December 13^th 2005 - the PREMIERE

 The premiere of Ballet Numerique 2005 will be at the Pavlov Pocket Festival at the Puddingfabriek in Groningen. At www.pavlov.nl one can find a description of how to get there and more information about the festival.

Timetable Pavlov Pocket Festival at the 17th and 18th December:

Sat 17th  Dec 19:30 / 20:00 / 21:00 / 21:30
Sun 18th Dec 15:30 / 16:30 / 17:30 / 18:30 / 19:30 / 20:30

 December 8^th 2005 - Second Try-Out

 Today at 20.30 was the second try-out of Ballet Numerique 2005. I was very excited and interested in how the audience would react on this final piece. The audience excisted of about 15 people. After the performance I was very happy and overwhelmed by the reactions. Almost everybody felt emotions performed by the robots and in a way was reminded of some memory or action.
A transformation from robot into something else we can recognize and interpret.

 November 30^th 2005 - Lecture by Jeroen de Boer

 I asked Jeroen de Boer if he was willing to give a lecture about Kurt Schwitters (Ursonata) during the Pavlov Pocket Festival. He reacted very enthiousiastic and told me he was thinking about making a movie about Kurt Schwitters, so this lecture could be a nice beginning. What a coincidence :)

After we talked about for a while we thought it would be interesting to go from Ballet Mecanique (Antheil's musical masterpiece Ballet mécanique ) to Kurt Schwitters piece.

Jeroen de Boer is head editor of '3 voor 12/Groningen' and the drummer of the band Atonk

 October 26^th 2005 - Eddie D

 I also looked at the work of videoartist Eddie D. A recent video piece of him is Sonatina, a work of which the structure is inspired by the sonates of Kurt Schwitters.

 October 19^th 2005 - Kurt Schwitters

 Because the sounds and noises the robots make are in a way so abstract, Thuur pointed out some artists to take a look at. One of them is Kurt Schwitters and his piece Ursonata. The sonata consists of a written organization of phonetics, with notations in German. No notes, tempi, or formal dynamics are given, allowing the performer a bit of freedom. To get an idea you can listen here to part III Scherzo - Trio - Scherzo

 October 12^th 2005 - Symphony

 Because the robots are so striking by the sounds and noises they produce, I decided to focus even more on that. Thuur Caris helped me with that and advised me to approach this performance as a symphony. A symphony is usually divided into four parts, multiple intrumental composition for an orchestra without a solist. I decided to divide it into 5 parts and give each part there own theme and eventually their their own name like in a symphony.

 September 30^th 2005 - Lights Lights Lights

 The second suitcase (controls the lights) had some problems. Bert Harens had a look at it and it seemed that the minijack plugs were making a connection with the metalic body of the suitcase. So he removed some of the metal of the suitcase around the plugs. Then he discovered I had wired some wires in the wrong way :) He explaned me what to do and I have now rewired them in the right way. I only have to replace some solid state relais in my suitcase, cause the ones I have at the moment are not working.
In the suitcase I can connect the following:
With the solid state relais I can control 3 large tube
lights (blue light). The minijacks I use for the LED lights (white light) and some small tube lights (blue light). The jacks I use for the minipar (white light).

 September 15^th 2005 - Reactions Try-Out

 Here are some outcomes of the reactions of people:
(don't forget it was just a try-out, the performance wasn't finished)

-the robots themselves become much more like musical instruments
-they liked the fact that they walked into the theatre space in the dark, not knowing what was on the stage
-the use of spots in a way that it creates exciting shadows, extra layer
-some rhythms were nice, but weren't constructive
-out of concentration if the beats were not synchronous
-the stage in relation to the audience (involvement & distance)
-approaching the structure of the piece more as a composition
-creating suspense

 September 1^st 2005 - More pictures of try-out

 Pictures made by Chris van Wierst.

 July 15^th 2005 - Holiday

 I first will be going on holiday before I continue working on Ballet Numerique 2005. One of the next posts on this website will be about the reactions and critisms of the audience that seen the first try-out.

 July 14^th 2005 - First Try-Out

 Juli 1^st 2005 - Second Suitcase

 In order to control the lights I had to build a second suitcase. I went for 2 days to Bert Harens workshop to build them. This second suitcase has to be connected to the first one in which the K8000 cards are mounted. Soon I will add information and pictures which will include all the technical details.

 June 28^th 2005 - Spots

 I also bought 6 small par spots of 12 V. These spots are small enough so that they can be attached to the stage without being noticed that much.

 June 23^rd 2005 - Lights

 I went with Gerad to Okaphone to buy some special lights. I bought a very bright LED light and hope to be able to focus with this light on small details like for example the fingers of the robot. I also bought a long blue tube light. This light gives a nice glow onto the robots and can be used to create a certain mood. I also have some very small tubelight of 10 cm and a small par. Next thuesday I will hook them to the K8000 card.

 June 21^st 2005 - Choreographer Roni Haver

 Roni Haver is a dancer and choreographer from 'Club Guy and Roni'. She is helping me with the choreography for the robots. We talk, discuss and try things out with the robots. She helped me figure out how to build some kind of structure for the choreography and compostion, a red line. We also talk about how you can transform the mechanical movements into a more organic one because the robots move quite static and in straight lines.

 June 7^th 2005 - Slide Bots

 Picture of one of the robots that can 'slide' horizontal across the stage.

 June 2^nd 2005 - Mounting Robots

 I have mounted the robots on the stage. Now the robots will not fall over when I make them move fast. The position of the robots is now somewhat fixed although the construction of the stage is made in such a way that I can easily reposition them.

 May 31^st 2005 - A Suitcase Full

 This suitcase embodies two K8000 computer interface cards, one universal relaiscard, one power supply and a big plug which is connected in an indirect way with the robots.

 May 28/29^th 2005 - Open Ateliers

 This weekend the 'Open Ateliers' took place and Pavlov Medialab was one of the participants. A lot of people came although the weather was extremely hot.
It was good to show the progress of 'Ballet Numerique 2005' to the visitors and to talk about it. The reactions I got were very interesting and there was a lot of enthusiasm.

 May 22^th 2005 - Painting

 This sunday I painted the stage. The outcome: I dont like the way the paint looks, it is to glossy. So I have to some paintwork again but then with the real deal 'Hamerslag'.

 May 20^th 2005 - Connecting Robots

 Today Bert Harens is at Pavlov to connect the robots to the K8000 interface card. He also fixed the robot that used to make hypodermic needles cause that one had a small problem.

 May 17^th 2005 - Computer Corner

 May 15^th 2005 - Final Software

 Sundayevening I met Floris Maathuis at Pavlov. He installed the final software and checked if everything was working and it did. It's up and running. Now I have to focus on attaching the robots to the K8000 interface card.
Bert Harens is already working on connecting the robots and next friday 20^th of May we hope to finish this job as well. He and Gerad Harens already installed a 200 litre compressor down in the basement of the Puddingfabriek. The Puddingfabriek is were Pavlov Medialab is settled.

 May 12^th 2005 - Progress of Robot

 I visited Hessel Agema today at his workshop to take a look at the robot that he is working on. I had to decide some measures like were to attach the pneumatic arm to the construction and which size in length the robot should have.

 May 3^rd 2005 - Testing & Soldering

 This morning Floris tested his CPS plug-in on my computer at pavlov and it worked! Hurray! By playing on the keyboard the corresponding lights on the K8000 card will light up. So this is good news. And I completly soldered together a second K8000 interface card (slave). I only have to put in the IC's which I will do next time.

 May 3^rd 2005 - Sketch

 May 2^nd 2005 - Tomorrow

 On thuesday Floris will come to Pavlov and test his software. I am very curious if it will work to steer the K8000 card by the keyboard. Further I will buy another K8000 card and solder it together.

 May 2^nd 2005 - Trying to Draw a Stage

 May 2^nd 2005 - Jac Boiten

 Last Thursday, 28^th of April, I went together with Gerad to the company Jac Boiten, specialized among other things in pneumatic machines. A while ago they offered me pneumatic machine parts. I went there with my drawing of the robot and got all the parts i needed for it. They have been very helpfull, thanks!
Now its time to build it.

 April 14^th 2005 - Detail Respiration Machine

 April 14^th 2005 - New Picture Added

 A picture of the robot who used to make hypodermic needles has been added to the website of Ballet Numerique 2005. Take a look here

 April 11^th 2005 - Sketch of Pneumatic Robot

 Sketch of robot that probably will be build.

 April 11^th 2005 - Change of plan

 Instead of controlling the robots and creating an interface to do so in Visual Basic, it will be done through CPS. Floris Maathuis, a programmer, theatre technician and freelancer, is going to build a plug-in forCPS, a real-time graphical programming environment. This plug-in will make it possible to control the robots with a keyboard. Cubase will be used to record the movements of the robot made by the keyboard. Using a keyboard will make it much easier for me to create a choreography. Can't wait to get my hands on that!
More info here

 March 9^th 2005 - Visiting the UMCG

 Today I went back to visit the Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen to look at an older model of a respiration machine, a 900B Servo Ventilator. I can borrow this model for two years and I am very happy about it! Fokko Flanderijn, technical engineer, and Liesbeth Klop, intensive care nurse, both working at the thorax intensive care unit helped me with explaining how this machine works and what it can do. Before I can pick this machine up Fokko Flanderijn will replace a fuse and check the whole machine just for safety. For the most part these machines are extremely reliable, but we just dont want it to break down in the middle of the performance Ballet Numerique 2005 :)

 March 4^th 2005 - Pneumatic Robot

 Last Thuesday I visited together with Gerad Harens from Pavlov Medialab the company Jac Boiten, were we met Herman Koppinga. This company is specialized among other things in pneumatic machines. They offered us some machine parts to build our own robot. I am now looking and searching for building schemes to create one. And another thing I want to find out, if possible, is about the history of the parts that they are willing to donate.

 March 3^rd 2005 - Respiration Machine

 On wednesday I went to the Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen to meet Fokko Flanderijn. He is working as a technical engineer at the thorax intensive care unit. He showed me a few respiration machines that they are using for patients and told me all about it. This was very interesting! I even got a tour at the thorax intensive care unit which was very impressive. These machines are quite unique, they make a lot of interesting sounds and have some special mechanical movements. Next week I have another meeting to have a look at an older version of a respiration machine that I probably can borrow for a year or two for my project. I am very excited and hopefully it will work out.

 February 7^th 2005 - Robots Wanted

 I am still looking for two robots who are willing to participate in this project ;)
If anyone knows a robot that is no longer in use or can be missed for a year and a half, please contact me. Thanks!

 February 6^th 2005 - Project

 Five different robots play the leading part in a dance performance. The robots have an industrial character and have been used in production processes in (different) factories and institutes. Try outs will be presented in the Puddingfabriek, this summer 2005. The premiere will be at the Pavlov Pocket Festival in December 2005. This performance will go on tour and will be performed in several places in The Netherlands.More detailed information about 'Ballet Numerique 2005' can be found at my website:
http://www.niebuur.org/BN2005