Voices from the past provoking presences

A passage of writing extending from the workshop Echoes from the Black Mountain
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
voices from the past
provoking presences
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book three of four

Intro duction
The as if it’s just about to happen book series invites
a reengagement with four workshops, facilitated within HZT
Berlin’s BA Dance, Context, Choreography programme between
2014–2016. Four of HZT’s teaching staff initiated a collaborative
writing project with colleagues, HZT students and alumni to
access what persists through the entanglement of their artistic
and pedagogic practices. They returned to the pedagogic events
with the question “What was and is it doing and what can we
create with it now?”
Initial experiences, notes and memories from the workshops
were approached with a strategy of interruption. A specific set of
para meters informed a structure of excerpts, footnotes, invitations
and responses that produced a new order of connections based
on selectivity, discontinuity and proliferation.
As a reader you are encouraged to be involved with the passages
of writings and drawings within these four books and online
at the HZT website — to follow, skip across, take apart, expand,
reassemble, rewrite and respond further. You are invited to
expe rience what is still creating itself, as if it’s just about to happen.
Writing
structure
a poem
of eight
excerpts
from the
workshop
experience
a footnote
of 100 words
elaborates every
six-word excerpt as
a mini-essay, index,
archive or script
an invitation
of maximum
50 words addresses
an inquiry about
every excerpt and
its footnote
a response
of 250 words or
a drawing follows
after every
excerpt, footnote
and invitation
Book three of four has one central author,
interwoven with guest contributions.

voices from Florian the Feigl past with provoking guest contributors
presences
voices from the past
provoking presences
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book three of four

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8

voices from Florian the Feigl past with provoking guest contributors
presences
voices from the past
provoking presences
the as if it’s just about to happen series–book three of four

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Litó
Dear Litó,
You are invited to describe a way or a practice of how you set a mood or
sound for a working situation. Allowing in your own experience of
adjustment, settling in, balancing when setting the tone.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
1 )
arranging
re-arranging
a space
a space to work
environments I
Me just me. No pupils near or far — Kafka
already excited before entering
put the coat on a hanger and start
coming in to observe
always busy
everyone always busy
immediate reason
immediate responses
and space to calm down
nothing stops
those manifold activities reaching out for equilibrium

voices from the past provoking presences 2
3
All of a sudden we arrive in the middle in the middle of a celebration.
All of a sudden there’s pollen and dust. There’s clouds of dust. All of
a sudden in the middle of a celebration there’s pollen and there’s dust,
there’s clouds of dust. And there’s a process by which something turns to
something else and could continue. That’s the process. It could continue.
The process is something that turns into something else. And there’s
traces that point to reconstruction. There’s traces. There’s pollen and
dust and a cloud, of dust. And there’s traces that point not to recognition
but to reconstruction. Something that already happened, something that
was already there. Like the light of a dead star. The light of a dead star
has a trace when it’s no longer accessible. The light of a dead star has a
trace when it is no longer accessible. There’s traces, like dust. Clouds of
dust. Or pollen. Pollen too. There’s traces that point to a reconstruction
not a recognition, not a reconstruction, but a trace. This is the exploded
view and the other. To play to teach the ideas is the exploded view and the
other. To play to teach to play is to teach. To play is to teach ideas exploded,
this is the exploded view and the other. And then suddenly without warning,
it could continue. Already, it could continue, like a soliloquy. Like a soliloquy.
Standing, sitting on the knees crunched over, moving in space, walking.
Response
from Litó

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
Dear Tabea,
Over the duration of my visits at the exhibition the logos of Black Mountain
College, the circle, and HZT Berlin, the honeycomb, became a strong
impression and point of daily meditation. You are invited to create a graphic
composition starting from those two shapes, the circle and the hexagon.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
2 )
environments II
an openness in the back, the awareness and the awareness of awarenesses, wooden floor,
windows, outside a yard with tarmac, always an outside, inside a typewriter creating patterns,
sonic, visual, producing mild distraction, various offers, movements of bodies, of pages, of
images, of sounds
analysis of spatial arrangements, material qualities of a room, the various spaces we use and
move in, the effects they are producing in our being together, working together, teaching and
learning situations, conversations which continue, conversations that are interrupted,
difficulties to end, difficulties to recognise beginnings
studios, yard, kitchen, offices
veranda, dormitory, dining hall, lake, mountains, fields

voices from the past provoking presences 4
5

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Arnold
Dear Arnold,
Please describe the notion of before and after in two documents, artefacts,
elements you chose for your composition.
One that resonated strongly with you maybe even changed your
perspec tive or conceptual thoughts.
A second one that changed its qualities in the course of your work with it.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
3 )
echoes
sonic event, bouncing back, reflection
call and twisted response
giving ideas of distances and spatial dimensions
who calls who responds
who moves who is being moved
processes of ephemeral sculpting
exposing the caller, exposing the responder
to movement and change
postcards, b/w photographs, rocking chairs, menus, evening programs, invitations, interviews,
scores, partitures, few moving images, pamphlets, manifestoes, sketches, sculptures, memories,
notes, architectural plans
doppler effect
something coming at you
something meeting you
something passing you changing quality
coming at something
meeting something
passing something changing quality
determining a here, a now
allowing relations between a source and opening towards potential futures

voices from the past provoking presences 6
7
Two Documents:
Opening the exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof was the correspondence
between Josef Albers in Berlin and Ted Dreier at Black Mountain College
in North Carolina in 1933.
Response
from Arnold
The list of German (mostly Jewish) intellectuals who followed this letter
is very long, especially through to the end of the Second World War. This,
the first exhibition on the college on German soil in 2015, long after the
waves of influence from Post-War American art and academic practice
had first made their presence felt. The realisation, that it hadn’t ended,
and that we should actually already know that. And that I, now here,
making this, as a born New Yorker, are a product of those waves which
came north when BMC dissolved in 1957, the “dispersion.”
And then:
On the morning of the first day of the exhibition:
An elderly couple from South Germany addresses me. They read about
it in the Bahn Magazine. The husband must speak for his wife, she is too
ill to speak. He tells me that she had a relative, Viola Farber, who studied
at Black Mountain, from a part of the family who had to leave Germany
quickly. I showed them two original performance programs at Black
Mountain in which Viola Farber is mentioned, and gave them copies
of the documents from the archive. Farber was one of the founding
members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, who she met at
Black Mountain.
an endless dispersion

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Johannes
Dear Johannes,
Remembering your focus on experiencing as key to making and witnessing,
teaching and learning of and as performance art: Describe an action —
artistic or non-artistic — that is past or in the process of vanishing and the
details of experiences in this process of something someone did in the past.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
4 )
Josef holds up a disc, a crowd follows its shape with fingers in the air
the ones close with bigger circles, activating the hole arm, the ones farther away moving in
smaller circles
then watch out:
Josef tilts the disc and arms move in ellipsoid shapes — some bigger some smaller — and the
display of amazement and happiness on those faces
watch out again:
Josef puts the disc down on the floor
the crowd moves around it in circles, with stretched out arms, some closer to the disc, some
with a bit more distance
fully focused in the moment, in the movement

voices from the past provoking presences 8
9
The electric mower was damaged.
You gonna find an old scythe in the corner of a garden shed and getting
it out of the dusty cobwebs the spiders have woven during decades.
Response
from
Johannes
You have to look for a whetstone to sharpen it and then start to dance
with the tool.
The high grass is waiting for a cut and you get into a swing that forms
a sequence of arches through the blades of grass and blossoming herbs in
front of you, sending out intense perfumes.
As the iron blade is falling from the wooden handle you have to stop. Now
find out how the joint works. It is an old one that has an iron ring holding
the end of the blade at the wooden leg and is fixed by an iron wedge. To
avoid the iron damaging the wooden handle it requires a piece of leather
between the wedge and the wood, to compensate the forces generated by
the movements between the four parts of the joint.
When it is fixed, the smoothness of the cutting is fading and you have to
use the whetstone frequently.

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8

voices from the past provoking presences 10 11

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Litó
Dear Litó,
You are invited to start from the idea of weaving. The relation between
patterns which emerge in the making, practice, duration, repetition based
on regular sequences. Closeness to a material. Reciprocal processes of
making in conversation with a material.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
5 )
the most touching pieces in the exhibition
how she was using the typewriter to create patterns
her weaving samples
how her practices are interwoven with techniques of her partner putting colour on canvas
how her practices are interwoven with pre-columbian architecture becoming patterns in a painting
the importance of making, of practice, the interaction with mechanical tools
I imagine an early morning at Lake Eden
sitting with the back to the buildings
a first key hitting the paper splitting the air
followed by a regular rhythm of keys hitting paper
interrupted by an occasional bell chiming
and moments of silence

voices from the past provoking presences 12 13
touching the fingers of Anni (in a rectangular rhythm)
Response
from Litó
early morning (time) early morning
lake eden (place) lake eden
back (tool, place) back
key (tool) key
paper (tool) paper
air (tool) air
regular rhythm (time, tool, shape) rectangular rhythm
occasional (time) occasional
bell (tool) bell
moments (time) moments
silence (time, tool, shape, place) silence
------------------ imagine imagine (heart imagine (heart (time imagine (heart (time (touching
------------------ sit sit (material sit (material (place sit (material (place (using
------------------ hit hit (excitement hit (excitement (tool, place (creating
------------------ split split (restraint split (restraint (tool (weaving
------------------ follow follow (handwork follow (handwork (tool (putting
------------------ hit (corollary hit (corollary (tool hit (corollary (tool (becoming
------------------ interrupt interrupt (process interrupt (process (time, tool, shape (making
chime (time
----------- touching (heart)
------------ using (material)
---- creating (excitement)
-------- weaving (restraint)
------- putting (handwork)
----- becoming (corollary)
----------- making (process)
practice
imagination
time) early morning ------------------------------
place) lake eden ------------------------------------
tool, place) back ------------------------------------
tool) key -----------------------------------------------
tool) paper --------------------------------------------
tool) air ------------------------------------------------
time, tool, shape) rectangular rhythm ----
time) occasional ------------------------------------
tool) bell -----------------------------------------------
time) moments --------------------------------------
time, tool, shape, place) silence --------------

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Arnold
Dear Arnold,
Please choose one or two compositional, structural elements from the
composition you devised for the Black Mountain College exhibition at
Hamburger Bahnhof and describe an example. The element and example
you choose can include a spatial situation at the exhibition, specific
documents or an excerpt from the score you devised.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
6 )
reading documents
decoding a score
a map that leads into and through an archive, addressing specific documents, indicating given
durations, directing to selected locations
creating situations, creating a time-based architecture of voices from the past
intersecting realities
the multiplicity of voices, reminder of contingencies
provoking a specific here and now
I hear this — why should I hear this
I read this — why should I utter this
Reading in front of those people
Reading in front of no-one
changing its quality when passing by
changing me when reaching
who calls, who responds

voices from the past provoking presences 14 15
Score:
who reads performs
which document
where
when
Response
from Arnold
a moment in the score
planned
unplanned
a memory
(who) (where) she reads on the stairs
(what) Anni Albers, “Work with Material”, 1938, AA-1
(when) 13:35
(when) simultaneously: (when) (before) (after)
(who) “Versatorium”, Vienna, in residence, with chance audience members:
(where) Table Discussion
(what) collaborative endless translation discussion
(what) Charles Olson, “Projective Verse”, 1950, CA-12
(where) Laptop on Table
(what) (who) Afghan Refugee translates into Pashtun reads back
(where) Grand Piano
(what) (who) Composer prepares piano, plays sometimes
all together now

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Johannes
Dear Johannes,
“How do artists learn?” As artist, documenter, art historian, maker and
teacher of performance please relate to the idea of crisis in making and
learning. This can be personal, political or historical.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
7 )
next to WW II
next to Bauhaus
next to rocking chairs
next to Josef’s finger
next to Anni’s fingers
next to poverty
next to no
next to yes
next to segregation
next to work on the fields
next to isolation
next to new beginnings
next to a devastated past
next to next to
next to building
next to setting up what cannot stand
next to next to

voices from the past provoking presences 16 17
An explosion next to the left ear resonated inside and
made me hearing minimal music for the first time in my life.
Response
from
Johannes
Audio recording of a talk, but
missing the proper button,
lead to writing down what was told
on a sticky table in a coffee shop next to a subway station
on a folder announcing the program of a performance festival
A big hammer hit the table and
made my hand holding a pencil jump.
The oscillating lines generated an automatic drawing
on a worn piece of cardboard.
The forehead of the pig was hit by a shot.
While it fell on its side
a knife was driven into the artery of the throat.
While the animals’ legs were running in agony
the blood was collected in a bowl.
The container was full soon and
the light red fluid spilled over the grey concrete forming a colour-field
with expanding boundaries.
The hair of the animal was sold to a factory, which produced brushes for
artists.

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
book 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Invitation
to Tabea
Dear Tabea,
Spatial structures like various platonic solids resonated with ideas of
relating our practices to the archival material increasingly. This was
accompanied by also increasing interest in basic and more complex
fractal structures. Please respond to the footnote using the mentioned
structures as starting points.
a poem
fuck this drop (in which water?)
where’s the rock in rocking chair
some sonic miracles: echo–doppler effect
digital art (the fingers of Josef)
digital art (the fingers of Anni)
voices from the past provoking presences
learning in crisis. learning as crisis
and suddenly this whale wakes up
( 1
( 2
( 3
( 4
( 5
( 6
( 7
( 8
8 )
The hardly recognisable sound of small electric engines. Closing blinds to preserve this Franz
Kline from the touch of direct sunlight. A purring mechanical sound: faint echo of the thunder
of Kline’s gesture. Faint echo of braveness, roughness, madness, danger of this moment. Setting
the painting free. Meant to lock the sunlight out every day for half an hour this sound of small
electric engines creates a tunnel that allows this painting to be not only a painting.
A moment when it hits hard, is let loose, comes in as an all consuming wave at a viewer.

voices from the past provoking presences 18 19

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Sources
Anni Albers, Work with Material, 1938
Charles Olson, Projective Verse, 1950
Franz Kafka, Aphorismen. Betrachtungen über Sünde, Leid, Hoffnung und den
wahren Weg, 1970
Workshop
description
Echoes from the Black Mountain
In May 2015 Florian Feigl and Johannes Lothar Schröder accompanied a
group of BA HZT students through a research of Black Mountain College
to reflect on what structures, methods and dynamics need to be developed
and accommodated for a contemporary liberal arts education. Through
research and practice the students learned about works and artists of
historic avant-garde as well as critically reviewing and understanding
structures and methods employed in the present situation of teaching,
learning and living to develop experimental ways of learning for now. The
workshop included access to Arnold Dreyblatt’s catalogue of artefacts and
evolved into a one-week residency within the framework of the exhibition
“Black Mountain — Lernen und Lehren als Aufführungskünste” at
Hamburger Bahnhof — Museum für Gegenwart — Berlin in July 2015.

ook 3
Florian Feigl with guest contributors
Sources
Anni Albers, Work with Material, 1938
Charles Olson, Projective Verse, 1950
Franz Kafka, Aphorismen. Betrachtungen über Sünde, Leid, Hoffnung und den
wahren Weg, 1970
Workshop
description
Echoes from the Black Mountain
In May 2015 Florian Feigl and Johannes Lothar Schröder accompanied a
group of BA HZT students through a research of Black Mountain College
to reflect on what structures, methods and dynamics need to be developed
and accommodated for a contemporary liberal arts education. Through
research and practice the students learned about works and artists of
historic avant-garde as well as critically reviewing and understanding
structures and methods employed in the present situation of teaching,
learning and living to develop experimental ways of learning for now. The
workshop included access to Arnold Dreyblatt’s catalogue of artefacts and
evolved into a one-week residency within the framework of the exhibition
“Black Mountain — Lernen und Lehren als Aufführungskünste” at
Hamburger Bahnhof — Museum für Gegenwart — Berlin in July 2015.

HZT teaching staff
–
Florian Feigl 1
Sheena McGrandles
Litó Walkey 1
Britta Wirthmüller
HZT student & alumni
guest writers
–
Johanna Ackva
Asaf Aharonson
Cécile Bally
Sandhya Daemgen
Katerina Delakoura
Xenia Taniko Dwertmann
Ewa Dziarnowska
Rosemarie Eberl
Ivan Ekemark
Forough Fami
Josephine Findeisen
Judith Förster
Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez
Renen Itzhaki
Camille Jemelen
Suvi Kemppainen
Julek Kreutzer
Katrine Staub Larsen
Anna Lena Lehr
Myriam Lucas
Liina Mariudottir
Magdalena Meindl
Johanne Merke
Josefine Mühle
Lyllie Rouvière
Zhenya Salinschi
Sunayana Shetty
Grėtė Šmitaitė
Julia Keren Turbahn
Aabshaar Wakhloo
Alistair Watts
Simone Gisela Weber
guest writers
–
Katerina Bakatsaki
Derrais (d.a.) Carter
Jeanine Durning
Arnold Dreyblatt 1
Essi Kausalainen
Johannes Lothar Schröder 1
Joy Mariama Smith
Rhys Martin
Helen Mirra
Anne Schuh
William Wheeler
all drawings
–
Tabea Xenia Magyar
Authors
1
book
three
project editor : Litó Walkey copy editor : Karen Christopher publisher :
HZT, UdK Berlin graphic design : Milchhof Atelier: Andreas Töpfer, Carsten
Stabenow printing : Steinmeier, Deiningen
Imprint
Special thanks to Tabea Xenia Magyar and all guest writers for their contributions
to this publication. Thanks to Chrysa Parkinson and DOCH for inspiration
from the format of The Dancer as Agent Collection publication. Thanks
to Matthew Goulish and Lin Hixson for inspiration from their assignment for
reading essays, recounted in the introduction by Jane Blocker for Matthew
Goulish’s publication The Brightest Thing in the World.
HZT — Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin is the joint responsibility of
the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst
“Ernst Busch” (HfS) in cooperation with TanzRaumBerlin, a network for the
professional dance scene. Weblink : www.hzt-berlin.de ISBN : 978-3-00-055501-5