best, drew
Message: 1 Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 15:25:42 +0000 From: cis <cis@companyinspace.com> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] body as code net worked performance To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: <BB84F2F6.6FA8%cis@companyinspace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] body as code net worked performance
In the final sceneof that work, the avatar no longer takes on human form but is visible as collection of geometric shapes altered dynamically( and in real time) by the movement of the performer.
The possibilities of relenquishing any direct representation of the body,in3DVR environments while understanding the potential for creatingpresence,interaction between shared realtime body data generating performers andtheinteraction between other sets of codes, artificial intelligence within that world is something of a paradigm shift for live performing arts.
yes im wondering how mainstream dance audiences react to this!! most dance i see uses technology and media as backdrop rather than as the integral medium of the work itself. i havent had the pleasure of ever attending one of your performances.. but im wondering if you only use motion captured data, or you combine other datasets or sensor or triggered code with the dancers body to produce visual /audio effects.. ? almost in a " the fly" like monstrous hybridisation?
The reactions by dance audiences have varied, Mostly we are attempting to attract a broader audience, who are not preconditioned to traditional dance forms. there is a nervousness within 20th century dance that the body will be come consumed by technoloyy. specifically the exoskeleton wearable motion capture technology which creates the symbiosis between the live performer and the mechanics and comptuer interface challenges the image of a dancer. I like this... it is a new place to perform from requiring real time attention to moment to moment decisions, simultaneously being aware of your live augmented body performance and the breathing of life into avatars as they engage within the 3DVR world..
algorythmic data sets have been attached to specific loci on the exoskeleton allowing her to create her own body sounds, the amplification of voice has been used to transform other avatars in the world. this is as you point out so much more that performing in front of a back drop, you are interconnected to all of the dialogues and I believe it expands concepts of the bodies senses as it senses in realtime the interconnectiveness of these elements.
In overseas contexts where dance and technology hybrid performance has been an agenda, the work is appreciated then on many levels of technology and liveness. to un dance audience younger ones particularly they are able to draw references to thier own experiences of engaging in gaming worlds etc for film and animators other aesthetics conditioning and responces are provoked
its sort of interresting that direct represenation of the body remains a contested issue.. for instance i am quiet happy to see the body in wire frame as its seems quiet normal to me as i work with 3d, but when that sort of effect was used in the matrix it was highly exoticised and eroticised, (Like in the penetrating the body and pulling the bullet out scene// ). or im also comfortable to visualise the body as a gemome sequence in CAGT code.. or nice protien threads..which some would see as blashphemous> repudiation of the essence and soul of humanity.. but im a technophile..
I too think this is wonderful, that is not to have to be burdened within the imaginative spaces of 3DVR worlds to the replication of concepts of image, borders and consequences of interaction in these virtual spaces... it is possible to let motion files operate on their own within these worlds and therefore not requiring them to be generated in real time, ... at this point I still like the complexity of performing with all possible elements in the coversations between the body the virtual space and the physical architectures we inhabit. and with the other conversations with artifical codes of behaviour that allow new outcomes and interaction which engenders new vitalities, between the performer and AI elements.
what about teh technophobes.. im wondering if there is a moral delima for an audience in all of this.. that it is somehow wrong to reduce ( and reduce does have the negative inference that we are loseing something vital ) - or prehaps recode - the body into another more abstract state..
also can the audience in any way influence the dancers body or is that a bit "stellarc" :)
we have donw some networked motion capture which allowed online audiences to alter elements in the 3dVR world, choose camera point of view, sounds, and add in text commentry, alter some of the parameters around the realtime motion capture performer. Originally the work was networked to another motion capture performer who's data could interact with the other remote realtime mocap performer. these concepts are currently being extended for interactions to occer between sets of codes generated in realtime, however they do not interact directly with the living body such as with stelarc who's body was triggered to create his body choreography.
melinda
responsiveat this point in time we are researching these relationships. the technological frontiers being addressed through intelligent andprogramming, but ultimately with knowledge that the audience live insitudoin physical space to screens in view of live generating motion capture performer will draw new sensibilities to concepts of choreography, and movement of media between these spaces.
we are interested to here of people thought on body as code, knowing that daily online communications are building up digital representations of the user through collection of their online identities accumulated while theytheir banking, search the web etc.
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