Becoming the projector: an ETUDE for class PUBLIC PROJECTION

by Lins Derry (MDes Tech 20), Delaram Rahim (MDes ADPD ’20), and Iris Xia (MDes ADPD ’20), with support from Krzysztof Wodiczko and Shining Sun

This project is a study of the body becoming a projector by movement in space. Approaching the project as research, we experimented with the improvised relationships between the code, movement, music, and the interactive relationship. The technology captured the movement of the body and left a trail of lines, shapes and shadows in the space, creating the architecture that was generated through the movement while also creating a feedback for the movement.

In terms of the choreographic design, the work begins with a landscape projection made by the same Particle Class connected to the motion. This landscape becomes a frame for the body as well as an information display for the audience to begin decoding. The performer moves slowly, matching the geometric forms in the landscape as well as those that her motion generates. The music starts with ambient sounds that are non-melodic that correlate with the abstract geometry that the projector creates

As the music shifts to a more rhythmical score, it energizes the body to respond to the projection more rapidly and the movements become more organic. The conversation between the projector and the body is switched in which the geometry is following the performer’s choices and movements manually. In this way, the performance becomes a trio with each element a powerful entity. The triangular shapes produced by the Particle Array abstractly trace the movement and leave a trail, like a musical echo in space.  This etude was an experimentation of this ‘trio’ becoming the projector as it projects sound, movement and space.

Sound by Pomassl – Atenna Atoll, Opto – Opt File 1.