The Topological Media Lab conducted a series of experiments - called Ouija - regarding movement and intentionality, June 25 - July 18, 2007, at Concordia's EV Hexagram-Blackbox.
Choreographers Soo-yeon Cho & advisor Michael Montanaro , 7 dancers,
media creators from the Topological Media Lab, and collaborating
researchers held a series of experiments in structured improvisation
exploring the emergence of collective intention in a field of movement.
The field of movement includes un-prepared everyday "un-conscious"
movement, pre-conditioned but un-rehearsed movement, as well as fully
phrased movement. The experiments included dancers and non-dancers,
sometimes identified as such, sometimes not. Themes included
entrainment, camouflage, calligraphy and exchanging initiative and
momentum between dancers and media.
All these experimental events lived in a set of responsive substrate
media supplied with Oxygen's calligraphic media and gestural sound,
WYSIWYG's sounding tapestries, and some proto-jewelry. See the TML Showcase of Cosmicomics, Meteor Shower, WYSIWYG, and Excitable Sites
for related work.
We will invite expert collaborators to join some of the TML campfires
that we'll hold during the Blackbox residency. Please see the Google calendar for the details of our experiment.
A public presentation was held on Wednesday July 18.
Prof. Sha Xin Wei, Director
Soo-yeon Cho, Choreographer
Dancers:
Mike Croitoru
Kiani del Valle
Veronique Gaudreau
Rebecca Halls
Marie Laurier
Joannie Pharand
Olivia Foulke
Oxygen:
Jean-Sebastien Rousseau, Calligraphic video, videography, visual effects, production
Tim Sutton, Gestural sound design and programming, production
Emmannuel Thivierge, State engine, camera tracking, production
Filip Radonjik, Live ink painting
WYSIWYG:
Marguerite Bromley (XS Labs), Tapestry design and weaving
Elliot Sinyor (IDMIL McGill), Tapestry mechatronics
David Gauthier, Tapestry mechatronics
Freida Abtan, Sound design & programming
David Birnbaum (IDMIL McGill), Sound design & programming
Doug van Nort (IDMIL McGill), Gestural motion feature analysis
Josee-Anne Drolet, TML Project Coordinator, production, videography, editing
Harry Smoak, TML Research Coordinator, production support, research advisor
Ma Zhiming, Production
Special thanks to Faculty Colleagues:
Prof. Michael Montanaro, Contemporary Dance, Ouija movement experiment design
Prof. Marcelo Wanderley, IDMIL, McGill University, WYSIWYG gestural control of sound synthesis
Prof. Joey Berzowksa, XS Labs, Interactive textiles
Thanks also to affiliates of the TML and the SenseLab for artistic and
research support: Michael Fortin, Elena Frantova, Olfa Driss, Rene
Sills, Raul Gomez, Paul Melançon, Antoine Blanchet, Younjeong Choi,
Shermine Sawalha
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