Jonas Jongejan
Spring 2009, Recoil Performance Group, Copenhagen
Ole Kristensen and i developed the interactive scenography for this dance performance, choreographed by Tina Tarpgaard. I was on the project in the early programming states for a couple of weeks, helping Ole with programming all the ideas there where, and developing the visual style that Ole then would work further on until the premiere.
You can read alot more at Ole’s blog
The last 2 weeks i have been working with Ole Kristensen on developing tools for the next dance performance by Ole and Tina Tarpgaard (the same persons as Body Navigation). The main tool we have been programming is a interactive physics simulation of letters falling down when something (here a dancer) touches it, or in other ways react in physical simulated way. We have been coding in OpenFrameworks (C++), and used the open-source physics engine Bullet to build up our code, and used some standard OpenCV blob tracking to detect a person on a stage.
We have also been working on making a new blob library that is not a perfect match around a body, but instead like a bubble with a person inside. It can give some really nice organic effect when the forces are very low in the bobble, and it just follows slowly the movement of the body. This is build by me with some basic physics laws.
For now we got this video of it, but we will cut something better later
Recoil Performance Group, spring 2008
Choreographer Tina Tarpgaard, Recoil Performance and my good friend, programmer Ole Kristensen invited me to help them create body navigation. The body navigation performance was originally part of a larger installation and modern dance performance in copenhagen, by Tim Rushton, Danish Dance Theatre called Labyrint. We had one room out of five rooms to make body navigation in.
Body navigation is a reactive floor-projection where dancers can dance on together with a digital reproduction of themselves. It consist of a camera tracking the dancers on the floor, and a projector that creates a image on the floor around and on the dancers. With this system we where able to create connections and visual images about human relations and emotions that where not otherwise possible.
Ole and I developed a application built in Processing based on a concept developed by Tina Tarpgaard and Ole to track the dancers and create the visuals projected down again. All controlled live by Tina with a control panel developed with Isadora under the performances.
Links
Photos by me of Labyrint and Body Navigation on flickr
Blogpost about body navigation
Video from Labyrint, Copenhagen
Video of full performance, as staged in Zagreb
