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Amanda Simo Rodriguez and Anthos Venizelos
Locus is an interactive, kinetic, and scenographic installation that acts as an interface for choreographic behaviours in the context of contemporary dance performance. The project explores implications of bodily interaction with built structures and how audience engagement can here be enhanced through notions of participation. The word locus refers to the instance when an interaction of multiple bodies occurs and the installation integrates the behaviours of performers and audience into a kinetic structure.
The design comprises a tessellating canopy structure able to perform behaviours by taking inspiration from the joints of human bodies. Locus interrogates the boundaries between performers, audience, and choreographic object. The configuration of space, human, and object is visualised as ‘space itself’ and merges performer and audience in a singular place under the canopy on the same horizontal plane. The kinetic installation constantly evolves and emphasises the reciprocal effects of action and space. The behaviours of the installation emerge via this dialogue: the performers affect the structure’s shape and the audience modifies the rhythm of the transformations. This interplay is enabled by a dynamic real-time system in UNITY 3D, which integrates Kinect v2 sensing data of the movement of the performer’s body joints with audience positional data from a Grid-Eye Temperature camera.
An interactive process generating a dynamic, shape-shifting appearance of the physical installation underpins the emergence of participatory performance. As a scenographic and choreographic device, Locus creates affective and effective experiences through intentional and unintentional manipulation.
