THIS SHOW IS COMING UP IN OCTOBER! This is not a Degenerate Art Ensemble show, but it is DAE’s Haruko Nishimura commissioned collaborations with some of her favorite Seattle artists. Mandy Greer (sculpture / installation artist), Ian Lucero (film), and Colin Ernst (Weeble Wobble Sculpture).

Silvering Path

ONE dance of eros, earth and the slug

ONE battle of the Weeble Wobble vs. the Ninjas

And one Monstrous Grandmother

Haruko Nishimura, dance (of Degenerate Art Ensemble)

with:

Mandy Greer (http://mandygreer.com/) – Crochet Art

Ian Lucero (http://vimeo.com/1092096– Film

and Colin Ernst (Circus Contraption) – Sculptural costume

TWO WEEK PERFORMANCE RUN!

OCTOBER 10,11, 16, 17, 18

at the FREE SHEEP FOUNDATION

4408 3^rd ave (at Battery) in belltown

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42588

Plus:

Live adventurous music by Jeffrey Huston and Joshua Kohl

Dress Art by Anna Lange

Video Art Installation by Leo Mayberry

INTRODUCTION:

On August 19th, we held a public recording event to capture crowd sounds, marching sounds, metal orchestra sounds and such things that can only sound great with a mass of people.  The sounds will be used on Degenerate Art Ensemble’s 9th Album.   Among those in attendance was our CELEBRITY GUEST BLOGGER, the wonderful composer/performer John Osbold of the unmatched magnificent band AWESOME . John was kind enough to post his experience of the night here on this blog. We will be posting actual sounds of the event shortly.

On a rainy Tuesday night at the fantasticYoungstown Cultural Arts Center in lovely West Seattle, a troupe of adventurous souls met with the mad scientists of DAE to create a smorgasbord of sounds for the upcoming album & show…

INGREDIENTS

4 microphones
3 tables
2 tarps
2 garbage bins
10 glass bottles
3 bowls
1 plate
3 pairs safety goggles
5 pairs tap shoes
1 gong ageng
various colorful whistles
dry branches
assortment of pots & pans
chimes (small)
chimes (large)

INSTRUCTIONS

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Kind visitor to the blog “ MEOW MEOW ” had this totally fun video to contribute to the post about the Gene Kelly video post we put up the other day (see below a couple days ago). In this video, choreographer Lauren Thomas takes a video of herself dancing from when she was 4 years old and learns her 4 year old dance. Totally cute. In case you are just joining, we are working on a dance and video piece that was inspired by the Gene Kelly one and were asking for inspiration from yall out there..


In other news and progress, Colin Ernst, the creator of the in-progress WEEBLE WOBBLE (see a down below also) brought in a rough prototype of an instrument that will be attached to the weeble wobble (there will be a bunch of sound making contraptions on it. Yes Colin is insane. Yes we are going to make music with the damn thing.

Instrument Prototype from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

Allison posted a link to this and a bunch of time lapse footage of slugs. Incredible!
it was from THIS SITE

Time Lapse Slugs from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

This morning’s rehearsal is focused on the creation of our “Mother Mothra” scene. Haruko, Leo and I are looking at excting ways to use video. So, inspired by Gene Kelly (see below), we want to create a choreography between Haruko and “Haruko”. We are just getting our feet wet. This scene is an argument between the girl character and her evil “MOTHER MOTHRA” - a shape shifting creature who says

“Im the mother you erased,

Im your father long lost,

Im your twin sister from you dream,

Im anything you want me to be.”

HERE IS A LITTLE CUT FROM A SKETCH RECORDING (its for the new album, but this is not the version that will appear on the album - just a little snippet played on guitar and pantrhastic harp zither with Haruko singing)

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We are thinking about ways that they can interact. If anyone knows any really cool video tricks that can be accomplished with this as a live performance, wed love to hear about it!

COLIN AND HARUKO have been working on this Weeble Wobble dress for the past month. Now new movements are becoming possible. This was a couple of days ago. Dizzying! Next is to work on the musical aspects of the sculpture and the dress covering.

The Weeble in the Vortex 1 from Colin Ernst on Vimeo.

Haruko and I were at the studio working on the slug dance. Working with bits of mandy’s crochet “slime trails”, thinking about painting patterns on the ground in “slime”. Perhaps an aerial view projected of the pattern of the slime. The music is of course a very rough sketch just to get some ideas of what will work, moods, sounds, combinations. I liked the way it was cycling (even though it was doing so just because I was repeating a loop of recorded music). Somehow the cycles guide the attention for me. Like the cycles of the mind when concentrating. Sometimes very present, then rushing thoughts, then drifting away, and then suddenly back to a highly present state.

slug dance sketch from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

After rehearsal, I noticed a snail in the grass, grabbed the camera. Their movement is so powerful and strange. In this video, it is amazing to watch the way the snail moves over hard dry blades of grass. Somehow the combination of the soft wet body oozing over the harsh dry grass is really strange…

We are looking for facts, stories, amazing images and videos about SLUGS (or snails). If anyone finds some really great stuff, PLEASE send it along via this blog! This will all serve as inspiration for movement, sounds, vibes, feelings and concepts.

Snail in the Grass from joshua kohl on Vimeo.