Tom de Grunwald

I’m sitting in Spitalfields drinking coffee and getting used to writing on the iPhone’s touch interface. I’m keeping it short as there’s no copy and paste, and there’s little that’s not been written already about this particular toy, sorry, piece of high consumer technology.

Suffice to say I’m loving the cocktail of connectivity and syncronisation, ease of use and rich media experience. I like the way it has got software developers excited and brought a unity to the mobile platform which has been sadly lacking in all my previous smart phones.

It is not without its flaws - again, well documented elsewhere, but perhaps most significantly the charge that it is a closed and tethered device that could threaten creativity and/ or go towards creating a new Market monopoly. But I sincerely hope that it acts as a catalyst to other makers of mobile devices creating truly usable interface. The iPhone has moved the goalposts, now it just needs worthy opponents on the field.

On a more personal note, this is actually my first iPod and I haven’t enjoyed listening to music so much since I stopped buying vinyl. I think this is because it brings a sense of intimacy with the record back into the experience, where other players have made a music collection feel like a set of data files - still possible to enjoy as music, but despite the interface rather than because of it.

Zattoo is another of those funkily named web 2.0 applications - but this one is different, as rather than being a mashup or a social network, this is basically a television on your computer. It’s New Media does Old.

I’m currently watching a simulcast of the England football friendly against the USA: John Terry has scored, and despite the low resolution which makes it look a little like a football sim game, I’m enjoying the experience. In fact, I’m really pleased for him after a painful final against Manchester United!

Let me be clear; I pay the license fee with pride as I have come to greatly value the BBC’s contribution to society (and they commission some of our films), but the convenience and portability of an app like this make it much easier to keep in touch with the key programmes currently showing. I’ve been using the BBC’s iPlayer a lot since its launch on Christmas day 2007, and that is great for catching up, but Zattoo just might put some of the live and shared experience back into telly for me, and particularly as my USB card seems to have ceased working. This works, and well.

It is said that the business model is somewhat unstable, as essentially Zattoo is rebroadcasting channel’s output over IP; they may not get away with it for long - or may have to charge subscriptions in order to make financial arrangements with the broadcasters. The commercials, the idents are also streamed, and the application doesn’t facilitate downloading or time shifting, so you’d have to ask, apart from a loss of control, what’s for the broadcasters not to like?

Tags: Zattoo, Football, Simulcast, Application

Tonight London was sparkling as we walked back from Euston to Charing Cross. A friend had invited me to Robin Dingemans‘ latest dance piece, “Me + You = 5″ at The Place, and earlier, as I took my seat, the lights had fallen to an empty stage. A single balloon wandered on, dancing to it’s own breeze-inspired rhythm. The seconds passed and another balloon joined it. Then there were three, four and so on until thirty dancing balloons filled the stage. I seriously wondered if people would figure in this piece at all, so well did they assert their presence. The screen read “We are here - Because - We are here - Because..”

As the lights came up, what seemed to be a single person with two heads was revealed, lying, in the centre of the stage. Slowly the figure shifted about, and the two performers comprising it moved themselves around each other in incredible intimacy and understanding, like living clay being moulded. This was the beginning of an epic, uninterrupted hour long and hugely energetic piece which very beautifully and humanely described the cycle of relationships; from an initial touch of magic (the balloons) through a honeymoon period (inseparability), and later stages of strife, deeper understanding - to the very end of human lives.

It was intensely moving to see these two performers and choreographers, Joanne Fong and Robin himself, mine their personal experience for the benefit of the audience in such a visceral, accomplished and, above all, inventive way. Woman and Man were represented here in their strength and weakness, vitality and insecurity, against one of the great human narratives. This was dance assimilating theatre, using set, props, music and live sound, text, lyrics, video, and voice to great effect, entwining physical metaphors in a multimedia collaboration which went beyond my previous experience of the potential of the medium of dance. This was Dance as Opera, an immersive and complete work which moved me deeply.

Had I spoken for longer with the director, I would love to have asked if he had a position on the potential for humans to know each other or to love. To my mind, the latter half of the piece portrayed a vision of a compromised domesticity, in which the protagonists fail to move beyond their fractious problems into true, mature relationship; where individuality is nurtured and where human weakness can be acknowledged and accepted - but not allowed to define togetherness as somehow alienated.

Did you see the piece? What did you make of it? And which were your favorite moments?

Photo courtesy of AdelaideAsleep

Tags: Dance, Dingemans, Fong, Contemporary