Modul|a|t|o|r

Year & Context

2002

Cooperation ICEM / Folkwang University Essen · Ex Machina 2002

About the Production

“Take the figure of a man, with a raised arm, 2.20 metres total height, and place the figure within the frame of two rectangles of 1.10 m each, placed one on top of the other; allow a third square to straddle these two squares, which must give you a solution. The position of the right angle will help you to find the position of this third square. I am convinced that, provided with this working frame – regulated by mathematics, by the working tool – you will attain a series of measurements which will demonstrate how the human form and the science of mathematics can be brought together…”

— Le Corbusier, “The Modulor”

Le Corbusier’s Modulor is not a measuring tape. It is a thesis: that man is the measure of all things – and that from this premise, mediated by the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence, a universal system of proportion can be derived. Le Corbusier believed in it. THEATER DER KLÄNGE put that thesis on stage in 2002 – not to illustrate it, but to interrogate it: critically, humorously, with considerable technical sophistication, and with the human body as the only argument.

The result was a stage that stays dead without human presence: no image, no sound. When a dancer enters the sensor-equipped space, the system awakens. Every step, every leap, every gesture triggers electronic responses – clusters of sound, live video sampling, traces of movement projected on screen. The performers do not dance to music; they play the music. For this interactive media stage, Jörg Lensing and Thomas Neuhaus developed the technical framework in cooperation with ICEM at the Folkwang University in Essen – a framework that found its continuation in 2005 through the research project “PCI – Performer Computer Interaction”, funded by the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, and in the production HOEReographien.

The world premiere on 6 November 2002, as part of the “Ex Machina Festival” in Essen, was received with great enthusiasm. ballettanz, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Rheinische Post praised the convergence of intellectual concept, choreographic strength and technical finesse. The production toured Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Following the run, four short films were produced from performance sequences.

In cooperation with ICEM / Folkwang University Essen · Ex Machina 2002 / November Music 2002 · Research Group “Interactive Media Stage NRW” – With support from: Kulturamt der LH Düsseldorf · State of NRW · Stiftung Van Meeteren