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Bots, Lights, and Body Sensors Star in Augmented Dance Performance Series

Yoko Ando gears up for 15 tech-infused dance spectaculars using drones, projections, and motion capture.
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For the past four years, the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, dancer Yoko Ando and a group of programmers have been developing RAM, a “Reactor for Awareness in Motion,” a system that captures the movement of dancers in real-time, feeding the information back to the performer as a virtual environment. In the vein of stunning dance and technology fusions like Adrien M and Claire B’s pixelated performance and princeMio labs’ Kandinsky-inspired coded choreography generator, at the end of January, the group will put on Dividual Plays15 tech-infused dance performances designed to demonstrate the potential of their research.

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“RAM defines dance as something produced by the interaction between the dancer and environment rather than a predetermined choreography,” the video description explains. “It is a huge connection machine involving the dancers, stage and the laboratories.” To make these performances possible, the team designed a C++ creative coding toolkit that recognizes and processes motion data to create the environments for dancers. In addition, they created a low-cost wearable motion capture system with 18 sensors that attach to the body. Both are open-sourced and available for download on their website.

The performance series known as Dividual PlaysーDialogue between the unconscious and systems debuts on January 24-25. In the meantime, here’s a taste of what’s in store:

"Dividual Plays" Teaser Movie from YCAM on Vimeo.

H/t Prosthetic Knowlege

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