66b/cell
Test Patches
All and nothing. Black and white.
Elusive and permanent. Indelibly stamped.
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:
http://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…