Frieder Weiss: Algorithm Conductor

Picture from Glow by Chunky Move

In my research of the Recoil Performance Group, I found that their Body Navigation performance was inspired and received technical guidance from Berlin based computer engineer and musician Frieder Weiss. Weiss's work is amazing and very much in line with my own interests. I am only just beginning to discover his work, but I can tell already that he will be a guide and inspiration for my own work as I prepare for graduate school.

In an article at theage.com.eu he is described as a "algorithm conductor" and a creator of 'intelegent stage' environments. A similar concept to the 'interactive environments' that I have been describing in my own work.

Weiss has produced a number of works including his recent line up of Mordake, Glow, Wishing Well and Mortal Engine.

Glow and Mortal Engine were created in collaboration between Weiss and Gideon Orbazanek of Chunky Move. These pieces, and Wishing Well to an extent, are dance based, however I am very intrigued by his work Mordake. Weiss describes the work as "...a multi-disciplinary work that fuses opera, multi-media computer technology, poetry and electronic music." This work is more in line with my own in terms of content, and form. A well written review of the piece can be found here.

Weiss is also apparently the developer of EyeCon an advanced video motion sensing software and hardware product compatible with Processing and Isadora through OSC.

Isadora: [R]evolutions

This is a video from a 2006 video of [R]evolution by Trokia Ranch.

A beautiful example of an interactive performance environment. I would really love an opportunity to talk with Dawn Stoppiello and Mark Conigilio about their performance creation processes and their integration of Isadora.

Recoil Performance Group

Body Navigation by Recoil Performance Group from ole kristensen

This is a wonderful example of an interactive performance space. Here the connection between the performer and interactive environment is immediate and fluid. This represents exactly the kind of convergence between technology, architecture and performance that I am most interested in. This environment was developed with Processing and Isadora. At the moment I am hampered in using Processing by a lack of knowledge in programing methods and structures. Looks like it's time for CS classes!

There are a couple of examples in this video of what I interpret as the use of Video as Lighting. While working on Oblivion with Penumbra Theatre, I found that by considering the video a lighting instrument as well as a cinematic element that the Resource of video, within the creation process, was evolved into a more fluid tool with greater collaborative function.

Check out these links to see more of the splendid interactive works of Ole Kristensen and the Recoil Performance Group.

Does the World Need Another Multimedia Show?

Laurie Anderson - interview Swedish TV 2007

In the above video, Lori Anderson asks if the world needs another Multimedia Show. I am very intrigued by the conversation this question highlights.

There is a certain mysticism around technology. After the novelty of video camera and wireless sensors as a concept for interaction has been played out, what more content is there in the technology? How far can one hone the concept into meaningful and new work? Is the next step for realized invention? The technology surrounding software such as Isadora is, I believe, beyond it's conceptual value to the creator. Isadora and the interactive possibilities it offers are a resource that can be incorporated into existing performance creation processes. I feel that it requires a conscious stripping of the mysticism surrounding the novelty of the possibilities and a forced focus on their actual interplay with the full range of resources in a creation.

I see the utility of Isadora and similar technologies easily finding a home in the theatre as an exciting if somewhat mundane evolution of the CD/Mini-Disc, DVD and lighting board "GO" buttons of the world.
Perhaps I am recognizing that Multimedia for Multimedia's sake is not as noble, or at least sustainable as Art for Art's sake. What of it then? What more is there? How do these new technologies and emerging tools serve creators and their creations today now that the concepts have been invented, introduced and played out? How will I as a director/creator escape the trap of using and focusing on these new tools simply because they are there and seem magical in their own right?

Isadora: Drawing Out a Program

What and How

I found this nifty video of an Isadora patch being built. It opens with a demonstration of the final patch, and then goes back and shows the patch being built. Even if you don't understand Italian, this video offers a good 'feel' for the development of a patch and its output regardless of if you can read the explanations. I like how the video shows the patch creation process unfolding.

This patch seems to use both a camera and a microphone as sensors to effect how the projection performs.

The video was posted by Edoardo Rebecchi.

Anne Bogart: Monster Acting

Performance image from "Bob" directed by Anne Bogart.

I just came across an interesting review of Anne Bogart's shows Bob and Room. They focused on Robert Wilson and Virginia Wolf respectively. In the review Anne Bogart was interviewed and describes her performers as "Monster Actors."

From the article by Kenn Watt:

"We might define monster acting as the current high-water mark of the art form, which Bogart's Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI) has done perhaps more than any other group in the United States.

To be a monster actor, one must possess a modern dancer's contact-improvisation responsiveness, an uncanny strength in stillness, an over-arching critical intelligence brought to bear on the written word, a vocal instrument equal to the body's strength and no fear."

You can find the full article here.

Anne Bogart: Viewpoints

Anne Bogart

For many years now I have been enamored by the creative methods laid out by Robert LePage. His and improvisational directing and performance creation styles have inspired me continuously through out my education, performance and directing experiences.

It makes sense to me then that I have recently found myself more and more interested in Anne Bogart and her development of the 'Viewpoints' technique.

Viewpoints was developed and evolved by Bogart at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute from a process pioneered by Mary Overlie called the Six Viewpoints. These systems are deconstructive in nature and guide the performer in first dissecting and then reconstructing their understanding of Space, Story, Shape, Time, Emotion and Movement as it relates to the development of their performance.

Their are so many connections and synergies between these techniques and those of LePage and even John Flax, another of my inspirational guides, that my head is spinning as I try to integrate my understanding of Viewpoints into my own concepts of performance processes.

I find myself considering the implications Isadora brings to the Viewpoints method. My current investigations seem to directly speak to Space and the question: How can Isadora can provide a performers body with something to listen too within the performance Space? And even more intriguingly to me: How can Isadora provide the performance Space with an ability to listen to the performer?

Space, in the context of Viewpoints, refers to the architecture/spacial relationship to objects and floor pattern a performer exists within while performing.

I am currently adding a few of her books to my reading list:

• Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. 2005. The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 1-55936-241-3.
• Dixon, Michael Bigelow and Joel A. Smith, eds. 1995. Anne Bogart:Viewpoints. Career Development Ser. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus. ISBN 1 880399 94 6.

Resting in the Peace of His Hands

The images in this piece are comprised of the works of artist Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz, her drawings, paintings and sculptures. KolIwitz lived through the first and second world wars and her work is a monument to the suffering sustained by the victims of war and poverty.

The opening image is of Kollwitz in her youth, the second a self portrait of the artist later in life. I also explore "Mothers" and "Mother with Dead Child" interspersed with a few other photographs and self portraits of the artist. I also include an image of her youngest son Peter, whose death in the first world war was a defining inspiration to Kollwitz's work. The final image in the piece is of the the sculpture "Resting in the Peace of His Hands" which is also the name sake of the John Gibson composition this video is meant to accompany.

This video was produced in collaboration with Dr. Joe Martin and the University of Denver's Lamont Wind Ensemble.

*UPDATE*

I am happy to announce that this piece is finding another venue. I was contacted by Dr. Carol Hayward a Professor at Bowling Green State University who will be using the video in their performance of Gibson's composition.

Alex

Isadora: Four Column Video Analizer

Video Capture of the Patch

The Video Analyzer

Application of the Sensor Data
(The analyzer is inserted here as a user actor.)

I am currently trying to wrap my head around the possibilities presented by software/hardware tools such as Isadora and the EyesWeb Open Platform. I am specifically interested in finding practical methods of integrating this technology into realized performances. At the moment I am studying methods to use a basic camera as a sensor and develop a number of interactive environments that in turn can be used as a improvisational resource in the production of a performance.

To this end I wrote/drew the above Isadora patch this morning. The patch splits a camera input into four columns, each of which is separately analyzed for movement. I am currently trying to envision methods in which this type of sensor input can be used in conjunction with a video projector to create a reactive light environment that would be appropriate for a small black box theatre space.

My plan is to next use this basic patch in conjunction with a video projector casting light in the same space as the movement that is being sensed. As the patch is currently set to detect movement I am anticipating the need for some creativity in dealing with the potential feedback this setup will produce.