Digital Theatre - an experimentarium

General Description of Workshops for Laboratory One

• motion capture

Motion capture technology captures human movements and transforms them into digital data to be re-edited by different kinds of multimedia equipment. The aim of this part of the workshop is to create one or two choreographed sequences of movements as a basis for examining the interaction of the living bodies and the animated figures in virtual reality.

• 3D-animation

The second part of the workshop takes the animation of human movements as its point of departure and seeks to transform human bodies into virtual figures using a variety of stylistic principles. The animation process and the choreographic work are carried out simultaneously. This way both processes will benefit from mutual inspiration when developing the artistic material.

• virtual 3D-spaces

The focus of the third part of the workshop is to establish virtual 3D-spaces for the animated figures as well as animated universes and spaces to be inhabited by real performers.

• projection techniques

In order to examine how virtual spaces might interact with theatrical reality it is necessary to experiment with various projection techniques. Thus, it is the purpose of a fourth part of this workshop to explore the artistic possibilities of various projection techniques, projection surfaces and sources of light.

The primary technology used for these workshops is a MotionStar Wireless from Ascension and the new 3-D animation program from Alias/ Wavefront, Maya running on Silicon Graphics workstations (O2s and Octanes). The MotionStar Wireless is on loan for the duration of the Experimentarium courtesy of LEGO.

The following artists have participated as facilitators, advisors, collaborators, speakers and workshop leaders:

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