Saturday, December 29, 2007

a sign of the Times...

looks like the New York Times is finally looking into all the online action that's been building around the dance community - here's the link for the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/arts/dance/29danc.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas Class

The last class of the semester will be held in Titsworth Studio starting at 2:00.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Worksheet info...

courtesy of cavin,
here are the readings for this semester -
let us know if we missed anything!

• The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society by Norbert Wiener
• The Human Touch: Towards a Historical Anthropology and Dream Analysis of Self-Acting Instruments by Allen Feldman
• Critical Moves by Randy Martin
• Interactive Motion Generation from Examples by Okan Arikan and D.A. Forsyth
• Choreography As a Cenotaph: The Memory of Movement by Gabriele Brandstetter
• Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Part 3) by Michel Foucault

Monday, December 17, 2007

Thursday, December 13, 2007

She's a Dancing Machine

Next friday Julie Cruse will be joining us. Julie comes from Ohio State University's Experimental Media and Movement Arts Lab and is the architect of VICKI, Virtual Improvisational Choreographer / Kinetic Instructor. VICKI, or Choreobot, is a dance machine that uses verbal commands to guide its subject through a structured improvisation.



VICKI says:

“Choreobot is designed to challenge a dancer’s movement skills, and asks the dancer to draw upon advanced improvisational interpretation. I am programmed to make dances using theme and variation as prescribed by my creator. I use textbook dance methods, but - I am unpredictable. The dancer will demonstrate as I begin my next new dance.”

Among other things, Matt Gough says "there is a wealth of research waiting to be uncovered in this work" and we will get to be be a part of that.

As I mentioned in class, Julie Cruse has very strong desires about how she would like to progress the field. Currently she sees stagnation in the research. When asked "What is dance technology?" she replied:

When I hear dance and tech, I think - it better not be ANOTHER interactive audio/video environment.

It better not be ANOTHER...

dance contextualized by projected videos
dancer controlled by robotics or sensors
improvisation in real time that composes the score
motion capture in real time translated to animated projections
wearable technologies that do something with sound or video
animated avatars in second life
real time "telematic" improvising

Wednesday, December 5, 2007