<nettime-ann> V2_ | Test_Lab: Dancing around technology

[V2_ <press@v2.nl>]

.
*V2_ presents Test_Lab: Dancing around technology*


*Thursday, February 22, 2007, 20.00 hrs.*
admission: free

V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012 XL, 
Rotterdam.
Phone: +31 (0)10 206 7272. Web: www.v2.nl

*Featuring: Armando Menicacci, Thecla Schiphorst, Carolien Hermans, and 
the V2_Lab developers.*
**


Test_Lab is a bi-monthly public event hosted by V2_ (Institute for the 
Unstable Media, Rotterdam) that provides an informal setting to 
demonstrate, test, present, and/or discuss artistic Research and 
Development (aRt&D).

This event will be streamed live at 
http://files.v2.nl/portal/events/video/test_lab4.ram

** *Test_Lab: Dancing around technology*

Over the last decades, most artistic disciplines have been introduced to 
technological developments. In many artistic fields, the technologies 
introduced have been fully integrated in the artistsâ daily practices 
resulting in an integration that often makes it hard to imagine the 
field ever existed without them. However, in the field of performing 
arts (physical artistic expression such as dance and theatre) this 
integration did not evolve as naturally. Although many attempts have 
been made at adopting new technologies in these fields, the marriage 
between the two was often forced, resulting in what was rather a 
combination of technology and performing arts than integration of the 
two. Nonetheless, recent artistic Research and Design (aRt&D) projects 
have been exploring the relation between humans and machines within the 
field of performing arts with very exciting results. Examples of such 
projects in development will be presented, demonstrated, and tested in 
/Test_Lab: Dancing around technology/. This Test_Lab aims to introduce 
to practitioners in the performing arts new ways of adopting technology 
in their field, and invites those working in this field to debate about 
the relevance of (future) technology for their practices.

One of the main aRt&D themes of the V2_Lab is the development of sensor 
and actuator technology for the fields of performing arts and 
human-machine interaction. This Test_Lab aims to bridge the different 
needs of and approaches to technology between performing artists and 
soft-, hardware designers. This will be realized in this edition of 
Test_Lab through the testing of two projects that are currently under 
development in the V2_Lab; /Soft(n)/ and /Body In Bits And Pieces/. A 
theoretical presentation by Armando Menicacci will further elaborate on 
the theme. Both the two projects and the presentation are described below.

/Soft(n)/ is the working title for an interactive public art-experience 
developed in a collaboration between Thecla Schiphorst (Director of the 
Whisper[s] research group, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, 
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) and V2_Lab, within the framework of 
the Passepartout consortium. This project is based on exploring emerging 
network behavior through interaction between a group of soft networked 
objects. It takes place in a social urban setting; a cafà or lounge. The 
work incorporates the design of a group of interactive soft objects, 
each containing a specially designed and custom-engineered multi-touch 
soft input surface, motion detectors, an ability to output movement 
(vibration), light, sound and physical deformation, and communicate 
wirelessly to each other. The project includes the development and 
testing of an interaction model based on input heuristics of touch and 
movement. An earlier version of the project recently won the Gold 
Exhibition Award at the ITEA 2 symposium.//

/Body In Bits And Pieces/ (BIBAP) is an interactive Internet project 
initiated by Carolien Hermans (Director of DansLab, Amsterdam) and is 
funded by the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NPS) and the 
Stimuleringsfonds voor Nederlandse Omroep Producties. A prototype of the 
project was developed in collaboration between Danslab (Carolien Hermans 
and Benjamin Scheers) and V2_Lab. The aim of the project is to integrate 
a dance movie in an interactive Internet application and to create an 
interface that requires physical interaction to enhance the immersion of 
the user. The project combines physical expression in two ways; by 
cleverly integrating dance movie clips in the application and by 
enabling control over the application by body movement of the user.


Armando Menicacci is the director of /MediaDanse/ (University Paris-VIII 
/ ANOMOS, Paris). Menicacci will present how the body movement analysis 
theory and practice developed in University Paris-VIII lead to new 
relationships between dance and digital technology in some contemporary 
artworks and fundamental researches created and conducted by his 
research group. By doing so, he will show how MediaDanse forms a/ 
/structure of exchange between the fields of academic and technological 
research, networks of artistic creation, cultural action, and the 
general public.

* **Related links:*

ANOMOS: www.anomos.org

Whisper[s] research group: whisper.surrey.sfu.ca

Dampf_Lab: dampf.v2.nl

V2_Lab: lab.v2.nl

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