DANMite,colloquium /John Crawford
Active Space: Embodied Media in Performance
This presentation will discuss the Active Space, an interactive physical environment designed for dance, theatre and music performance. It engages its inhabitants in a dialog of mutual influence involving movement, visuals and sound. A dynamic and flexible interactive performance system integrates video-based motion tracking, motion capture, real-time audio/video processing, high bandwidth networking, and multi-screen real-time computer graphics. The system continually senses, measures and responds to human movement, enabling dancers and participants to interact with responsive behaviors and “play the space” as an instrument.
The Active Space environment has been used to create single-site performances and installations, and also to facilitate multi-site networked performances. As a setting that allows performers to influence and interact with technical elements in a direct, immediate way, it also is used for interactive dance and theatre workshops and performance training.
The presentation also will include samples of some of John Crawford’s recent work in digital videodance for stage and screen. This work explores techniques for embodied interaction: combining processed video and computer-generated animation with motion capture and real-time motion tracking.
Bio
John Crawford is a media artist, interactive performance director, software developer and interaction designer. He is a leader in the emerging fields of digital videodance and embodied interaction. He originated the “Active Space” concept to describe his interactive performance systems that produce visuals and music in response to movement. He is Assistant Professor of Dance and Media Arts at University of California, Irvine, where he teaches videodance, motion capture animation and digital arts. His work has been performed and exhibited across North America and in Europe and Asia. As a software developer, his credits include projects for Microsoft, Adobe and other companies.