Is contemporaneity an intrusion – structured or not – in personal or collective, real or virtual space and time?

After Saturday afternoon, what is more important is not what contemporaneity is but rather what properties does it have and what it can do.

After Saturday night, on the walk back home after dancing at some bar, what also became important is where contempoiraneity is. And I have a feeling contemporaneity is in the city.

Morning session

…It’s very different things… STOP …I never saw darkness and light like this before… STOP …And then she said “Hi” with a gesture… STOP …I am not sure if he undressed after he came out or he was already undressed… STOP …When you can create a world that has different elements and make it cohesive, so, not appearing as if one thing is more important than the other or , also in terms of the creation itself, that one thing was not created and then you decided after that to put something else on top of it, this is what makes a work contemporary… STOP …And I remember that at the end, my teacher was standing on top of the sofa and then jumping away, you know, but jumping into the light and then, off… STOP …And then this creature comes out… STOP …She’s looking at us and people are entering the audience… STOP …It was really not a performance for kids; everybody had warned me about it… STOP

Afternoon session with Careth

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.

Foley artists recreate the realistic ambient sounds that the film portrays. The props and sets of a film do not react the same way acoustically as their real life counterparts. Foley sounds are used to enhance the auditory experience of the movie. Foley can also be used to cover up unwanted sounds captured on the set of a movie during filming, such as overflying airplanes or passing traffic.
(source: Wikipedia)

I am now having breakfast and I woke up having contemporary and contemporaneity in my mind. No big revelations, just some morning thoughts.

Our working language in the Research Academy for Dance and Choreography is English. So, I take it from there. Contemporary consists of two units etymologically. These are “con” (meaning “with”) and “temporary” (from latin “tempus” meaning “time”).

So, I noticed that already with the first “con” element, contemporary implies a gathering, a together-ing, a with-ing. One cannot be contemporary if one is alone.  In order to be contemporary one needs to be and act with others. I am assuming these others can be people, spaces, constructs, networks, relations.

But above all one needs to be with time or tempus. But time is simultaneously abstract and concrete, it can only be grasped by its affects and its effects, it is immobile and unstopable, it is generic and holistic.

Concerning then dance and choreography, I am wondering whether these are the constituent elements that define them as contemporary? Togethering, abstracting and concreting, affecting and effecting, immobility, generality?