• John Crawford

General Description.
The Active Space is an interactive physical environment that engages participants in a dialog of mutual influence involving movement, visuals and sound. This workshop is an experiential introduction to the Active Space environment, featuring opportunities to "play the space", using movement to create visuals and sound. The workshop also includes discussion of theoretical and technical issues, plus presentation of excerpts from Active Space: Interactive Videodance, a recent performance work.
 
An Embodied Media Environment
Developed by video artist and software designer John Crawford in association with choreographer Lisa Naugle, the Active Space is an environment where we explore the integration of body-centered performance practices with motion tracking software and motion capture animation.
 
Motion tracking involves real-time sensing and analysis of location, speed, duration and various other characteristics of movement. The results of this analysis are fed to a computer system that generates video and audio in response to the movement. Motion capture is the technique of sampling movement in 3D space and creating graphical representations of the movement. Typical applications of motion capture tend to result in realistic animations, but the aesthetic focus of our Active Space work goes beyond realism to explore notions of imagistic association, embodiment and reflexivity. We are particularly interested in the dynamic that develops between improvisational and compositional elements.
 
A central objective of our Active Space research is the development of imaginative forms of performance and installation, in which artistic vision and technical innovation share the spotlight. For performers, the Active Space is a different environment than they are used to working in. Traditionally, when technology is used in performance, it is common for performers to feel that the technology is "happening to them", out of their control. Our approach in the Active Space is to create an setting that allows performers to influence and interact with technical elements in a direct, immediate way. The qualities of this interaction can generate new internal imagery and enhance the performers' motivation, stimulating new forms of interaction between the performers themselves as well as with the technical elements.
 
In an installation setting, the Active Space system responds directly to visitors and their motion, creating visuals and sounds that can influence the ways people move in the space. The resulting movement calls up new sequences of sounds and images, potentially inspiring participants to further improvisational movement explorations. This cycle of interaction is exciting to experience, entertaining to watch, and is adaptable to a wide range of performance, workshop and exhibition settings.
 
Active Space Components
The technology of the Active Space includes video-based motion tracking systems, real-time video and audio synthesis modules, and a mediabase library of animations and sound. Responding to movement as sensed by the motion trackers, the Active Space system generates and combines synthesized visuals and sound with non-linear playback of clips from the mediabase. Some of the clips are generated from motion-captured movement sequences developed in the Motion Capture Studio at University of California, Irvine. These animation sequences, sampled directly from the movement of dancers, have a variety of physical qualities and characteristics, ranging from pedestrian actions to stylized dance phrases.
 
For more about the Active Space, see http://media.electricfx.com/activespace.
 
About the Workshop
Two hours in length, this workshop demonstrates a working Active Space system, featuring opportunities to "play the space" and create visuals and sound through movement. The workshop also includes discussion of theoretical and technical issues and presentation of excerpts from Active Space: Interactive Videodance, a recent performance and installation featuring this system.
 
This workshop will be of particular interest to dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, actors, directors, visual artists, animators, videographers, interface designers, architects, computer scientists, engineers, and anyone intrigued by issues of embodiment, technology and performance.
 
Come prepared to move!