creation / performance
[Image description: Elizabeth stands in front of a pile of octogonal cement cylinders with her head and arms reaching down. She wears a dark blue jumpsuit and has pale skin and brown hair.]
Project Whirlwind
Project Whirlwind is a contemporary exploration loosely based on the development and theory behind Whirlwind I, a computer designed by MIT shortly after World War II, and inspired by software pioneer Margaret Hamilton, whose first major project was as programmer for a system based on Whirlwind I. Project Whirlwind translates key elements that made Whirlwind I an effective and innovative computer system for its time and transforms them into a physical language and instructions that guide solo structured improvisation in real time.
The elements serve as tools to create a universe that operates in the here and now (realtime output operation) and that is driven by multiple/simultaneous sub-tasks that exist independently of one another (parallel calculation), but is more than the sum of these tasks (flow production). Within Project Whirlwind’s framework I create pathways to access embodied information and apply it directly to the work as it progresses (magnetic core memory/ 3D information storage). On another level, Project Whirlwind evokes the singularity and loneliness of a female computer scientist starting her career during the Cold War within a massive male-dominated corporation, and makes space for mechanical computation/calculation to coexist with the female experience.
Project Whirlwind was developed with the assistance of Theatre 4.669.
Choreography & Performance: Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson
Direction & Outside Eye: Brad Long
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Project Whirlwind est une exploration contemporaine inspirée et librement basé sur le développement et les principes derrière Whirlwind I, un ordinateur conçu par MIT après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Project Whirlwind traduit les éléments essentiels de ce système si innovant pour l’époque et les transforme en langue physique et instructions qui guident une improvisation solo en temps réel. Ces éléments sont des outils pour créer un univers qui opère ici et maintenant, animé par des sous-tâches qui existent indépendamment, mais qui est plus que la somme des parties.
Project Whirlwind a été développé avec le soutien de Theatre 4.669.
Chorégraphie & Interprétation: Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson
Direction & Regard extérieur: Brad Long