Suna No Onna
Digital Performance by DAP Lab
Waterman Gallery, London.
2009
“Suna no Onna is a slow moving sensual dance, adapted from Hiroshi Teshigawara's mysterious film "Woman in the Dunes". A wordless drama merging virtual and real images of a life of existential entrapment in an apparently inhospitable and unstable habitat. The ominous sand dunes of Teshigahara’s desert are transformed into a virtual projected environment that shapes the unconscious ground where the Woman (Isobe) meets a scientist-foreigner (Olu Taiwo) who stumbles into her life to become her captive” (Birringer/Danjoux 2009).
Contribution:
Digital Scenography
Interaction Design
Digital Performance by DAP Lab
Waterman Gallery, London.
2009
“Suna no Onna is a slow moving sensual dance, adapted from Hiroshi Teshigawara's mysterious film "Woman in the Dunes". A wordless drama merging virtual and real images of a life of existential entrapment in an apparently inhospitable and unstable habitat. The ominous sand dunes of Teshigahara’s desert are transformed into a virtual projected environment that shapes the unconscious ground where the Woman (Isobe) meets a scientist-foreigner (Olu Taiwo) who stumbles into her life to become her captive” (Birringer/Danjoux 2009).
Contribution:
Digital Scenography
Interaction Design
Ren protecting the couple from the digital rain
Ren interacting with the sand particles
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The whole performance was taking place inside an imaginary landscape of sand dunes, an inhospitable sandpit where the Woman was spending her time in isolation, living and working in her abode which she has to defend against the ever-moving sand that slides down into the pit. By following footage from the film as well as pictures from sandpits, a circular virtual environment was constructed made up of sand mountains and a small hut in one end. As the image was going to be projected from three different projectors, it needed to be split into three different images. This was tackled by placing three virtual cameras into the scene, positioning and orienting them to match our vision of the projected images and rendering them separately. The three rendered images where then taken to Isadora which handled the projection on the screens.
The second character was a spirit woman, made entirely of sand. She was holding a glowing blue cloth emitting blue particles which slowly filled up the screens before falling on the ground and disappearing. Ren, wearing a different blue garment, danced and played with the spirit acting as a connection between the real and the virtual. As the virtual character was taking form from the sand it acted like the spirit of the space, waking up and showing its presence, reminding the audience of the power it holds over the Woman and the scientist. The model was done by taking a female humanoid model and applying a sand texture onto it. The model was then animated using motion capture data recorded in our studios by one of the dancers. A piece of cloth was attached to the model’s hand and after a applying a cloth simulation in Maya it realistically followed the movement of the sand woman. Finally, the cloth was turned into a glowing particle emitter, releasing self-decaying particles at a steady rate.
Along with the Dunes, two more characters needed to be developed. The first one was the virtual counterpart of the beetle woman, a playful creature which was meant to emerge from the sand and accompany the dancer (Helenna Ren) while she was personifying the insect world. By studying pictures of both the costume of the beetle woman and beetles, a 3d model was constructed and animated using humanoid motion capture data. The model was colored blue to match the costume as well as having eyes that emitted a yellow glow to symbolize the ethereal. The final result was a surreal insect which moved and jumped with ungraceful elegance, at moments standing up, and at others crawling around like a child but always complementing its dance partner while acting as a refreshing visual image on the moody sands.
Finally, a few more models and sequences were digitally created to accommodate certain narrative actions. As the scientist descended into the pit with a ladder, this was shown by a digital ladder appearing on the projected set environment. This ladder was subsequently “magically” removed, symbolizing the decision of the woman to keep the scientist there with her and entrap him. A sandstorm was also created digitally, creating a very powerful scene with the couple sitting down and the spirit woman holding an umbrella on top of them while the digital sand is trickling down. Finally, in the last scene, a swarm of beetles are seen bouncing towards the scientist, which were also digitally created using a particle replacement system. |
Ukiyo Moveable Worlds
Choreographic Installation by DAP Lab
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London.
2010
"Ukiyo" explores layers of perceptions in an audiovisual world that constantly shifts and fragments; the audience is invited to move in and around the space which features five hanamichi (runways). Dancers perform simultaneous with projected digital objects; music & kinaesonic choreography for "Ukiyo" are designed for real-time gestural interaction to animate the feedback system and generative algorithms through with the virtual space & performer movements are intertwined. "Ukiyo" is performed by an international cast of several performers whose work developed in online collaboration with digital artists in Tokyo, as part of a cross-cultural research venture (DAP-Lab, dir. Johannes Birringer & Michèle Danjoux)(c)2010.
Contribution:
3d Generative World Designer
Wearable technology/Sensor Design
Interaction Design
Choreographic Installation by DAP Lab
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London.
2010
"Ukiyo" explores layers of perceptions in an audiovisual world that constantly shifts and fragments; the audience is invited to move in and around the space which features five hanamichi (runways). Dancers perform simultaneous with projected digital objects; music & kinaesonic choreography for "Ukiyo" are designed for real-time gestural interaction to animate the feedback system and generative algorithms through with the virtual space & performer movements are intertwined. "Ukiyo" is performed by an international cast of several performers whose work developed in online collaboration with digital artists in Tokyo, as part of a cross-cultural research venture (DAP-Lab, dir. Johannes Birringer & Michèle Danjoux)(c)2010.
Contribution:
3d Generative World Designer
Wearable technology/Sensor Design
Interaction Design
Autumn Moon on Ishiyama Temple from the work The Eight Views of Omni. Hiroshige, 1818.
We have a dancer appearing on stage looking for an escape from a corrupted industrial world, a place where she can find rest, peace and tranquility. Just like a shaman, she begins her dance, imagining the concrete world around her to crack, slowly revealing the nature she longed to see for so long. She does not want to immediately form an image of a nature scene in her head; she would rather take her time in doing it. Or even better create a playground for herself, one that she could use to repeat the process of creation. She wants this so much, that she does not want it to finish. This playground is her safety, as long as it exists; she can come back to it as many times as she wishes, eternally repeating the process. She knows that once the creation finishes, it is over. She would have to return back to her own world, the one that exists outside her own mind. The place starts to emerge from her imagination. It is like an extension of her wishes flowing onto her dress, and then the dress extends all around her, creating a fortress of solitude. This world has nothing to do with the outside world. It has its own time, its own physical rules. In there she is the creator, she dictates what happens. She can invoke trees, she can make the grass grow, she can call for the sun or she can call for rain. Every single object in the world is connected with each other, it is aware of its own existence and of the existence of the others. It is constantly changing and constantly shifting. She has formed it, only she has the power to destroy it. The life span of the space depends entirely on her. The world itself is an embodiment of its creator. It has its own intelligence, because that is what the creator wanted out of it. In order to create a playground, the creator knew that the world must behave unpredictably. She would not want her creation to become repetitive. Therefore the space has developed intelligence, or rather has inherited enough intelligence from its creator, in order to perform the tasks at hand. There is a totality in her world. The Leaf Woman though is just a person. Just like everyone, she is not perfect. Therefore neither can her creation be perfect. She has tried to replicate the work of nature, a task which is close to impossible. The knowledge she has passed to her world is merely how nature acts in her imagination. She has no idea how long it takes for a leaf to fall from a tree or how long it takes for a tree to grow from the ground. It takes as long as she wants it to take. And that is exactly what is reflected in her world. |
Inspired by the landscape designs of Hiroshige and the evanescent, fleeting beauty portrayed in the Japanese Ukiyo-e artworks the team wanted to experiment with transmuting the inner dreams, beliefs and conflicts of the performers into surreal visual representations. The Leaf Woman, like a child of nature on an attempt to break the concrete cell of her industrial prison, forms a safe haven in her mind. Just like digital technology, the characters are broken down into code and reassembled in a virtual form, filtered through the colors, the textures and the visions portrayed in the art of Hiroshige and early 19th century Ukiyo-e artists.
Katsura Isobe in Sadler's Wells Theatre
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The concept of “ukiyo,” in the Japanese traditional sense refers to an impermanent, evanescent world of fading natural landscapes, a realm divorced of responsibilities of the mundane everyday world. The world as viewed through the eyes of Hiroshige is dynamic, constantly changing, constantly evolving. As the virtual world is formed the creator of the space (the Leaf Woman) is faced with a concrete floor in the midst of an empty island, her feet touching the cold semi fragmented surface, the last connection to her real world. The space feels static, foggy, and the moody lighting makes most of the world undefined. She looks around the empty space, the dark and cloudy sky, and falls on the floor touching and feeling the familiar texture. She slowly realizes this is her world, the digital code is part of her and she has the ability to mold the space. She slowly gets up on her feet, gaining confidence, and with a jump cracks the cement. As she is struggling to understand how to handle this externalization of her embodied state, she realizes that the environment is no longer static. She notices a slight shift in the clouds, a slight movement of the wind. She jumps again, and this time her landing cracks the cement even more. She can feel the space moving and with a final jump the concrete is shuttered. The clouds are now moving, the wind is blazing, she has just kick started her world.
The Leaf Woman looks up in the sky extending her arms, willing the clouds to slowly subside. She can feel for the first time the sunlight on her skin. The colors of the world around her become brighter, she falls to the ground again, pushing the floor with strength from deep within her and as if by magic her code is erupting in the shape of mountains and rocks. The landscape takes shape just like a woodcut painting, carved by the momentum of the dancer moving in space. Lakes are formed, their crystal water reflecting the digital clouds soaring the sky.
The world, behaving like nature, is randomizing the Leaf Woman's creations. Rocks are generated in random locations, the landscape molds following gravitational forces, water flows in random directions. The space has physical properties, the rocks will slide down mountains, the sky will pour down rain. Vegetation seems to develop by itself. The world is evolving, with or without the contribution of its creator.
As the Leaf Woman extends her arms once more to the sky she invokes her summoning powers. Grass is now appearing all over the island. At will, she can mash up the code from the ground which rises and recombines, forming trees which seem to tear up the ground and climb out, taking their stance magnificently on the surface while they heal the ground. Embodied with their own will power, like a code created from a code, these trees possess their own intelligence. They can walk around the space and possess spatial awareness. Leaves from the branches are gracefully falling to the ground, bending to the autumn desires of their creator.
The Leaf Woman looks up in the sky extending her arms, willing the clouds to slowly subside. She can feel for the first time the sunlight on her skin. The colors of the world around her become brighter, she falls to the ground again, pushing the floor with strength from deep within her and as if by magic her code is erupting in the shape of mountains and rocks. The landscape takes shape just like a woodcut painting, carved by the momentum of the dancer moving in space. Lakes are formed, their crystal water reflecting the digital clouds soaring the sky.
The world, behaving like nature, is randomizing the Leaf Woman's creations. Rocks are generated in random locations, the landscape molds following gravitational forces, water flows in random directions. The space has physical properties, the rocks will slide down mountains, the sky will pour down rain. Vegetation seems to develop by itself. The world is evolving, with or without the contribution of its creator.
As the Leaf Woman extends her arms once more to the sky she invokes her summoning powers. Grass is now appearing all over the island. At will, she can mash up the code from the ground which rises and recombines, forming trees which seem to tear up the ground and climb out, taking their stance magnificently on the surface while they heal the ground. Embodied with their own will power, like a code created from a code, these trees possess their own intelligence. They can walk around the space and possess spatial awareness. Leaves from the branches are gracefully falling to the ground, bending to the autumn desires of their creator.
Compositing Shot
The Leaf Woman is now playing with the space, her bare feet touching the grass while she moves elegantly around her trees. She invokes rain and she magically makes the leaves from the ground follow her will and shoot high up in the air, directing them into shapes as they glide back down. As she changes the physical properties of the space, the rocks, the trees, the water flow upwards and as she switches the centripetal gravitational force to a centrifugal she watches the digital world decomposing into an outwards spiral, only to return back to normal state whenever she wills it.
The virtual environment, just like the Leaf Woman’s imaginary world, has come into existence and lingers and floats in space. The synoptic flow, the theme and the mood of the “creation scene” had been placed into context by taking under consideration the architect’s interpretation of the narrative, the artistic concepts of the ukiyo-e’s evanescence worlds, the colors and compositions of Hiroshige’s woodcuts, the vision of Danjoux’s garment designs, Isobe’s character development of the Leaf Woman and the fragmented immersive theme of the UKIYO (Moevable Worlds) production.
The virtual environment, just like the Leaf Woman’s imaginary world, has come into existence and lingers and floats in space. The synoptic flow, the theme and the mood of the “creation scene” had been placed into context by taking under consideration the architect’s interpretation of the narrative, the artistic concepts of the ukiyo-e’s evanescence worlds, the colors and compositions of Hiroshige’s woodcuts, the vision of Danjoux’s garment designs, Isobe’s character development of the Leaf Woman and the fragmented immersive theme of the UKIYO (Moevable Worlds) production.
Mythological Parodies
Installation
2012
Mythological Parodies construct an alternative reality where a band of zombie musicians in a surreal almost comical sense thump away at their musical instruments. Accompanied by zombie dancers performing contemporary dance routines the performers live in a hybrid environment generated in real time by the accompanied music and the physical position of the audience in the installation space. Worlds and abstract environments are synthesized in real time and offer the audience a stimulating, relaxing, interactive and personalized audiovisual experience.
PERFORMING IN A GENERATIVE WORLD
In an attempt to explore the aesthetic properties of inter-realm spatial sharing and information exchange between the real exhibition space and a procedurally changing and reactive virtual world, Mythological Parodies allows the audience through participation and environmental interaction to project their will and physical existence into the virtual world. A Kinect calibrated user can assume the control of the virtual camera, navigating the environment while other users can form virtual representations of themselves that get to inhabit the space. Music breathes life into the Zombie performers as well as the malleable world which shapes, evolves, construct and deconstruct based on the sounds and the audiences movement around the space.
Instead of producing the music, the Zombie performers follow the music or the ambient sounds they hear, responding, playing and dancing accordingly. Virtual worlds spawn into creation from their actions, populating the space with procedurally generated geometries based on the environmental placement of the audience in the space. A number of visual spectacles spanning across 3 screens and ranging from the realistic to the extreme create an effect that demythologizes traditional zombie legends and offers a fresh perspective to a fantastical space. Worlds are created and destroyed, based on social and environmental interactions by the audience while the band, unaware and oblivious, act as the puppets of construction.
TECHNOLOGY
In Mythological Parodies, the projected graphical visualizations of the 3d geometries are generated in real time using algorithms that follow the musical inputs and the audience's placement in the space. The word is composed by a number of environmental modes or "universes" which alternate to compliment the current music. The project is using 2 Kinect camera sensors and a normal RGB camera. The first Kinect requires a user to be calibrated in order to control the real time virtual camera displaying the environment, whereas the second one is used to take 3d snapshots of the audience which become part of the procedurally generated worlds. The RGB camera is hanged on the ceiling and creates an audience placement map of the space. The map is subsequently realized into a 3d mesh that keeps shifting and evolving. The zombie band and dancers were hand animated in Maya and then imported VVVV which handles all the real time processing and visualizations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Modeling and animation was done by members of the Cinematics and Narratives (CAN) Lab, in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Music composed by Philip Tan.
Installation
2012
Mythological Parodies construct an alternative reality where a band of zombie musicians in a surreal almost comical sense thump away at their musical instruments. Accompanied by zombie dancers performing contemporary dance routines the performers live in a hybrid environment generated in real time by the accompanied music and the physical position of the audience in the installation space. Worlds and abstract environments are synthesized in real time and offer the audience a stimulating, relaxing, interactive and personalized audiovisual experience.
PERFORMING IN A GENERATIVE WORLD
In an attempt to explore the aesthetic properties of inter-realm spatial sharing and information exchange between the real exhibition space and a procedurally changing and reactive virtual world, Mythological Parodies allows the audience through participation and environmental interaction to project their will and physical existence into the virtual world. A Kinect calibrated user can assume the control of the virtual camera, navigating the environment while other users can form virtual representations of themselves that get to inhabit the space. Music breathes life into the Zombie performers as well as the malleable world which shapes, evolves, construct and deconstruct based on the sounds and the audiences movement around the space.
Instead of producing the music, the Zombie performers follow the music or the ambient sounds they hear, responding, playing and dancing accordingly. Virtual worlds spawn into creation from their actions, populating the space with procedurally generated geometries based on the environmental placement of the audience in the space. A number of visual spectacles spanning across 3 screens and ranging from the realistic to the extreme create an effect that demythologizes traditional zombie legends and offers a fresh perspective to a fantastical space. Worlds are created and destroyed, based on social and environmental interactions by the audience while the band, unaware and oblivious, act as the puppets of construction.
TECHNOLOGY
In Mythological Parodies, the projected graphical visualizations of the 3d geometries are generated in real time using algorithms that follow the musical inputs and the audience's placement in the space. The word is composed by a number of environmental modes or "universes" which alternate to compliment the current music. The project is using 2 Kinect camera sensors and a normal RGB camera. The first Kinect requires a user to be calibrated in order to control the real time virtual camera displaying the environment, whereas the second one is used to take 3d snapshots of the audience which become part of the procedurally generated worlds. The RGB camera is hanged on the ceiling and creates an audience placement map of the space. The map is subsequently realized into a 3d mesh that keeps shifting and evolving. The zombie band and dancers were hand animated in Maya and then imported VVVV which handles all the real time processing and visualizations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Modeling and animation was done by members of the Cinematics and Narratives (CAN) Lab, in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Music composed by Philip Tan.
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KimoSphere 4.0
Choreographic Installation by DAP Lab
Brunel University, London.
2017
Directed by: Johannes Birringer
KimoSphere 4.0 explored an architectural, sensorial environment. A small group of audience were guided inside the space and allowed to interact and get immersed in a number of different "stations".
Each Station explored different scenarios of immersion:
Choreographic Installation by DAP Lab
Brunel University, London.
2017
Directed by: Johannes Birringer
KimoSphere 4.0 explored an architectural, sensorial environment. A small group of audience were guided inside the space and allowed to interact and get immersed in a number of different "stations".
Each Station explored different scenarios of immersion:
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Claudia Robles - Galvanic Skin Response sensing
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Sara Belle - 8 Channel Red Ghost Audio Forest
Performers:
Yoko Ishiguro
Helenna Ren
Haein Song
Performers:
Yoko Ishiguro
Helenna Ren
Haein Song
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Doros Polydorou, Fancis de Oliveira, Letitia Liu, Nik Roan - VR forest, drawn in Google Tilt Brush.
All pictures are owned by the DAP Lab
All pictures are owned by the DAP Lab
Haptic Wearable Technology
On going Research
A number of contemporary dance performances in the recent years have been using technology in order to enhance the “spectacle” experienced by an audience. The majority of these digital performances focus on issues which explore the relationship between an individual or a group of performers with the present technology. At the same time, these technologies are rarely used to enhance the relationship between the performers themselves. This research proposes a way to create a corporeal link between performers, by giving them the ability through haptic feedback, to become aware of each other’s feelings and actions in space.
The aim of the project is to examine the tactile experience of the performers as a means of communication. This investigation involves the creation of a holistic system which tracks and identifies the movement and the intentions of the dancers in space and communicates back to them, through a wearable haptic system offering vibrations at different intensities, the invisible link that is shared between them.
The methodology of undertaking this project will be divided in 4 steps:
1. Develop a system that tracks the position of the dancers on stage in real time.
The reason for this is twofold. Firstly to map each individuals performers choreographic space (as points in 3d space) and secondly to tract and identify the relationship of the performers bodies in the space. This will be realized using two Microsoft Kinect sensors working in parallel.
2. Develop a wearable vibro-tactile feedback system
In order to allow the flexibility and free movement of the performer in space, the system will be developed with wireless technology as a wearable accessory that can provide vibrotactile feedback to the performer. The device which will be used is called x- OSC in combination with a vibrating motor. The haptic device can be worn on the hands, arms or legs of a performer.
3. Explore a number of dance experimentations (union, intersection, intimacy)
In order to commence our investigations we propose three different scenarios of haptic embodiment that enhance a creative and corporeal link between two performers as well as the way they perform within a digital environment.
Two dancers will need to be recruited for this part.
· Union: Performers are in a state of a collaborate play. Their bodies move in unison around the space feeling a constant stream of vibration that symbolizes the union. As they move apart from each other, the intensity of the vibration decreases as they get closer increases.
· Intersection: Performers are in a state of a competing play. They compete for “ownership” of their own personal space (identified by the body tracking mechanism). Vibrations intensify as their personal space gets invaded.
· Intimacy: The performers are lying close to each other in an intimate position. As the hand of one performer approaches the body of the other, vibrations on the second performer body intensify, creating a greater anticipation of the touch.
4. Performance / feedback collection / Dissemination of results
These experimentations will lead to a short choreographic performance which will act as a demo to attract external funding. Feedback will be collected from the performers as qualitative data, which will shape future experimentations. As soon as a working prototype of the technology is ready, we can aim to apply for a grant which will cover a full scale dance production. Both the technology and the qualitative feedback analysis will be disseminated in appropriate journals (see section on outputs).
Despite current advances in digital technologies, performing in mixed reality and immersive environments is a challenging task. Many such performances focus largely on exploring relationships where audiences experience the integration of the real and the digital as it occurs before them on stage. In these situations, performers must recalibrate and adjust their performing approach in order to retain normal expressive and communicative nuances. Such limitations are accurately apparent to performers, which suggests an unnatural barrier between the technology and the performer. Tactile experience is absent when the performer is interacting with virtual objects or virtual environments and they are often required to focus on other senses such as aural and visual to experience immersion.
We propose how and in what ways the use of vibrotactile feedback can support the performer in such an immersive environment. In this preliminary research we have examined, through a series of experiments and tests, ways in which vibrotactile feedback can be applied to enhance and immerse the performer (dancer in this case) within a digitally created system. Through the digital augmentation of vibrotactile feedback, the system is able to communicate, inform and interact with the dancer in a more intimate way. As a result, the dancer becomes aware of the technology in a physical and visceral way that can significantly improve the interaction and the experience between the two. Furthermore, with ability to communicate through vibrations we were able to identify and propose creative pathways and approaches between dancers and digital environments.
The first experiments were conducted a few weeks ago and we are currently in the process of analyzing the results and planning the next steps.
Past delineation of Haptic Research
The research findings were presented in:
Here is the introduction/abstract to the book chapter:
This chapter aims to contribute towards the theory, methodology and techniques of creating an immersive stage environment for choreographic performances and installations. A number of digital performances are known to employ audio-visual material with the intention of creating relationships between the real-time projected material and the performers. However, such approaches often cause problems in performances. Dancers are expected to form a relationship with other dancers on stage and also with projected imagery. Due to the nature of the performance space and the performer-audience relationship, the dancers cannot experience visual elements in the same way as the audience. The performers tend to be in the midst of the action while the audience is situated in the optimal position to experience the composition of the performers, the projected visuals, the audio and the scenography of the space. Furthermore, whilst dancers are able to interact “live” on stage with ever-changing visual and audible aspects of the performance, their sense of interaction with the technology or other performers may be diminished due to a lack of visual or acoustic cues (the performers may not be in line of sight, for example). This chapter proposes ways to avoid this problem, by offering different input stimulations that enhance the relationship between the performers, or between performers and technology, adding an additional layer of spatial and emotional awareness.
The chapter begins with an introduction to relationships between aural and tactile feedback and a discussion of gesture in haptic interaction. It continues by constructing a theoretical approach to technologically mediated embodied performances with reference to the choreographic installation Ukiyo Moveable Worlds and the participatory installation Whisper[s],. The former example concentrates on the interactional qualities between one performer and an artificial intelligence system, while the latter utilizes networked technologies, sensors and motors to initiate technologically mediated relationships between participants. In the following section we explain how current technologies can be utilized to create a reactive space involving haptic technologies. Finally, we draw the various components of our research together by proposing an analytical framework for thinking about different scenarios and modes in which these technologies can be used.
- Polydorou, D. & Michailidis, T. 2013. Multimodal experience through haptics in dance performance. Paper presentation at the Corporeal Computing: A Performative Archaeology of Digital Gesture, University of Surrey, UK on 2 - 4 September 2013
- Michailidis, T. & Polydorou, D. Bullock, J. 2013. A multimodal integration of sensory feedback modalities for dance performers. Conference proceedings of the FASCINATE 2013 Conference, Falmouth University 28-30 August 2013.
- Doros Polydorou, Tychonas Michailidis, Jamie Bullock (2015) Haptics and the vibrotactile: digital bodily interactivity as creative interplay. In: Salazar N. and Sita P. ed. Digital Movement: Essays in Motion Technology and Performance. Pelgrave.
Here is the introduction/abstract to the book chapter:
This chapter aims to contribute towards the theory, methodology and techniques of creating an immersive stage environment for choreographic performances and installations. A number of digital performances are known to employ audio-visual material with the intention of creating relationships between the real-time projected material and the performers. However, such approaches often cause problems in performances. Dancers are expected to form a relationship with other dancers on stage and also with projected imagery. Due to the nature of the performance space and the performer-audience relationship, the dancers cannot experience visual elements in the same way as the audience. The performers tend to be in the midst of the action while the audience is situated in the optimal position to experience the composition of the performers, the projected visuals, the audio and the scenography of the space. Furthermore, whilst dancers are able to interact “live” on stage with ever-changing visual and audible aspects of the performance, their sense of interaction with the technology or other performers may be diminished due to a lack of visual or acoustic cues (the performers may not be in line of sight, for example). This chapter proposes ways to avoid this problem, by offering different input stimulations that enhance the relationship between the performers, or between performers and technology, adding an additional layer of spatial and emotional awareness.
The chapter begins with an introduction to relationships between aural and tactile feedback and a discussion of gesture in haptic interaction. It continues by constructing a theoretical approach to technologically mediated embodied performances with reference to the choreographic installation Ukiyo Moveable Worlds and the participatory installation Whisper[s],. The former example concentrates on the interactional qualities between one performer and an artificial intelligence system, while the latter utilizes networked technologies, sensors and motors to initiate technologically mediated relationships between participants. In the following section we explain how current technologies can be utilized to create a reactive space involving haptic technologies. Finally, we draw the various components of our research together by proposing an analytical framework for thinking about different scenarios and modes in which these technologies can be used.