Interplay is a multi-disciplinary interactive art performance that incorporates dance, sound, and computer generated design. Created for my graduate thesis project at MICA, Interplay explores the collaboration between the performing arts and technology. What would be the outcome look like if digital static objects met with ballet-ic movement? Would adding sound help connect with viewers?
Sometimes seen as a fine art stuck its in own past, ballet often does not attract diverse audiences. This project aims to show ballet in a way that is approachable and inspiring a wide range of audiences. Bringing dance, music, and interactive design together, Interplay hopes to encourage those who would not have otherwise seen a ballet to experience and appreciate it. The idea of Interplay encourages us to connect disciplines and engage with the art that enriches the human experience.
My experiences in the performing arts was the driving force in wanting to represent dance through design. I started my thesis process with the idea of wanting to represent ballet in a more contemporary way, steering away from the stereotypical views of ballet. Some questions started to arise, why are the arts secondary in our culture and why are the performing arts still primarily accessible to only the middle and upper class? If ballet was presented in a contemporary setting, would others perceive it differently?
What interest me in combing coding with my thesis were the possibilities and unknown factor of what would happen. The creation and motion tracking of the objects was achieved using Processing, an open sourced software sketchbook built to use code within the context of the visual arts.
I gave the dancers three pieces of music and asked them improv for around 30 seconds to a minute of footage. I gave minimal direction to the dancers on what was going to happen in the video, I wanted them to have as much freedom as possible.
For the exhibit, I wanted to create an experience in which audiences felt as if they were present, watching a performance. I created a playbill with the dancers bio’s and posters that added a few graphic elements from the video. The video was projected on to a wall, adjacent from the printed materials.
