|
Test Patches
All and nothing. Black and white. Elusive and permanent. Indelibly stamped.
' 66b/cell
66b/cell
Test patches, like testing applications, are devised to detect reactions and responses. Each scene or ‘edit’ can be modified, rearranged, expanded or contracted. Through adaptation and mutation, new and unexpected moods and insights emerge. In some moments, programmed audio-visual effects align precisely with notational choreographed movements. In contrasted moments, movements based on imagery (a kind of structured improvisation) are recreated anew each time. The performance approach here reflects a cut ’n’ paste media culture or a freefall between genres. We are currently working with Maeda Laboratory Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo (www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/) to develop a wearable device to synchronise body gestures to the visual and sound network. The performer-user becomes a living interface between the viewer and the installation. Yet the device is not simply attached to the body as a machine or prosthesis, rather it becomes a catalyst to open further performative and audio-visual perspectives.
Chiaroscuro Software tools are used to extend earlier artistic styles of representation. Modeling by the depiction of light and shade through bold contrasts heightens the perception of depth and the illusion of a solid 3D form. Monochromatic transition occurs through greys to darker and lighter tones, as well as through high contrast between darkness and light. The black and white aesthetics evokes the mood of a live filmstrip reminiscent of the silent screen era, or recalls the electric pulses of early digital bitmapping where the screen lights up on ones and darkens on zeros.
Landscape visualisation Immersive imagery, through panoramas, murals and dioramas, has long been used to represent visual and qualitative aspects of landscape. Effects and textures created through landscape software and C.V.A. (a realtime rendering graphics program: www.genemagic.com) imbue the visual representation with qualities of place. Interaction occurs between the visualscape and the performing bodies that help shape it and exist within it. Trompe l’oeil effects arise through multiple vanishing point perspectives. The challenge is to use the often slick effects of software tools as a means to enhance an ambience of wabi sabi, with its asymmetrical, organic and variable simplicity both an antidote and contrast to the precise geometric shapes presented in other views.
Positive & negative space Figures (performing bodies) are not isolated from their ground. Neither figure nor ground is the thing itself: it is the relationship between both and their interconnection that resonates with a certain spirit of place. Each is relative to the other in an ever-shifting dynamic. Within the black and white frames lies a hidden totality. The figure emerges and disappears, takes shape and dissolves—one is often not sure whether it is the actual performer being perceived or one of the myriad shadows cast through illumination…
Media performance unit 66b/cell
Test-patches devised by Maria Adriana Verdaasdonk, Tetsutoshi Tavata, Yui Kawaguchi
cell media driver: Tetsutoshi Tavata – wearable devices: Junji Watanabe – sound: Knoto, Kimken, Mitsuru Kotaki - choreography: Yui Kawaguchi & the performers – stage manager: Mitsuhiro Matsuda – costumes: Hiroki Okushima, cell – C.V.A. [motion graphics engine]: Genemagic – Performers: Maria Adriana, Kyouichi Kita, Natsuko Kinoshita, Kaoru Yamada, Golden Suzuki, Hirotsugu Saegusa, Era Kawamura
| 
