Seaunsea : An Interactive Performance

Abstract

Premiered Dance Umbrella London, SeaUnSea was an evolving interactive performance for three dancers moving in response to and affecting a virtual seascape.Core to its development was the making of an intuitive interface through which the dancers could affect and respond to the digital scenography. Using a camera interface, mounted above the stage, the dancers are seen by a swarm of intelligent agents that navigate their way through a virtual space. The agents can be understood as a swarm of digital beings that interact with each other as well as react to changes in their environment. As they seek to navigate the plane, drawn by defined points of attraction, they are hindered by shades of darkness (the dancers digital shadow). In this way ‘the agents’ encounter the performers, at times evading, at times following and at other times being curious about their presence. The digital agents form vivid colour fields, assembling and dissolving creating cloud-like patterns around the performer/participant.Other artists exploring particle streams to extend the trace-form of the dancer include Trisha Brown, however this research as developed in SeaUnSea is original in its extension of this technology through the layering of a mesh architecture which embeds the time-based trace of the dancers’ presence.