[dance-tech] Interaktionslabor: 2nd week, sensor interface research report
- From: "Johannes Birringer" <Johannes.Birringer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <dance-tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:52:31 +0100
interim report:
I n t e r a k t i o n s l a b o r 2006
Coal Mine Göttelborn [Germany]
Sensordance, interactive game, webcam dramaturgy.
__________________________________________
Extending previous studies of physical camera, sensor choreography, and
interactive design for real time networked performance, Interaktionslabor
Göttelborn is now in the second week of its fourth annual workshop (July 17 ?
31, 2006) in the former coal mine in southwest Germany.
We are offering this brief report as a communiqué, and naturally, we would be
interested in a discussion on this list, which traditionally tends to be more
active in the summer time when people have some free time or are inclined to
discuss workshops and new productions.
The discussion we'd like to propose is on the experimentations with "sensor
dance", "sensor choreography," real time interaction design for performance
with digital 3D worlds. We invte feedback. (e.g. testbed 4:
http://interaktionslabor.de/lab06/gase.htm )
The term "sensor choreography" is not the right term.
But I would be glad to define more closely, in debate, what I see happening in
our workshop --- as we moved from the general daily rhythm of warm ups, body
mind centering/yoga based exercises, and somatic techniques to movement
choreography rehearsal with three performers (dancers/actors), to the current
performance with sensors. The three performers each rehearsed individually
with a dramaturg, which is perhaps unusual as a method for many of you, but I
think the connection in this production, and in this research, builds on the
following areas, and dramaturgical decisions are necessary in all:
1. Theatre / performance -- devising with digital media (a dramaturgical
script has been written by the team directors: this script is a complex piece
of sketching actions on many levels (screen projection of the triptych/video
actions, webcam actions in the remote sites, 4 characters [Player 1, Player 2,
Real Avatar, Screen Avatar] , direction of local and distributed action;
sound direction, text/voice-over direction, scenographic direction,
interactivity direction, precise lighting design).
2. There is scenography, as there is a local venue where the distributed
performance will be first performed (in Athens). Stage design, screen design,
lighting design.
3. Interaction design:
----level A: digital video or 3D animation on three separated screens
creating immersive world (the screen architecture is 12m x 3 meter; playing
area for Real Avatar / live dancer is 2 meter wide and 12 long. Hundreds if
not thousands of film scenes have been shot on location, in a special triple
camera set up, many tracking shots, now edited in small clusters. Amount of
digital film material roughly 1 terabyte.
The interaction patch is written by programmers on open source software
(PD)
---- sound design/music (not interactive, it is created by composer and
performed in real time synthesis)
3. Sensor design
---- level A: physical sensor design for various types of sensors (orient,
flex, tilt, and rotation sensors; switch/clicker; turn/resistor-switch sensor;
heat sensor, photosensor) ---
which are all from the same family of accelerometers and sensors, looking
slightly different....... providing different information depending on where
they are attached to the body or rub on the flesh in the garment or are moved
and pressed as you would when you touch garment fabric or skin. The sensors we
use in rehearsal come from I-CubeX (Wi-miniSystem) and La Kitchen (Kroonde
Gamma, a wireless, high-speed, high-precision data-acquisition system
dedicated to real-time applications/performance using embedded sensors).
The transmitter sends the data from the motion to the computer laptops, via
wireless Bluetooth transmitter (I-Cube X) or OSC/UDP (Kroonde), and on the
computing side the information/data is received into PD patches (we are also
using Max/Msp patches).
--- level B: programming of the interfaces (motion data/sensorial data
control what we could call, citing Manovich, the "image instrument", i.e. the
digital images and data and thus the game world.
4. Sensor Choreography; Movement Behaviors
To come back to my initial point, the movement vocabulary, involving our Real
Avatar (dancer) and the remote Players (streamed into our triptychon video
projection scenography) was rehearsed and developed for the characters in the
game world (which is, largely movement and behaviors), and in the first week
our engineers and programmers were still working on the interaction design, and
12 sensors were put together (an additional set of click switches was built and
sewed into hand made "gloves" ) to be eventually worn by the real avatar dancer
Ermira Goro.
Since yesterday, Ermira Goro has been dancing the scenes of the game world
choreography ("Walhalla") wearing 12 sensors. That is to say, she is
re-choreographing her movement choreography incorporating the sensors on her
body which allow her an immediate, direct relationship to the virtual worlds
(digital film and animation) in front of which, into which, she literally moves
and navigates.
As with an avatar one would navigate in a game, the dancer in our production is
navigating her character into the digital world, and she is also responding to
the programmable interactions she does not control, such as the appearances of
the other players streamed in from the webcams in Amsterdam and Sofia.
For the time being, we are using the Interaktionslabor as a "testbed", during
the following days we are putting together the various elements of the digital
performance, and simulate the remote Players by having them perform here with
us, but outside, in the Coal Mine, in public squares we have lit and to which
our Wifi network connection for webcasting reaches. Interestingly, here is the
telematic component of "organization": since the dramaturgy obviously has a
sequence of scenes and cues, these cues have to be transmitted via chat lines
and chat operators to the remote Players/Performers, they need to hear the
cues, and enact their actions in precise range of the webcams. So for the
remote sites, each performance requires a network director, a chat operator,
and a stagemanager or mediator. If the remote Player is out in public squares,
the cues will be signaled to them via mobile phones.
More elements of the design, choreography, film, editing, sound, etc can be
brought into the discussion if this is desired, I stop here with a very brief
summary of the new work
The 2006 lab is dedicated to ?i-MAP?, a one-year collaborative project
implemented through a trans-European network of four participating media art
organizations (amorphy.org./Athens; InterSpace/Sofia; De Waag/Amsterdam;
Interaktionslabor/Göttelborn) . We seek to test the expressive and narrative
possibilities of digital dispositives based on sensor design, live webcams, and
augmented reality for game-based performance.
Examining the relationship of the human body and its real time representations
in digital environments, and building its materializations in the
laboratory-space of Interaktionslabor Göttelborn through visual, gestural,
voice and sound narrative, the distributed media casting creates a world of
adventure and surprise. A streaming, telekinetic performance (?See you in
Walhalla,? ) is created which follows the logic of a computer game but
encounters real people, streets and occurrences in parallel urban realities.
Through collaborative inter-media creation process, developed simultaneously by
teams of artists in three different locations, a dramaturgical structure for a
.........[sensordance game] [live 3D computer game] [interactive art work] [
] [ ] is created. This telekinetic performance event will be
simultaneously presented in three European venues (Athens, Amsterdam and Sofia)
on September 14. These venues will have fully interactive capabilities,
allowing for live control of media in all three locations, creating a shared
virtual environment, guided and utilized by the participating artists. The
teams have come here for a ?testbed? phase in Göttelborn, rehearsing the new
work and completing the collaborative programming.
The research and development process in-action at the Interaktionslabor
Göttelborn is open to the public and can be monitored via our webcams and the
bulletins published on the website. Theoretical articles on the research are
posted as well.
http://interaktionslabor.de
director, Johannes Birringer
Blvd der Industriekultur, 66287 Quierschied-Göttelborn (Saarland)
Tel. +49 (0) 6825-94277-19
A list with information of the participating artists is on the website.
i-MAP is supported by the Culture 2000 Framework Program, the Ministry of
Culture of the Saarland, Goethe Institut, Red House For Culture and Debate, IKS
IndustrieKultur Saar Gmbh, IME Research Facility, Ipsilon Production Company,
Brunel University, i-DAT University of Plymouth. Locally, Interaktionslabor is
supported by DeepWeb gmbh, Willi Meiser Computertechnik Göttelborn, Future Tech
Quierschied, intraNET Systemhaus GmbH Saarbrücken, and Knecht
VeranstaltungsTechnik.
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