Friday, March 6th, 2009
Chunky Move is an original dance company based in Melboure who do fabulous work. They have cracked how to synchronise movement and technology in a really exciting way. You can look at a video extract from their latest work: Mortal Engine here . The digital projector and the dancer are linked by an infrared camera that tracks the dancer and generated the images depending on his or her movements across the stage. The impact is breath taking.
To explain that a little more articulately is the director of Chunky Move Gideon Obarzanek:
“Frieder Weiss’s (the systems engineer) interactive systems make it possible for instruments and bodies that generate light, video, sound and movement to all share a common language and respond to each other in real time. Mortal Engine has no pre-rendered video, light or laser images. Similarly the music mix is open allowing various sounds to be completely generated from movement data. In addition, pre-composed phrases are triggered by the dancers’ motion or by the operator in relation to where the performers are in any given sequence. This essentially means that there are no fixed timelines and the production flexes according to the rhythm of the performers. While the scenes are always in the same order, the work is truly live every night, not completely predictable and ever changing.”
So we have real time interaction driven by the dancer’s movement. A wonderfully original use of technology to enhance, not merely decorate the process. Andrew Curtis’ photo really captures that interaction. With full acknowledgement to his ownship of the rights to the photograph.
