Digital Theatre - an experimentarium

Laboratory Two Schedule/ Description

The second Laboratory associated with the Experimentarium will start on 3 May 1999 and culminate with a public demonstration of works on 4 June 1999 as part of DANSEDAGE 99, an international dance festival 20 May through 6 June being organised by Kulturhus Århus/ Art Crash. A final seminar will be held on 8 June in the Kaserne Scenen in which the experiences from the two laboratory sessions will be closely analysed in order to sum up the lessons to be learned from the mixture of theatre, dance and technology.

Laboratory 1: investigating strategies (a short report)

During a six week period in February and March we investigated different ways of merging live performance with virtual reality. In particular, we experimented with the technology used for capturing human movement known as motion capture, animation of the captured data including the creation of virtual 3D worlds, and projection techniques used for bringing the images of the virtual environment back into the real stage world.

The first laboratory served a pedagogical purpose. It was simply used for getting aquainted with new forms of information and multimedia technology. Therefore, we had divided the laboratory into a series of open seminars aiming at a broader audience and a series of workshops for a group of artists and students involved in the investigation.

Apart from the learning experience the result of this laboratory was a compilation of ideas as well as bits and pieces of artistic material.

Laboratory 2: turning the material into art

The second laboratory started in the beginning of May and will run until June 4th., the date for the first public presentation of two works-in-progress under the title "Bodybuilding: a 3-d Poem in Two Parts". The purpose of lab 2 is more artistic than educational. The explicit aim is to create two performance pieces from the material produced in the first laboratory.

Both productions will investigate the relationship between live and virtual performers as well as real and artifially created spaces. In order to widen the scope of the investigation, however, we have decided to consider the use of multimedia technology in two different artforms: dance and theatre. The dance piece is made by the american choreographer Susan Rethorst, and the theatre piece is directed by Torunn Kjolner.

• Bodybuilding -- a 3-D poem in two parts
  
• MediaSpace [look in on a rehearsal]
• Analytical Seminar