Graphic Tango

LEONARDO, Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 437–446, 2000 437 ALBERTO FERREIRO Graphic Tango Although it has come to epitomize the glamour and elegance of high society, with women in sleek glittering evening gowns and men in tux and tails, the tango originated in society’s underbelly—the brothels of turn-of-the-century Argentina. As immigrants from Europe, Africa, and ports unknown streamed into the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the 1880s, many gravitated toward the port city’s houses of ill repute. In these establishments, the portenos (as they were called) could drown their troubles in a few drinks and find some companionship. They looked desperately for a distraction to ease their sense of rootlessness and disfranchisement as “strangers in a strange land.” From this heady cultural brew emerged a new music which became the tango. Though musical historians argue about its exact origins, it is generally accepted that the tango borrowed from many nations: the relentless rhythms that the African slaves—the candombe—beat on their drums (known as tango); the popular music of the pampas, known as the milonga, which combined Indian rhythms with the music of early Spanish colonists; and other influences, including Latin ones. Some say the word “tango” comes from the Latin word tangere, “to touch.” Ironically, as these lonely immigrants and social outcasts sought to escape from their feelings, they instead developed a music and dance that epitomized them. The wail of the tango, it is said, speaks of more than frustrated love. It speaks of fatality, of destinies engulfed in pain. It is the dance of sorrow. Originally the tango dance developed as an acting out of the relationship between the prostitute and her pimp. In fact the titles of the first tangos referred to characters in the world of prostitution. These tango songs and dances had no lyrics, were often highly improvised, and were generally regarded as obscene. Furthermore the early tangos not only represented a kind of sexual choreography, but often a duel, a man-toman combat between challengers for the favors of a woman that usually ended in the symbolic death of one of the opponents. The forces of sex and evil were celebrated equally in this ritual. During this time, the wailing melancholy of the bandoneon (an accordion-like instrument imported to Argentina from Germany in 1886) became a mainstay of tango music. Graphic Tango is a short clip made as a tribute to this dance, ironically without music. It plays with shapes and video textures to form a metalanguage for this medium . The 2D animation of the dancers is integrated in the background. It has been texturized to create a dual dance between figures and color textures. All the editing and postproduction of this clip was made using Jaleo software on a Silicon Graphics computer and digital Betacam. For graphics and text I have used Photoshop on Macintosh, Paintbox by Quantel, and Liberty by Chyron. Artists’ Statements All artists’ statements are © 2000 by the respective artists. ...