Relay

"RELAY - Thinking Artistic Material in Music and Dance" is a three-year artistic research project made possible by the ERASMUS+ program "Cooperation Partnerships". It focuses on artistic-pedagogical developments in the fields of choreography, dance, music and composition.
The title and goal of the project refer to the relay or relay as a moment of "handover" and "passing-over. "At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the Japanese team unexpectedly won the silver medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay, even though all team members individually ran slower than their competitors. Instead, the secret of their success lay in optimizing the handoff of the relay baton from one runner to the next. This saved them valuable seconds in the tight race. This analogy illustrates the theme of the project: fostering collaboration, transitions, and handoffs between the collaborating institutions, the programmed events, the artists* involved, and the audiences with whom they interact.

The RELAY ARTicle is an evolving exhibition that showcases artistic practices, pedagogical activities, process documentation, writings, scores, methods, practical tools, and reflections from and about the practitioners involved in the project. It uncovers connections that have fostered the exchange of inspiration and knowledge across places, people, and time, rooted in our research on innovative approaches to collaboration, dynamic ownership, and leadership. These outcomes have the potential to inform both individual and institutional practices, encouraging the sharing of knowledge, skills, and creativity.

The flexible, non-linear structure invites you to engage with the material and situate it within multi-dimensional contexts.

Practical Info: You can zoom in and out of the pages by controlling your screen with the shortcut keys Ctrl + +/- (Windows) or Option + ⌘ Command + 8 (Mac).

Dive right in!

In the ToolCloud you’ll  find a collection of practices and tools developed through the RELAY project, inviting you to explore and adapt them to your own practice(s) and work.

You can access the ToolCloud here

If you are interested in the RELAY project results and activities, you are welcome to sign up for the RELAY mailing list.

RELAY at the ImPulsTanz Symposium
July 28, 2024
ImPulsTanz Vienna

Titled LACE#2: Mediating Touch, the ImPulsTanz Symposium will take place from July 26-28, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.The Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships project RELAY - Thinking Artistic Material in Music and Dance will be represented on July 28 with the Deep Dive workshop series “Relay-ing” and a panel.

The artistic research project RELAY investigates the materiality of movement and sound and the transformation that takes place when these are transferred between people, places, contexts and across time.

The ImPulsTanz workshops will give participants an insight into the methods and tools that RELAY has developed over the course of the project to date. These tools interweave physical, reflexive and documentary practices and explore how knowledge is created through transfer and transmission.

Sunday, July 28, 2024
The workshops and the panel will be held in English.

Further information and registration

WORKSHOPS, 2.15 - 3.45 pm

Introduction by Konstantinos Tsakirelis and Rasmus Ölme 

WORKSHOP 1

Three women combining different disciplines - history, archaeology and choreography - we share our desire for discovery. Embedded within all three practices lies the notion of listening, noticing, multidimensionality, and awareness, which can be used as creative tools. As part of the deep dive we like to share aspects of our creative process that infuses our practices. We will try to trace through all the senses the impact of history on different sites and how it connects different communities.

This workshop will be facilitated by Stella Malliaraki, Vera Sander and Evita Tsakalaki.

WORKSHOP 2

To start with we would like to propose a collective soundpainting exercise in which we will create a composition together in real time using voice, body, and environment.

From here, we continue to explore our bodies as transmitters - between 2 or more other bodies, between spaces, spots, moments, in playful and meaningful ways, in sound and movement and any other means of communication, in and between conventional and unconventional spaces such as staircases, corridors, lobbies etc.

To end with, we offer ways of  taking time for listening, exploring, contemplating the artistic material in the making, and meditating upon the material that we carry away and the material that we leave behind.

This workshop will be facilitated by Jan Burkhardt, Cătălin Crețu, and Andreea Duta.

WORKSHOP 3

In this workshop we will share practices and scores that were developed in the making of the ARTwork, a shape-changing sculpture that has been made by all participants of the RELAY project.

The scores are suggestions for entering collaboration without the need for consensus as a starting point, but through a direct engagement with diverse artistic materials. By paying attention to what is already in the room, the idea is to let common themes and interests emerge from practice.

The workshop will be facilitated by Maia Means and Max Wallmeier.

PANEL 4 - 6 pm

The workshops start with an introduction into RELAY and the “Relay-ing” methods. Participants will then have the possibility to choose one of the three workshops. After the workshops, a joined “smuggling” session with all workshop participants will provide insight into the material developed in all three workshops.

The EU project RELAY emerges from four different contexts. They all aim at sustainable conditions for work-life balance and artist career longevity as well as increased awareness of local contexts and situated knowledge:

Artistically, the project stems from a current trend in contemporary dance and choreography. This uses movement as a method to investigate the supposed dualism of the material and the immaterial. In addition, RELAY explores the extent to which dance and music can function as a common basis and "tools of the trade" in such an investigation.
In relation to the issue of sustainability, the project starts from the fact that both dance and music are global phenomena and the actors involved in them often travel. RELAY explores how to work in a climate-conscious way with the transnational and cross-cultural exchange that is a crucial element in the development of the two art forms.
The pedagogical context of the project stems from the innovative potentials that arts education gains in terms of teaching and learning environments when they include a focus on student participation and input. At the same time, it explores how principles of sustainability can be found and/or applied in the field of artistic research, teaching and art production.
And last but not least: a diversity of perspectives. Geographically, RELAY brings together partners* from Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, with different organizational forms (academic institutions and independent organizations).
The core of the project is 1-2 week workshops with students in the fields of choreography, dance and music. Researchers from the partner institutions accompany the workshops as mentors*. Research materials will be developed from the experiences of the workshops and presented at public events (symposia and conferences). In addition to the on-site learning, teaching and training activities, three multiplier events will take place: two symposia in Cologne and Vienna (in cooperation with Impulstanz), and a conference in Aarhus in the context of the IETM Plenary Meeting 2023.
Two tangible project outcomes will be developed during the lifetime of the project:

1. A RELAY ARTicle on the process, including challenges and insights considered relevant to the field of arts teaching, innovative education in general, and arts research.
2. A RELAY ARTwork: Documentation of a continuously developing and evolving artistic material that is passed from person to person throughout the life of the project.