New Kind of Weather
Josiah Morgan
Author
04/05/2021
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7
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Description
UCARE Research Fair submission
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- [00:00:22.120]New kind of weather is a choreography interacting
- [00:00:24.800]with the technology to expand the interiority
- [00:00:27.440]of the dancing body.
- [00:00:29.270]For this work, we authored a tool to hack, modify
- [00:00:32.410]and animate the scales
- [00:00:33.570]of interoception, proprioception, and exteroception.
- [00:00:37.680]So, an audience might sense the entangled connection
- [00:00:40.060]between self and the world we all live in.
- [00:00:43.250]The collaborating team
- [00:00:44.170]of artists includes dancer, choreographer, Laurel Jenkins.
- [00:00:48.010]Multidisciplinary artist, director, and researcher
- [00:00:51.006]Jesse Fleming.
- [00:00:52.341]And musician, composer Louis Pesacov.
- [00:00:55.435]Together we built a system from the ground
- [00:00:57.970]up that allowed us to take in live motion
- [00:01:00.120]capture data from Jenkins and Middlebury college.
- [00:01:02.984]Turn it into midi sound
- [00:01:04.510]which was processed live by Pesacov in Los Angeles.
- [00:01:08.110]As the choreography unfolds
- [00:01:09.960]the dancers movements compose the sound score live.
- [00:01:13.530]The motion data and audio were then transposed
- [00:01:15.950]into a vivid computer generated character
- [00:01:18.340]and world design through Fleming's creative lab
- [00:01:21.390]the Perceptual Technologies Lab
- [00:01:23.010]at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.
- [00:01:26.530]As we developed the system, we were curious.
- [00:01:29.270]How can technology reverberate a dancer's actions back
- [00:01:32.450]to the audience in a novel way.
- [00:01:34.820]How can something live, lived,
- [00:01:37.030]and emergent, could be encoded into the final work.
- [00:01:40.310]We asked ourselves how the tension
- [00:01:42.760]between dance and technology richly reverberates
- [00:01:45.970]through a dancers actions back to themselves
- [00:01:48.880]and out to the audience simultaneously.
- [00:01:51.980]More broadly, could we imbue both parties experience
- [00:01:55.312]with a real time struggle and generate a sense of weather
- [00:01:59.250]of change, impermanence, and entanglement.
- [00:02:03.000]At a high level,
- [00:02:03.950]New Kind of Weather's kinetic, sonic and visual
- [00:02:06.530]components aim to fill those experiencing the work
- [00:02:09.450]with awe and uncanniness that subversively speaks
- [00:02:12.470]to our collective moment of adaptation,
- [00:02:15.290]as both a discovery of revolt and the capacity
- [00:02:18.430]for relational harmony.
- [00:02:22.110]Using the power of Unreal Engine, MVN Live Link,
- [00:02:25.660]MVN Animate, Loop MIDI, and Ableton Live.
- [00:02:29.220]We built a system that allows us to take
- [00:02:31.100]in live motion, capture data, and turn it into midi sound.
- [00:02:35.440]We start by collecting the motion capture data
- [00:02:37.870]in MVN animate, and sending it to Unreal engine
- [00:02:41.200]via MVN Live Link, where it can be processed live.
- [00:02:45.330]In Unreal, we've mapped the users limbs
- [00:02:47.580]to various midi output channels
- [00:02:49.480]and use the location of their limbs in space to
- [00:02:52.040]determine what midi note to send through that channel.
- [00:02:55.320]We do this by mapping a virtual grid in space
- [00:02:58.120]such that each square in the grid corresponds
- [00:03:00.560]to a different midi note that is said if a limb is
- [00:03:03.160]in that grid square.
- [00:03:04.970]This grid is designed to be scalable
- [00:03:06.960]such that it can be manipulated
- [00:03:08.780]on the fly and allows for fine tuning based
- [00:03:11.300]on both the real and virtual space requirements
- [00:03:14.240]and how often sound triggers should occur.
- [00:03:17.700]That data is then sent live
- [00:03:19.480]as midi output through Loop MIDI, a virtual audio cable
- [00:03:23.110]software, to Ableton Live.
- [00:03:25.750]In Ableton, it is processed into music as
- [00:03:28.310]if it were coming from any other midi device.
- [00:03:32.680]The development of New Kind
- [00:03:33.950]of Weather will manifest in multiple iterations
- [00:03:36.580]including a series of short dance films in VR experiences.
- [00:03:41.120]These will form a larger narrative
- [00:03:42.860]for a final series of live and virtual performances.
- [00:03:46.710]The live performances will take place in the round
- [00:03:49.400]and simultaneously in a virtual environment
- [00:03:51.820]that can be experienced remotely in VR.
- [00:03:55.340]We are also submitting New Kind
- [00:03:56.870]of Weather to various arts festivals around the world
- [00:03:59.560]including SIGGRAPH and the Prix Ars Electronica.
- [00:04:04.780]New Kind of Weather was co-directed by Jesse Fleming,
- [00:04:07.710]Laurel Jenkins and Louis Pesacov.
- [00:04:10.450]Virtual production and concept by Jesse Fleming,
- [00:04:13.580]choreography and dance by Laurel Jenkins,
- [00:04:16.610]music and audio system designed by Louis Pesacov.
- [00:04:20.090]Motion capture technical support
- [00:04:21.880]by Sergei Peter William.
- [00:04:22.765]Lead technical development by Shane Bolan.
- [00:04:27.260]Co-produced by the Johnny Carson Center
- [00:04:29.070]for Emerging Media Arts, University
- [00:04:30.880]of Nebraska—Lincoln, Perceptual Technologies Lab
- [00:04:33.660]and the Middlebury College Dance Program.
- [00:04:36.900]Special thanks to the Middlebury College Dance Program
- [00:04:39.550]technical director, Jen Ponder, and the Johnny Carson Center
- [00:04:43.010]for Emerging Media Arts director of technology Jeff O'Brien.
- [00:04:47.010]Supported in part by the Johnny Carson Center
- [00:04:49.270]for Emerging Media Arts
- [00:04:50.650]and the Middlebury College Dance Program.
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