Digital dance... worlds clashing

pages

projects

EDiT Interactive Table (2008)
Multi-touch, multi-user hardware and software platform. Development in DirectX/C#/.NET.

TANGerINE (2008)
Research project about tangible interaction and smart objects.

tabulaGraph (2006)
More intuitive concept mapping on the tabulaTouch device

tabulaTouch (2005)
multi-touch tabletop interaction

wikiWall (2004)
natural concept mapping, my Master's thesis

Monday, November 15. 2004

Some weeks ago i took a trip to Genova to see a show called "Sylvatica". It’s a contemporary dance show, featuring the use of body tracking
technology (or "motion capture"), the one used to gather movement data
for 3d computer animation in films and videogames. Apart from this
technical aspect, the show is a research study on the creation of a
living "organism" that uses and transforms data gathered from human
body motion, in 3d scenes, light and music. I really enjoyed the show,
and if it comes near to you just go and see, it’s worth it.
There
are some things i observed in myself while "experiencing", and i want
to write here some small and (maybe) evocative notes for us all.

Video over Matter

There
were real dancers on stage, and 3 screens with projectors driven by
different computers. Then there was a special zone for the motion
capture.
My attention was always attracted by the screens, bright
light, synthetic movements.. when i looked at the real dancers i found
myself "bored".
Then, after a while, when the pattern was revealed,
i suddendly lost attention from the screens and started to look at
dancers. They were in a pattern too, but so different, so deeper. In
the end i tried to observe everything.. it was strange and difficult,
the two worlds were clashing a bit, and the music (a noise electronic
soup) was quite annoying.

The Lost Surface magick
The three screens were quite big, but anyway small in respect to the whole stage.
Also, they were so "explicit", we all expected something to be projected there, no surprise.
Insted,
the fourth hidden projector beamed on the entire stage, not aiming at
any particular surface (and there were many, because the dancers
continuosly built a different scenography). When it happened it was magick! Everything changed and i had similar feelings and sensations as in a 3d cinema (like the 3d Cinemaxx).. wonderful effect, and worth some extra research.

Connect Everything, or die..
The
idea of using the data acquired in realtime from the body tracking to
drive other systems is cool, but this "connection" was not so
noticeable.. everything could have been pre-rendered.. and the 3d
alter-ego of the tracked dancer was evocative just in the first part of
the show..
Also, and this is the greatest weakness of the show,
music was not interactive.. or it was.. but i didn’t notice, and so it
does not make a difference.
Humans are so sensible that at least the
two higher-bandwidth channels of communication (video/audio) should be
seamlessy connected.
Don’t you think?

Posted by Stefano Baraldi in new media at 17:28 | Comments (0)

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about

This is the blogging quarter of Stefano Baraldi.
I am a researcher, consultant and (at the end of the day) inventor of interactive hardware and software.
This blog will offer research news and insights about HCI, tabletop and multi-touch interaction, new media, knowledge management, software design and concept mapping.
Anything that lits the candle of interest in knowing, exploring and understanding..

If you are italian you may want to visit another, mostly intimist, blog.

Living in:
Bologna, Italy