ELECTRONIC ART

AND

PERFORMANCE

I work in the field of performance art, integrating electronics and systems thinking into scenographies for stages.

My visual scenarios deliberately negotiate the constructive tension between the carefully constructed and generative processes, between risk and responsibility, and between autonomous performance and human intervention.

MARION TRÄNKLE

Bio

Collaboration

I am based in Amsterdam. Collaboration and transdisciplinarity are core aspects driving my work, and I frequently join forces with other artists, designers, and engineers. I recently co-founded the performance collective NOW – live performance and living ecologies, consisting of Ivo Bol, Roos van Berkel and myself. We are currently experimenting with conscious and unconscious blinking as indicators of states of mind for our new performance BLINK…and sync. We used EEG data for performances and live compositions of laser, movement, and sound in our earlier performance (un)focussed.

I am a believer in communal structures and therefore became a member of the BAU Committee, together with Eva Villanueva, Julia Willms, Keren Levi, Gulio D’Anna, Marjolein Vogels, Michael Jahoda, Nicole Beutler, Orion Maxted, Riccardo Guratti, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Susanne Marx. BAU is an organization for the independent performance scene in Amsterdam.

Berlin is my hometown where I maintain a long-term work relationship with German choreographer and dance pedagogue Nadja Raszewski (Tanz Tangente Berlin), who is in demand internationally for her experience in developing performances with large groups of non-professionals from diverse social backgrounds. I believe that these community-orientated projects call for both a scenographic vision and technological infrastructure that meet the participants’ risk-taking at their level of openness and performative flexibility. These projects are communal contexts wherein I work “live” and with contingent technology because I want to put democratic values into practice.

In 2008 I co-founded the artist collective In Serial consisting of Linda Dement, Petra Gemeinböck, PRINZGAU/podgorschek and myself. In Serial explores escalating interactions between non-human protagonists, foregrounding materiality and agency, and using materials and digital media that are apparently conflictive. Together, we developed the performative installation On Track. I was a member of the European Mobile Lab for Interactive Artists (2008-09), a project tailored around the process of collaboratively creating interactive installation artworks, and participated in several art residence programs.

Teaching

To me making, learning, and teaching are reciprocal processes that flourish best in collaborative, and project-based environments. I have taught in the Netherlands, Canada and my native Germany, and have developed academic courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Formats include workshops, seminars, interfaculty courses, team-teaching and support for individual students and makers.

CURRENT TEACHING APPOINTMENTS:

Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) | ArtScience Interfaculty

For the study year 2018/19, I am a guest lecturer at the ArtScience Interfaculty, an interdisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s programme. I coach students and device courses on systems thinking / feedback systems and rule-based performance systems.

Eindhoven University of Technology NL | Department of Industrial Design

Since 2014, Coach and Industrial Liaison

The focus of the department is on the design of intelligent systems, products and services.

As a practitioner from the field, I am joining the theme led by Professor Harm van Essen on “social interactions with shared systems” that focuses on interaction design for improved user experience of smart connected systems that are shared by multiple users.

PAST TEACHING APPOINTMENTS:

University of Amsterdam NL | Department of Media Studies

In June 2018, I team-taught with Annet Dekker the module: “Code Literacy – understanding the building blocks of computation”.

University of the Arts Berlin DE | Berlin Career College in collaboration with Tanztangente Berlin | Creating Dance in Art and Education

2014-2016, Core teacher

The one-year certificate course conveys dance as an art form within the diverse practical fields of dance pedagogy. I was involved in the selection and acceptance of students, and final assessments. Within the directorial team, my responsibility was to develop practice-orientated teaching modules that relate dance to spatial-and media practices.

University of the Arts Berlin DE | Department of Theatre Education

2008-2010 summer terms, Adjunct Faculty

Developing graduate seminar courses within the study area media and theatre.
Students are challenged to experiment with the performative use of (live) media on the theatre stage, and to understand its dramaturgic and scenographic impact.

Amsterdam School of the Arts NL | School of New Dance Development

2007, workshops

Conception and co-direction with Carolien Hermans of the interdisciplinary undergraduate course “Art as Research”. Available to students from all faculties, this course serves as a platform for exchange and reflection on both discipline-related, and individual artistic practice.

Amsterdam University of Applied Science NL | Interface Design

2008-2009 winter term, Guest lecturer

Team teaching the seminar “Interactive Installation”. This course is a practical hands-on exploration of physical computing and interactive electronics. Students learn how to interface objects and installations with the viewer’s body and motion data.

University of Waterloo CA | Department of Architecture

2006 winter term, Visiting Assistant Professor

Team teaching in the undergraduate architectural design studio of Professor Philip Beesely. Development of design skills and theoretical knowledge. Planning of a hotel with an adjacent theatre in downtown Toronto. Emphasis is on materiality and technology in architectural design.

Merz Academie | Workshop | Hochschule für Gestaltung, Kunst und Medien Stuttgart | summer workshop 2016| “Lost Paradise”

Berliner Festspiele | Workshop | Tanztreffen der Jugend 2014 | workshop | “Bild in Bewegung: Medien auf der Tanzbühne”

Conservatorium van Amsterdam | Masterclass | “Improvisation Games”

Education

Residences - Grants

ACTIVITIES

Scenography for Gulliver XL, a child’s revolution

February 27, 2019

For Gulliver XL, a dance performance with children from five Amsterdam schools, I collaborated with choreographer Susanne Marx to create the set-design.

More info:

BLINK..and sync @ come together#4

January 25, 2019

“NOW” (Ivo Bol, Marion Tränkle, Roos van Berkel) present the EEG performance “BLINK …and sync” at the forth edition of the dance and performance event Come Together in Amsterdam.

More info:

SEE ME NOW? @ Panopticum and former prison in Haarlem – Architectural Healing,

November 9, 2018

Ivo Bol and I made a performance with sound, light and movement in a special location: The cupola and former prison in the city center of Haarlem. The project is part of the art manifestation “Architectural Healing”, organized by Cityscape Foundation.

More info:

BLINK..and sync @ Electronic Extravaganza Festival 2018

October 11, 2018

The Performance collective “NOW” (Ivo Bol, Marion Tränkle, Roos van Berkel) presents new work, the EEG performance “BLINK …and sync” at Electronic Extravaganza Festival 2018 .

More info:

Open call: workshop “What-if-then” @ WE LIVE HERE Amsterdam

July 9-13, 2018

At this year’s WE LIVE HERE Summer Academy in Amsterdam Orion Maxted and I will lead the lab , What-If-Then were we research how technology and the combination of simple rules can build complex participatory performance strategies. If you are interested to participate apply before 24 June 2018.

More info: