drift net

06/03/07 
Post 004: Inter/action 
Mood = interactive.

Inter://Actions

<blockquote >Tell me and I will Forget: Show Me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” Confucius 450 BC</blockquote >

The spontaneity of a live performance is where the future of theatre lies, as this generation of audience is no longer satisfied with a conventional role of an audience. The “live performance” has to make use of its immediacy as compared to a film or television program.

Driven by the idea of creating an inclusive experience rather than passive appreciation, the performance is designed based on the idea of ‘Sensory Experience’, in terms of the physical inter-relationship with performers, video, lights, sound and the audience. The performer’s spontaneity, naturalness and impulsiveness form the basis of inter-reaction with the multi-media elements.

Sound : Visual : Lights 
We are interested in designing an interactive system, which allow us to study various possibilities of an immediate and responsive environment in relations to the movement of a live performer/dancer.

Similarly, we would also like to develop the potential of interactive audio-visual as performative elements and as an alternative tool for physical expression.

Visual 
The visual environment runs on custom-built patches on MAX/MSP/Jitter and Processing as it enables real-time access to motion analysis data from the dancers. With the streaming of data from the sensors components, semi-automated programming allows us to design imageries in relations to the dancer movements and the narrative content of the drift net. The visual artists will design the visual environment base on the experiments and improvisations of the dancer, determining parameters that the dancer can control and interact in real-time.

Sound 
Daito Manabe is the main sound artist/programmer for Drift Net, and he will be exploring with various unconventional methods in terms of sound creation. As an experimental turntablist, he has developed a customised turntable with MAX/MSP to create interactive visual for his sound design. We will be creating an interactive system with muscle sensors for the performer to create sound as he flexes his muscles while dancing. We will also develop a vocal/music spectrum analyzing system; the sound from the band will translate to graphical representation and LED lighting design.

Light 
Fujimoto Takayuki has been working with LED lighting equipment manufactured by Color Kinetics Ltd. that can create an amazing range of color variations (16.7 million colors) from only three primary colors "R(ed), G(reen), B(lue)", as simply as for any digitally-controlled computer display. Yet for such an impressive palette, LED lighting units consume surprisingly little electricity, require no complex wiring and generate almost no heat. All of which makes it possible to create a theatre environment, with much more impressive color effects than ever before, using only a minimum of equipment: a laptop computer (as control unit), a moderate power supply and the LED unit.

With the capabilities of Midi and DMX Networking within this LED Unit, its design and aesthetics can be easily integrated into the overall audio-visual design. Thus, it provides greater integration and interactions between other live elements like motion-based sensors with dancer or the live audio-visual landscape. 

 posted by Ka5