performance

Posts tagged
with performance

Dance

The Movement of Air: A New Dance Performance Incorporating Interactive Digital Projection from Adrien M & Claire B

Artist duo Adrien M & Claire B have lifted the curtain on their latest acrobatic dance performance utilizing digital projection titled The Movement of Air. Seen in this video is a handful of moments taken from an hour-long piece performed in France last month by a trio dancers. Unlike more common uses of digital project mapping where a recorded animation or scene is projected in a space, Adrien M & Claire B instead utilize fully interactive “scenes” that respond to human interaction. Nothing you see on the set is animated beforehand.

“This ‘living light’ is produced by video projectors and generated in real time by a set of algorithms,” Adrien shares with us. “It is a mix of control room operated human interventions and onstage data sensors that outlines a precise writing of motions and generative behaviors. Thus, the images are never pre-recorded for a rigid show on an imposed rhythm: on the contrary, they breathe and move with the dancers and organize a new space for them to explore.”

The overall effect is dizzying, and in many ways enhances the dancer’s work instead of looking like a gimmick added as an afterthought. A great marriage of physical performance and digital special effects. You can watch several earlier interactive creations by Adrien & Claire here on Colossal including Pixel and Kinetic Sand.

Amazing Music

Drummer Dario Rossi Uses Buckets, Pans, and Scrap Metal to Make Incredible Live ‘Techno’ Beats

When thinking about how to produce genres of music like techno, industrial, or trance, the first thing that comes to mind is giant sound systems, laptops, emulators and turntables. What doesn’t come to mind is old pots and pans, buckets, chains, and dangerous shards of rusty scrap metal. And yet these are the instruments of choice for musician Dario Rossi who produces some of the most intensely percussive music you could possibly imagine from the hands of a single person.

Born in 1988, Rossi studied at the Accademia Musicale di Ariccia in Rome from the age of 10 before he began to perform with local bands only two years later. He now teaches in Rome and tours frequently, bringing his supernatural drumming performances to public streets around Europe. If you like these three videos, there’s tons more here.

Art

Artist Cai Guo­-Qiang Sends a 500-Meter Ladder of Fire into the Sky Above China

In the early morning hours of June 15, a huge white balloon filled with 6,200 cubic meters of helium slowly ascended into the sky above Huiyu Island Harbour, Quanzhou, China. Attached to it was a 500-meter long ladder coated completely with quick burning fuses and gold fireworks that was then ignighted by artist Cai Guo­-Qiang (previously) who has become known for his ambitious pyrotechnic artworks.

Titled Sky Ladder, the piece burned for approxmiately 2 minutes and 30 seconds above the harbor and was the fourth and final attempt to realize the performance. Guo­-Qiang had earlier attempted Sky Ladder in Bath (1994), Shanghai (2001), and in Los Angeles (2012), to varying degrees of success, but never considered his vision complete until now. He first imagined a ladder of fire as a child and has pursued the idea for 21 years. He shares about this last successful iteration of the event:

Behind Sky Ladder lies a clear childhood dream of mine. Despite all life’s twists and turns, I have always been determined to realize it. My earlier proposals were either more abstract or ceremonial. Sky Ladder today is tender, and touches my heart deeply: it carries affection for my hometown, my relatives and my friends. In contrast to my other attempts, which set the ignition time at dusk, this time the ladder rose toward the morning sun, carrying hope. For me, this not only means a return but also the start of a new journey.

Unfortunately there’s no official video of the performance available yet, but a few shaky cell phone videos have emerged. You can see more images of the performance on the artist’s website. All photos by Lin Yi and Wen-You Cai courtesy Cai Studio. (via Booooooom)

Art

A Spinning Mosaic of Patterns Drawn with Wet Clay on a Potter’s Wheel

As a person who’s spent more than a few hours at the seat of a potter’s wheel I can attest to the strangely soothing act of doodling around with wet clay sludge (called slip) before or after throwing a pot. As fun as it is, it’s still somewhat surprising to see the act elevated to this level of artistry by Michael Gardner Mikhail Sadovnikov who blurs the line between performance and visual art as he creates pattern after pattern on an empty wheel. (via The Awesomer)

Art Dance

Emptied Gestures: Physical Movement Translated into Symmetrical Charcoal Drawings by Heather Hansen

Splayed across a giant paper canvas with pieces of charcoal firmly grasped in each hand, Heather Hansen begins a grueling physical routine atop a sizeable paper canvas. Her body contorts into carefully choreographed gestures as her writing implements grate across the floor, the long trails resulting in a permanent recording of her physical movements. Part dance and part performance art, the kinetic drawings are a way for Hansen to merge her love for visual art and dance into a unified artform. The final symmetrical patterns that emerge in each pieces are reminiscent of a Rorschach test, or perhaps cycles found in nature.

Hansen most recently had a group exhibition, The Value of a Line, at Ochi Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho which runs through March 31, 2014. All photography above courtesy the artist by Spencer Hansen and Bryan Tarnowski. (via iGNANT, My Modern Met)

Music

Beatbox Brilliance: Tom Thum at TEDxSydney

At about two minutes in to this ten minute performance by beat boxer Tom Thum my jaw was already hanging open, by about six minutes I had nearly thrown my computer off my lap. The Guardian was absolutely correct when it stated Thum “appears to have swallowed an entire orchestra and several backing singers”. The performance was shot at TEDxSydney last May in the famous Sydney Opera House and was just released online yesterday. Excuse me while I step outside to show this to random people on the street.