully sacred and profane
bending borders of caste class religion and culture
Their songs reenter my body with its American stride its yellow skin its postmodern leanings
I spit and twist and breathe and say,
Make room for the funky
for the butch-femme genderqueer
woman lovin’ hard-hitting rhythm-rappin’
rasa as you ain’t never felt it before.

V. BABLI SOLO (she may choose not to say all the words but may fill in the blank with her body)
Yes to coalition.
Yes to trust.
Yes to honesty.
Yes to respect.
Yes to consensual collaboration.
Yes to process without product.
Yes to creative recycling and reusing.
Yes to open-source.
Yes to multiple voices, multiple aesthetics, multiple authors.

VI. SHY SOLO:
WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
we are not a company
we are not about one monolithic vision, position, or approach
we listen with care, we dream wild, we live process, and we create.... magic
we create that unique magic that comes from the unexpected unity of our virtual variety
we share, we learn, we grapple with difference –and we don’t gloss it over
our open-sourced voices echo across continents in harmony and sometimes in dissonance
we embrace change and our roots are deep
in sharing our responsibilities we multiply our reach, our resources, our enthusiasm, our possibilities
to create... change

VII.

Anj: Yes to community.
Cyn: Yes to collectively building infrastructure.
Babli: Yes to radical dis/agreement.
Shy: Yes to multiplying energy.

VIII. Yes Section 3

Shy:
Yes to performing across disciplines.
Yes to natyam.
Yes to “post”:

Cyn: post-modern,

Babli: post-colonial, post-structuralist,

Shy: communicating through the cyber-”post”

Anj: across genres, traditions, and communities.

Babli: Yes to each other.

All: different yeses mixed in above backbeat (Video: composite body)