Interactive Stage

"Strings" is interactive performance art on stage at Colby Theater on March 7-8, 2019.  I am the creative technologist of the project and implemented real-time onstage location tracking of the performers. With the laser tracker that I installed on stage, the sound effect is able to react to the performers' movements in real-time. Although performance video is not available, the comment from our artistic lead Magnus Pind Bjerre provides an accurate summarization of the project :

"For us, all elements of the performance—sounds, videos, performers, interactive devices, costumes, lights, etc.—exist in a network, and all these elements must develop together, simultaneously, in a flat hierarchy. Combine that with our extremely collaborative process, where every artist involved is expected to participate, it is like moving a heavy machine one little step forward every day, in and outside of rehearsal. Patience, focus, generosity, and collaboration are our highest values. In our process we have lots of serendipitous moments where this network really works well: A sound inspires a performer to change their movement, or visuals inspire the sound to change, or we hear the moving lights move over our heads, and realize: that's the sound for that scene! And, of course, there are also rehearsals where none of it seems to coalesce into anything—and those are the frustrating moments, where the ground feels shaky again. This process is unlike more traditional theatrical work where the text is the basis—the reference to which all other disciplines adhere. Or a score in a musical work, choreography in dance, and so on. We write the text; we compose the score; we choreograph; we make visuals; we solder PCB boards; we write the code; all at once, and all deeply involved in each other's work!"