ACDFA Reflections

ACDFA Central Region's 2010 conference is now over, and was a great time for our class! On Saturday, March 20th, we presented "Snack Time", an interactive presentation/demonstration of our explorations in telematic dance performance.

The presentation was great success, and the students who participated really enjoyed learning about the ideas and technologies, and mostly they enjoyed the DANCING! Some highlights of our two-hour workshop:

Interactive activities:
-"Herd" score exploring motion-based control of stage lighting
-Improvised score with two spatially displaced (far away) musicians (Felipe and Justin) from SARC in Belfast (http://www.sarc.qub.ac.uk/main.php), and one local (in the dance space) musician (Jeff).

Demonstration modules of the session:
-An off-site introduction to the session by Melissa via skype
-Introduction to DMX lighting control
-Video motion tracking with Isadora (http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html)
-Programming of interactive lighting and video visualization using MAX (http://cycling74.com/products/maxmspjitter/)
-High-quality, low-latency, two-way multi-channel audio tranmission via JackTrip (http://code.google.com/p/jacktrip/)

The students enjoyed exploring the interactive creative environment made possible by digital technologies. Both students from our class and those visiting for ACDFA are now challenged to imagine new ways that movement can create meaningful, engaging experiences for audiences and participants alike.