MAKING TIME: Jonah Bokaer

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium MAKING TIME: Art Across Gallery, Screen, and Stage taking place from April 19-21, 2012. Participants have been invited to respond to the prompt “what does the phrase 'time-based art' mean to you?” in advance of the event. This posting is by Jonah Bokaer, Choreographer and Media Artist. 

Photo Credit: Steve Benisty

The Greek language refers to choreography as "dance writing" from the words χορεία (circular dance) and γραφή (writing). I have come to understand that choreographers practice the art of designing movements, in some specified form, through time. 

Many choreographers supply the observation that “time-based art” is a redundant heading, when applied to their work. Not only is choreography time-based, but is is a continuum, advanced by many participants, over time. Choreographers participate in this continuum, by moving the artform forward - and in a variety of different aesthetic directions.

My goal is to develop four proposals on the time-based continuum of choreography: 

1. To inhibit the act of vanishing in choreography. To capture choreography, and interrupt its disappearance.
2. To intensify the relationship between choreography, visual art, and time-based media.
3. To utilize new forms of reproduction, animation, and digital applications, in order to show choreography in real time, after it has been performed.
4. To reconfigure the use of time, by situating choreography in new relationships to durational performance.