Presenter: John Crawford

Tuesday, February 23
10:30 - 11:30 am
eMedia Studio

Active Space is an interactive media programming system that generates visuals and sound in response to movement. It has been used to create interdisciplinary performances, public art projects, gallery installations and teaching environments. The system continually senses, measures and responds to the movement of participants, providing an array of tools with which to engage and "play the space" as an instrument.

In continuous development since 1994 by media artist and software designer John Crawford in association with choreographer Lisa Naugle and composer Martin Gotfrit, the Active Space system is designed to be a platform for building responsive environments where participants can explore integration of body-centered performance practices with video-based motion tracking software, motion capture animation, real-time video and audio synthesis, high bandwidth networking, and multi-channel visuals and sound.

Motion tracking uses real-time sensing and computational analysis to derive information about movement as it occurs, including location, speed, duration and various other characteristics. In the Active Space, results of this analysis drive a system that generates video and audio in response to the movement information. Motion capture involves sampling movement in 3D space and depicting the movement in graphical form. Typical applications of motion capture tend toward representational animations, but the aesthetic focus of our Active Space work is less realistic. It explores notions of non-linear association, embodiment and reflexivity, with a particular interest in the dynamic that develops between improvisational and compositional elements.

A central objective of our Active Space research is the development of imaginative forms of performance and installation, in which artistic vision and technical innovation share the spotlight. For performers, the Active Space is a different environment than they are used to working in. Often when technology is used in performance, the participants feel that the technology is "happening to them," out of their control. Our approach in the Active Space is to create a setting that allows performers to influence and interact with technical elements in a direct, immediate way. The qualities of this interaction can generate new internal imagery and enhance the performers' motivation, stimulating new forms of interaction between the performers themselves as well as with the technical elements. As dancers and media artists interact with the Active Space environment, its responses and behaviors become construed as mechanisms for communication. The media system itself becomes a message, or a series of messages, an embodied sequence of codes, exchanged among performers and between performers and audience.

In an installation setting, the Active Space system responds directly to visitors and their motion, creating visuals and sounds that can influence the ways people move in the space. The resulting movement calls up new sequences of sounds and images, potentially inspiring participants to further improvisational movement explorations. This cycle of interaction is exciting to experience, entertaining to watch, and is adaptable to a wide range of performance, workshop and exhibition settings.