Untitled Document

Ryan Jordan
MFA Computational Arts
Module: Creative Technologies
Tutor: Janis Jefferies
Goldsmiths Digital Studios
24/04/08

My practice explores the possibilities of changing our perception and experience of time, space and form through the integration of the human and technology. It achieves this through several different layers of ideas and applications; costume, technology, light. I shall begin by describing the technical side of the project and then move onto the aims and objectives behind it.

This project crosses the intersection of the arts, science, technology and technoculture, exploring how these philosophies and applications relate, affect and challenge our physical bodies and existing cognitive processes. It achieves’ this through manipulating the expressions of the body; turning the visible invisible, and vice versa leading to the immersion of the audience via the emersion of the performer/code/technology.
The performance is divided into two equally important parts:

The hardware will be comprised of two main parts; the costume and the sensors. The costume will be large, flowing, folding fabric completely engulfing the dancers’ body, such as the below images of Loie Fuller.

Attached to the inside of the fabric will be a network of servo motors which are controlled by the dancers’ movements. These motors will turn and rotate in accordance with the overall choreography of the performance to alter and move the shape of the fabric, juxtaposing human and mechanic movements, thus creating a ‘new’, hybrid form. In addition to this muscle wire (shape memory alloy) will be used inside the costume. Muscle wire remembers either one or two shapes it has been in and with a change in voltage it switches from one to the other.

Attached directly to the dancers’ body will be a network of sensors which will control the motors, sound, and strobe lights. Stretch sensors will be used to replicate tendons in the body, running down the arm from the shoulder to the hand. When the stretch sensors are stretched their resistance increases so wiring these up to the controller, the performer will be able to control the parameters of the system by subtle movements.

A tri-axis (x, y, z planes) accelerometer attached on the top of the head of the performer will also control various parameters of the system.

In order to interface these various components and to allow for a wireless connection, as the performer must be free to move without the restriction of wires, I am going to be using a Bluetooth kit developed by Blue Sense. This will enable control of all sensors, servos motors, muscle wire, and the interfacing to the software on the main computer for sound and light control.

The software will be comprised of three main parts; audio, visual and movement control.

The audio software will be built in Pure Data or Max/MSP with the dancers’ movements controlling, via the sensors, synthesisers, samples and effects.
The visual software will be written in GEM or Processing and will be a 3D environment built with moving, flowing patterns with lots of strobe effects and fast flashing lights as this leads to the impression of changing space and time, which then enhances form. The dancer navigates around this abstract world via movements of the head. The programme will be controlled via the accelerometer and the image will be projected onto the dancer and fabric. Below are some stills from a sketch I have already made.

Fig 8. Stills from live VJing sketch controlled via sensors, audio and video input. Written in Processing

The movement control part of the software will be the interfacing of the motors with the sensors allowing the dancer full control over the fabric and the software.

As we can see from the above description this project immediately becomes an interdisciplinary activity, calling on expertise from a wealth of subject areas, such as Computer Science, Performance, Sonic and Visual Arts, Robotics, Design, Psychology, Philosophy and Textiles to name but a few. I will be collaborating with various people from different disciplines. This demands a highly diverse, entrepreneurial and innovative approach to question and tackle the boundaries of interdisciplinary performance.

The aim and objective of this project is to challenge and affect of sense of space, time and form. It will achieve this by the application of the technology and costume used.
The costume will hide the technology and the dancer, making the computer and the physical body ‘invisible’ and leaving the audience with an abstract moving shape which will have a combination of human and mechanic movement. This breaks down well-trusted visual cues and leads us to a cognitive shift from the visual to the perceptible. Underneath this ‘layer of abstraction’ the dancers’ movements are amplified and enhanced by the sound and visual projections, making an intimate connection with the audience. This builds and reinforces the above mentioned cognitive, perceptual shift.
A small project I have previously done called Immemer is also relevant hare. Immemer is a way to describe the simultaneous experience of immersion and emersion; the visible and the invisible; light and dark. In practice this notion is as much a philosophical position as a physical one. In attempting to experience both opposites simultaneously it is symbolic of changing time, space and form; entering into the ‘other world’, or ‘dream-time’. ‘The Mind lets in light, then the dark; in interaction; so time is generated.’ The use of strobe lighting here is very important for the performance as it has a very real effect on the mind of the person experiencing it. It enhances and alters our perception of movement, space and time. The strobe effect causes seizures in some people who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy. These seizures are triggered by visual stimuli that form cyclical patterns in time or space. Some suffers experience an ‘aura’ before they have a seizure. With my work with strobe lights I have experienced ‘auras’ and halucinations and this effect enhances the changing perceptions of space, time and form.
Another important aim in my work is to give full control of the system over to the performer. This falls into what Baudrillard calls ‘third-order simulacrum’; ‘simulacra of simulation, founded on information, the model, the cybernetic game – total operationality, hyperreality, aim of total control.’ In the setting of a live performance, in this case influenced by the post-human body, rave, sub and techno-culture, the performer becomes a symbol and a bridge of the human and machine, society and government, the real and the fantasy. They become a moving, pulsating form, constructed out of information and imagination; morphing and growing, twisting and dieing.

The intended outcome is to develop a fully working prototype of the above described project. The prototype will be fully functional and a will signal the beginning of a larger scale project which will be focused around developing more sophisticated audio and visual software, and sensor networks.
I will work from the start of this project with a dancer, and as well as developing my own performance piece with this, work closely with body>data>space, developing the costume.
Once the costume is made I will do several performances with it as ‘test runs’ to find any bugs and test out the system and get used to it. To learn it as it will become an instrument, as will the whole of the body, but not just a musical instrument as it will control sound, light and movement. Once the system is complete I will arrange a larger scale performance and it may be part of the b>d>s project, POST ME_NEW ID.

The evaluation of this project will be comprised of an evaluative and contextual essay, a public performance, DVD documentation of the performance and a website.
The essay will critically analyse the process of development and the dissemination of the whole project. It will include references, bibliography, images, diagram’s and notes collected over the course of the project.
For the public performance I will organise an event with other performances using new technologies, physical and wearable computing. The reason for having other performances is to network, share ideas and to provide a variety of projects to showcase their work. It will be open to the public as I feel it is important to take these projects beyond just a University setting and people from academia and business will be invited and strongly encouraged to attend.
The DVD of the performance will be archived and the performance will be available to download from the internet.

Baudraillard, J. 2006. Symbolic Exchange and Death. London: Sage.
1994. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Cook, P. R. 2001. Music, Cognition and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Dick, P. K. 1981. VALIS. London: Orion Publishing.
Hayles, K. N. 1999. How we Became Post-Human. London: University of Chicago Press.

Dick, P. K. VALIS. pp247.

Baudrillard, J. ‘Simulacra and Simulation’. pp121.