William Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies—The Lectures website launch

Forsythe Productions and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe announce the upcoming launch of the website William Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies—The Lectures. As of June 30, 2023, prime content from the groundbreaking CD-ROM William Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies. A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye (1999) will be freely available worldwide.

With the CD-ROM Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, (1999), choreographer William Forsythe created a unique tool for elaborating his approach to improvisational movement analysis. Initiated in 1994, Forsythe developed the project with the ZKM | Karlsruhe to demonstrate the possibilities that digital technologies open up for choreographic practice. The visualization of movement intentions using animated white lines and other effects made it possible to frame dance observation as an analytical activity that could be supported with graphic ideation. Forsythe primarily used Improvisation Technologies to address perception, body organization, and memory in the process of improvisation. According to Forsythe, the videos conveyed “the basics of observing movement, because here movements leave visible traces.” As a method of preserving dance theory, moreover, the CD-ROM was exemplary of new forms of “cultural archaeology.”

The CD-ROM met with overwhelming international interest when it was first released in 1999 by the ZKM | Karlsruhe and the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln and has since been adopted worldwide by professional companies, dance programs in higher education, and perhaps most importantly, by independent choreographic practitioners. Over the years, however, the CD-ROM had become unplayable on current computer systems. Forsythe Productions and the ZKM | Karlsruhe undertook the elaborate process of re-generating the historical animations of the videos to create an online version of the project that makes the content freely accessible worldwide in the long term.

The core of the website is formed by the Lecture Demonstrations; 59 video clips in which Forsythe demonstrates and comments on the principles of his approach. The Lecture Demonstrations are accompanied by three essays and an interview with William Forsythe, which trace the genesis of the project and make the principles explained clear within the broader context of the choreographer’s thinking in and about movement.

The website is the first project of the William Forsythe Archive, which was handed over to the ZKM | Karlsruhe in February 2023. The website will launch on June 30, 2023 at 10am and can be accessed at improvisation-technologies.zkm.de.

The launch of the website takes place in the context of the opening of the exhibition William Forsythe. Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time (July 1–August 6, 2023) at the ZKM. More information here.  

Website launch
Friday, June 30, 2023, 5–6pm
ZKM, Cube
Improvisation Technologies—The Lectures
Website launch and panel discussion with William Forsythe and Noé Soulier, moderated by Margit Rosen.

Accompanying program
Friday, June 30, 2023, 10am–11pm
ZKM, Media Theatre
William Forsythe: Antipodes I/II
Video installation

7–8pm, ZKM, Foyer
William Forsythe: Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time
Opening

8–8:45pm, ZKM, Atrium 8
Noé Soulier: Movement on Movement
Performance

8:45–11pm, ZKM, Atrium 9
William Forsythe: Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, No.2
Installation

Saturday, July 1, 2023
11am–6pm, ZKM, Media Theatre
William Forsythe: Antipodes I/II
Video installation

4–4:15pm, ZKM, Atrium 8
Noé Soulier: Fragments
Film screening

4:15–5pm, ZKM, Atrium 8
Noé Soulier: Passages
Performance

Sunday, July 2, 2023
11am–6pm, ZKM, Media Theatre
William Forsythe: Antipodes I/II
Video installation

July 1–August 6, 2023
Museum opening hours, ZKM, Atrium 8+9
William Forsythe: Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time
Exhibition

For media enquiries, please contact: Felix Brenner, felix.brenner@zkm.de / T +49 (0) 721  8100-1821)