Block 23
The Grand Integration Game

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The thematic block commenced on 19 September 2005 and ended on 25 November 2005 and the semester commenced on 1 September 2005 and ended on 28 February 2006.

Mentor

Steim, Center for Research & Development of instruments & tools for performers in the electronic performance arts www.steim.nl

Mentor team Steim

Kristina Andersen (DK/GB), Philippa Collin (GB/NL), Dirk Groeneveld (NL), Joel Ryan (USA), Michel Waisvisz (NL), Jan St. Werner (D)

Locations

• in and around the DasArts building: in the RitSael, Studio East and Toubab II at Mauritskade 56 in Amsterdam
• at Steim, Achtergracht 19 in Amsterdam
• on location at various adventure-, action- and playing-sites, such as: ‘De Efteling’ in Kaatsheuvel, ‘De Blauwe Meer’ in Loon op Zand and ‘Cart and Party Palace’ in Tilburg


Activities

• group sessions, entiled: Reading, Dealing, Listen, Grooves, Voice, Djembe, Imagine (a game) and Exchange (thoughts, objects, actions)
• Martial Art trainings, such as: capoeira and fencing
• concert workshop ‘On Being a Band’
• hardware, software and electronica workshops
• lectures, discussions, film viewings, workshops, rehearsals, collective lunches and diners

Open Lab Presentations

The participants took part in four public presentations:
• Open Lab 124 Concert ‘art-qaida/brestfeeding.jpg/frostbite’ with Jan St. Werner
• Open Lab 125 ‘into the Potpourri’ with Najib Cherradi and musicians
• Open Lab 127 & 128 ‘The Grand Integration Games’ end presentations by the participants

The guest teachers held five public presentations:
• Open Lab 121‘In the bubble: designing in a complex world’ by John Thackara
• Open Lab 122 ‘Huizinga reading’ by dr. Leon Hanssen
• Open Lab 123 ‘On being a Band’ musical reading by Jan St. Werner
• Open Lab 126 by Maja Kuzmanovic
• Open Lab 129 by The Yes Men

Guest teachers

Joanna Berzowski (CN/PL), Bertram Bouthoorn (NL), Najib Cherradi (NL/MA), Marinka Copier (NL), Annet Dekker (NL), Cocky Eek (NL), Liesbeth Esselink (NL), Leon Hanssen (NL), Sven Jense (NL), Krishna Kaur (GB), Maja Kuzmanovic (NL), Ramon Laan (NL), Iris Lammertsma (NL), Ponda O’Bryan (NL), Amy E. Raymond (USA), Jan Simons (NL), Laetitia Sonami (USA/F), Stock (NL), John Thackara (GB), Inge van der Vlies (NL), The Yes Men (USA)

Participants Thematic Block

Danai Anesiadou (GR/B), Isaac Carlos (ANG), Sybille Cornet (B), Kristen Denkers (NL), David Michael DiGregorio (USA), Laura van Dolron (NL), Gita Hacham (S/NL), Otobong Nkanga (NG/F), Rodrigo Pardo (AR), Hila Peled/Flashkes (IL/CZ), Janja Rakus (SLO), Katarina Schroeter (D), Norberto Llopis Segarra (E)

Content of The Grand Integration Game

The context

Playing is learning
Making games is teaching
Teaching is an invitation to play
Learning is playing

Design

We design objects tools machines systems
We design our fruit
We design our vegetables
We soon will be designing our babies
We design life

Integration

What is this thing called ‘integration’?
Does the small integrate in the bigger and the bigger again in the bigger?
So: If an immigrant coming from the world needs to integrate in the country then why does that country not integrate in the world?
New people are expected to adjust to local standards while, in contrast, new technologies are allowed to force new standards on local communities.
Why are new people treated different from new technologies?

Game

Life has become a game
Play along with the rules and you’re supposed to become a happy winner
The higher in the hierarchy you are the more you can change the rules
While we see the role playing game everywhere,
The theatre might be the only place left for reality

Grand

Blatant falseness being transformed into pompous righteousness
Blunt lying becoming the ruler’s common practice
Grand as in grand theft
Grand as in gross
Gross as in false

Week by Week

Introduction Day
Introduction day occurred on Friday 16 September in Studio East at DasArts. Later that day at Steim, the participants and mentors took part in a lunch highlighted by instructive ‘appearances, riddles and projections’. The participants were seated at a sonic-sensor dining table.

Week 1: 19 - 23 September 2005

In accordance with DasArts tradition, the first week of the thematic Block took place at a ‘foreign’ location. Using unknown circumstances as a source of inspiration, ‘The Grand Integration Game’ started with a visit to various adventure, action and amusement sites, such as ‘De Efteling’ in Kaatsheuvel, ‘De Blauwe Meer’ in Loon op Zand and the ‘Cart and Party Palace’ in Tilburg.

Week 2: 26 - 30 September 2005

During week two, the ‘weekly block routines’ were introduced. The big studio, RitSael, had been set up as a working space that could continually change and evolve. Each day started with a group activity, such as ‘Groove’, ‘Martial Art’ and ‘Listen’. There were also group sessions, called ‘Reading’ and ‘Imagine (a game)’.

The second week also featured substantive and technical lectures. Phillipa Collin, Iris Lammertsma, Sven Jense and Krishna Kaur gave readings on ‘Integration’. Marinka Copier talked about ‘Playing and Role Plays’, and Joel Ryan spoke on ‘Game and Integration’. Design ‘guru’ John Thackara gave a lecture entitled ‘Design’ and spoke about his book In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World.

Fencing instructor Bertram Bouthoorn taught ‘The Martial Art’, a workshop on the art of fencing.

Week 3: 3 - 7 October 2005

During the third week, the participants worked in a more practical manner. Under the guidance of guest teacher Stock and mentor Kristina Andersen, participants learned in group and individual sessions how to solder ‘Printed Circuit Boards’. Various electronic objects with sound, voice and light effects were created.

Week 4 & 5: 10 - 21 October 2005

In the fourth and the fifth week, participants prepared the Concert Open Lab 124 in a workshop involving an enormous amount of instruments given by mentor Jan St. Werner, member of ‘Mouse On Mars’.

The workshop proceeded as follows:
Day one: Initial set-up, messing around, exploring sounds & instruments. Playing together.
Day two: Finding phrases. Writing a score. Directing a 10-minute score (in the performance the scores were max. 5 minutes). Rehearsing the score. Recording it.
Day three: Editing the scores (computer & rehearsal). Making an arrangement & choreography.
Day four: Rehearsing the arrangement & choreography. Creating visual elements (band design, stage design, costumes, posters, flyers). Finding a band name & name for the performance.
Day five: Improving the arrangement and choreography. Producing a record (CDR, tape...) & video (also as visuals for the concert). Final rehearsal.
Day six: Concert.

Week 6: 23-28 October 2005

The focus during the sixth week of the block was on a more individual way of working, with personal presentations at the end of the study period being discussed and prepared. Mentor Dirk Groeneveld supervised the participants in sessions and rehearsals. At the end of the week, there were personal evaluations with the staff of DasArts.

Week 7 & 8: 31 October - 11 November 2005

Continuation of the sessions and rehearsals for the ‘End Presentations’. Start of djembe classes (with guest teacher Ponda O’Bryan) and capoeira.

Week 9 & 10: 13 - 25 November 2005

The activities mainly centred on preparations for the End Presentations, which took place in the Open Labs 127 & 128: ‘The Grand integration Games’. Try-outs and feedback sessions with external viewers. Joel Ryan and Jan St. Werner interviewed the participants at Steim.

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