fantastic alan On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 10:11 PM, Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > (This is written as a final documentation for the piece, > interesting I think from a collaborative and mixed-reality > viewpoint.) > > > Cave Residency During IRQ3 > > Untitled ongoing performance (Alan Sondheim, Description) > > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day53.jpg > > During IRQ3, I had a residency in the Brown University Cave for > the duration of the conference. Kathleen Ottinger, Azure Carter, > and I worked together; we had also worked on a number of pieces > for at least half a year before that. There were three pieces in > the Cave itself, collaborations between Kathleen and myself. > Kathleen did the programming and visuals, and she and I "wrote > into" and through each other's texts beforehand, producing > scripts that became independent work. These pieces are her own, > with my textual collaboration. (I figure Cave setup and > rehearsal for the performance as a whole was about 40 hours > in-Cave and maybe 100 in-studio.) > > The Cave has both visuals and sound; during the conference, the > sound originated from one of two laptops I set up in the room. > This laptop was projected with into the room; the image was on > the right-hand wall. The Cave was physically only a small part > of the room - perhaps a sixth - so there was plenty of room for > other elements. > > In other words, the first laptop split sound and image; the > image was projected across the room, and the sound came from the > speakers surrounding the Cave. > > The second laptop was projected into the room, through the room > projector, onto a screen, and the sound was sent through the > large room speakers. > > Both laptops had capabilities to run virtual worlds, and I used > three virtual worlds during the conference: > > 1. My residency area in Second Life, the most popular online > virtual world. The area is in the Odyssey sim, and was capable > of video texturing, mesh modeling, and complex physics / avatar > behaviors. > > 2. My three sims in MacGrid, an experimental/research world, > with completely modifiable physics and highly malleable > landforms. I have an in-world theater set up in the grid, and > can project into it. > > 3. A local Opensim virtual world on both laptops, with different > architectures on each; the fundamental configuration or .iar > file was downloaded from the MacGrid. > > There were, most often, two world projected simultaneously into > the room. > > One of the laptops also housed a configuration for Bambuser, an > online application which creates personal online video channels. > This laptop had a small usb light attached; at times the camera > would pick up the room, but most often Azure's face. The channel > would then be sent into onto objects in Second Life; the > textures were modified to image her face alone, without any > background. The image was usually inverted, but through > feedback, there were also smaller 'guide' images with her face > normal. > > The face/image was embedded in the Second Life objects, with > objects intersecting it, surrounding it. The appearance was > ghostly, real-time, and uncanny. > > In this situation, Azure would sing a number of songs, many of > which have appeared on our cds or lps. These songs were fed into > one or more SuperCollider programs, designed according to > specifications, by Luke Damrosch. The suite of programs is > called "revrev" and allows a musician to work with live reverse > reverberation - what I call an anticipatory music - the > reverberation building up to the enunciation of the sound, a > head instead of a tail. Combining programs allows for a thick, > more complex way of working with this. The programs also > involved multiple coherent streams or chords stemming from the > original sound-source, for example parallel streams a fifth > above and below the original tones. The programs all ran from a > prompt, and the parameters could be changed in process. > > At times, I would also use alto clarinet, either to accompany > Azure, or to create independent sounds which worked with the > Cave room resonances; these often used a small instrument > amplifier. One of my goals was to keep everything acoustically > balanced; live revrev created an environment which could quickly > go out of control. (I also used a standard clarinet to play into > revrev directly at times.) > > The video feeds included other elements - the two main sources > included pre-recorded materials, and texts. > > The pre-recorded materials were produced at NYU's motion capture > studio, with the help of Mark Skwarek. I worked with two > performers who did one of two things: > > 1. The performers moved at the edge of the recording space, > producing deliberate glitches or anomalies that distorted the > figures. > > 2. The mocap markers were remapped among the two performers - > representing a single avatar; as the performers moved in > topologically complex ways, the projected avatar in the mocap > room broke up in various ways. The result was an avatar that > appeared more as an emanation from the performers, than as an > embodiment of them. > > These are techniques I've used close to a decade, in order to > create avatar distortions that represent avant-dance, wounding, > death throes, hysteria, desire, pain, and political issues. The > videos that were made at NYU (just a few weeks earlier) were > linked together in a half-hour piece that was played at times, > as a marker or punctum of what was occurring in the virtual > worlds. > > The second main source of the video feeds was a series of texts > I would write into the virtual worlds themselves; these appeared > as chats on the side of the image. The texts were improvised and > related to the ongoing mise en scene in-world. > > The virtual world imagery was always, always complex and > difficult to navigate in-world; for the spectator, it was also > difficult to disentangle. This was deliberate; the result, and > one of the main contents of the imagery, was the representation > of extreme states of mind, which related to the ongoing crises > of violence in the U.S., Africa, the Mid-East, and so on. The > primary source for me, for all of this, was the special topic > Johannes Birringer and I co-moderated for the empyre email list > in November, 2014, "ISIS, Absolute Terror, Performance" - a > topic which considered issues of torture, beheading, violence, > anguish, and fear, for the month. The distorted avatars I work > with - distorted because of the distorted movement - go all the > way back to 2011, a 2nd topic for the same, this time with Sandy > Baldwin, on "Pain, Desire, and Death," in the real and virtual > (I'm not sure of the exact title). Both of these and my mocap > lab work resulted in over 100 bvh files - these are files that > represent real-life performer movement - that could then be fed > into a virtual world, to animate an avatar or avatars. The > process is difficult but the result are these distortions. > > So the most recent distortions, from NYU, would be projected; > other in-world projections were live and in-world, and could be > viewed in-world by another avatar; this is an important element > of interactivity I work with. The in-world projections, then, > resulted in the avatars moving wildly on the screen, creating > particle emanations in the form of nude human warriors and > charred bodies, and "dancing" with symbols made to represent > ISIS and other forms of terror. All of this is at fairly > high-speed. > > The revrev was heard from three sources - Avatar's voice itself; > the revrev fed through either the projector speakers or the Cave > speakers; and the revrev fed through the virtual worlds, as if > it were emanating within them. > > All of this created a mobile and fluid sonic architecture, one > that, for me, defined or modified the fixity of the Cave itself; > room resonances and speaker interactions, beat frequencies, > etc., all came into play. The sound was a hollowed organic body > tied to, yet not tied to, the Cave pieces and the ongoing > transformations visible in the projected images. I imaged a > sonic bubble, almost a galactic bubble, in which there were > occurrences both alien and domestic; texts would appear and > disappear in the space, always grounded by the Cave pieces which > were purely textual. Most of my time in the Cave was used for > either working within the virtual worlds, or "tuning" the space > itself - and the latter began to fascinate me. The sounds and > images resonated with each other; the four sound streams had > their own internal resonances; the darkness or brightness in the > room affected the texture mapping and readability of the > in-world texts, and so forth. Conditions were constantly > changing. The room itself was always on the edge of feedback; I > had to keep the revrev sounding full, but not overloading the > in-world sounds, and not screeching. We used a lavalier mic to > correct this in parts. > > The tuning of the room relates to the tuning of the body itself; > much of my work deals with the labor involved in production, > especially dance or music production (and the performers for the > original mocap were almost all dancers); in this residency, > labor was represented by voice and instrument, but also by the > sheer weight of the production, which involved constantly > adjusting the equipment and its position in the room. So even > though the body was close to invisible (except for the video > textures from Bambuser) on the screen, it was present in the > sense of sonic architecture, the body of the piece, the galactic > bubble, and so forth. > > Artists: > > Kathleen Ottinger > Azure Carter > Alan Sondheim > Luke Damrosch > > Thanks to John Cayley for the opportunity. > > Thanks also to: > > Mark Skwarek, Johannes Birringer, Foofwa d'Imobilite, Sandy > Baldwin, Kira Sedlock, Frances van Scoy, Patrick Lichty, > Columbia College, West Virginia University, NYU, Brown > University > > > Audio-Visuals: > > http://www.alansondheim.org/theforge.png > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day24.jpg > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day50.JPG > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day51.jpg > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day49.JPG > http://www.alansondheim.org/irqday3.mp4 > http://www.alansondheim.org/irqq3.jpg > http://www.alansondheim.org/irqqb.mp4 (Kathleen Ottinger, Cave) > http://www.alansondheim.org/irqrevrev.mp4 > http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day54.jpg > http://www.alansondheim.org/visage4.png > http://www.alansondheim.org/irqspace1.mp3 > > > ===================================================== > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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