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Documentation Introduction

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Cellbytes

After the first week of work [see schedule], four general headings had emerged: Body Mapping, Touch, Between and Frames. Under these headings, the following six subheadings emerged as ways to organise and link the choreographic and media/ network materials that have been made. They also served as ways to organise and map the different media environments and network setups that would be required.

As of 25 July, these are fluid categories as interlinking and overlap are still happening and smaller sub sections are still being devised.

  • Feedback
  • ACTG
  • Outside
  • Stethscope
  • Memory
  • Touch/ Virtual Partnering

Things change quickly, so by the end of this day -- on the evening of 25 July -- the smaller subsections have been clarified and an order has been set. The final list and order of the Cellbytes is:

Descriptions
 
Med Resolution Video
Low Resolution Video
(240 x 180 approx. 10 MB each)
(160 x 120 approx. 5 MB each)

 

ACTG: using Director (a software program) the letters ACTG [representing the basic four chemicals within DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C)] are extracted from a random ordered list of keywords associated with some of the thematic starting points of this project -- in particular the human genome. This extraction occurs at 8 second intervals (corresponding with the lag time of the video stream between the two spaces). Choreographic material has been devised that can be performed to correspond with the order of the letters. There is a video stream between both spaces and a data link that will synchronize the extraction intervals.

Twins: a projected pre-recorded video is played alongside a moving camera projection of a duet. This imagery is streamed between the two spaces. The movement for this duet was created in a very small space -- from the thematic starting points of "touch and intimacy". Both live and pre-recorded choreography is corresponding.

Virtual Partnering: this piece began with duet material that has been expanded to a quartet where one of the dancers is located on the Intelligent Stage and the other three on the Dance Stage. The two spaces are linked via a video stream and the timing of the movement is cued so as to give the impression that the dancing is taking place simultaneously. In fact, the two spaces experience an 8 second lag time using the video stream. No data is being sent between the spaces during this Cellbyte. In all of this work, the choreographers had to constantly remind themselves that they were choreographing for three spaces (the two spaces here at ASU and the web) at the same time. Jennifer Tsukayama made the observation that this was akin to playing 3-D Tic Tac Toe.

Memory: during this Cellbyte, a trio on the Intelligent Stage space improvises using movement derived from still images of body parts. These images are triggered by the dancers' movements using the Very Nervous System and played back using a real time video editing software called Image/ine. In the Dance Stage #132, a single dancer also improvises with movements and floor patterns that correspond to animated projections (a spiral, a series of tubes and something resembling a small brush stroke). These animations are built and played in Director (a multimedia interactive authoring program). There is a video stream between the Dance Studio and the Intelligent Stage, and not vice versa. Movement data is being sent between the two spaces to trigger sound.

Outside: The two spaces are approximately a 10 minute walk across campus. Outside explores notions of remote presence by utilising an electronic transmitter to send an video image as a dancer, carrying a camera, leaves one of the spaces to go to the other space. At the same time, another dancer leaves from the other space also carrying a camera and image transmitter. As one dancer moves out of transmission range in one space, the other dancer begins to move into range. This work is most effective at the edges of its space -- firstly the physical edge -- as the dancer moves out of the studio space -- and secondly at its media edge -- where the dancer/ camera operator reaches the edge of the transmission range and the image "fuzzes out".

Stethoscope: A stethoscope is connected to a transmitter and receiver in order to pick up and amplify body sounds such as the heartbeat as well as the sounds of someone striking the body or "drumming" variously in different places. Video streaming and data (generated by a heart rate monitor and the motion of the body drummer picked up via the VNS system -- see triggers and sensors) are connecting the two spaces.

Feedback: a camera set up to transmit its image in real-time is positioned in order to receive its own image. The effect over time is of receding iterations into the background -- a growing depth in the image. In this particular feedback loop -- the loop is actually established to include both spaces.

Contact: Touch, intimacy, presence and play are all explored in a closing contact improvisation with moving camera. Video is streamed between both spaces and movement data is sent from one to the other triggering sound and possibly lighting changes in the spaces.

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Images

twins