Kinetech's new website

Kinetech's new websie is:
http://kine-tech.org

Kinetech presents 4SEE September 6 & 7 at 8 pm

Kunst-Stoff Arts, upstairs

4SEE explores the concept and practice of surveillance in contemporary society. The performance uses technologies such as cell phones and social networks, which have become an indispensible part of daily life, yet which track and record every move we make.

Does the cycle of surveillance oppress or emancipate? Do acts of surveillance separate the watcher from the watched, or are they co-conspirators in the performance of modern life?

Come to watch, be watched, and play along...

Kinetech is a collective of artists and scientists striving to challenge possibility through collaborative creativity.

Choreography by Daiane Lopes da Silva in collaboration with dancers.

Performers: Ali Weeks, ArVejon A. Jones, Irene Hsiao, Karla Quintero, Katherine Disenhof, Keon Saghari, Ong Pholchai.

Tech Developers: Cere Davis, Jesse Zbikowski, Max Carlson, and Weidong Yang

Visual Artist: Raymond Larrett

Photography and Film: Mark McBeth

Directed by Weidong Yang

4SEE will be presented in conjunction with Daiane Lopes da Silva’s new solo work, IN THE NIGHT, developed in residence at Kunst-Stoff Arts.

Special thanks to open source community, from which most technology used in the performance is built upon.

4SEE
September 6 and 7
8pm
Tickets $15 at the door

1 Grove Street at Market, San Francisco, CA

http://goo.gl/maps/Js0c6 .

The Circus Freaks of Kinetech

  Kinetech is at is again! Yesterday evening the artists of Kinetech gathered to explore the potential of a streak camera. This camera takes shots in one thin angle, creating the affect that one is floating across the screen, almost like a moving scroll. We were transformed into giants, genies, centaurs and octopi, as we explored how this camera altered our body proportions and movement in odd and unexpected ways.  Often we were surprised as to how and why the camera would transform us. We tried to "crack the code" so that we can create interesting and expected choreography with the screen in future sessions.

  We are immensely grateful to everyone who came out to see our first open lab. Thank you for your continued support. Plans are in the works for future open labs, showings and experiments. Kinetech is here to stay!

Coming Soon: Open Lab- Sensory Awakening

 Exciting news! Kinetech is hard at work preparing for our open lab on May 20th and 21st. This lab- Sensory Awakening will be a chance for you to see and viscerally experience some of our collaborative movement and technology pieces.

  Kinetech has developed three works which reveal some of our questions, explorations and revelations in relation to this technology. We are undergoing an exploratory process as we learn how  best to utilize and move with (or against) our innovations. We invite you to watch, move with us and share your ideas and insights so that we can build upon our creations. We hope that the lab will awaken your senses to new emotional and sensory potentials of technology when fused with the moving body. Warning! You may already be involved in this lab in surprising and unusual ways! Come to the open lab to discover how!

 Event Details
Monday-Tuesday, May 20 & 21, 8:30PM
KUNST-STOFF arts Underground, basement studio

Kinetech Open Lab: Sensory Awakening, directed by Weidong Yang.

Kinetech is an art, dance, science and technology collective of inspired and talented humans sharing our mutual passion for movement and technology.

Sensory Awakening is a collection of movement innovations that explore the extension of human sense through digital media. With our explorations, we study how this newly acquired sensation affects our sense of reality, changes perception of self, and influences relationships with other human beings.

Collaborators: Sachin Deshpande, Marc Fawzi, Sydnor Hain-Fawzi, Florian Hoenig, Irene Hsiao Mark McBeth, Natalie Marsh, Nitipat Pholchai, Karla Quintero, Daiane Lopes da Silva,  Ali Weeks, Weidong Yang

 RSVP and  find out more information about the open lab here- https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/158207947688400/

Dancing with the stars

   
   The wall is dark except for a small and occaisional glimmer of light- A star emerging somewhere on the screen. I approach the wall and slowly the glimmer brightens. Suddenly a thousand sparks surround my body. I throw my arms forward, rippling through my spine and sparks fly out of my fingertips. This globule of fire descends into the starry kinesphere of the screen behind me.
    Last Tuesday Kinetech explored the potential of using motion sensors and a specific computer program to turn the Kunstoff basement wall into a celestial universe for our artistic musings. The sensor detected movement of a body close to the wall, and would create glorious rays of light and sparks that would emerge in the direction of our movement. The light swirled and danced around us and across the screen, in a way reminiscent of Van Gough's Starry Night.
  Wei, Karla and I played with the many movement possibilities of these sensors. We found that a slow approach to the wall and a sudden movement was effective in that it invoked an element of surprise and awe as to the fireworks that would burst and then slowly descend and fall away from our bodies.
  We explored the possibility of two dancers moving on the screen- Of dancers sending energy and light between them and playing a sort of catch and throw with the globules of light. In our explorations with these duets we found that it was efective when one person acted as the "power generator" for the other dancer who would then move away from the wall. The dancer on the wall moved subtle-y to generate interesting swirls and beams of light for the dancer who moved with greater complexity, away from the wall. The shadow of the dancer was then cast into the celestial universe of the wall, creating a mutual exchange between the dancer and the computer- generated universe we inhabited.

Marc's reflections on our mission

Life keeps changing shape and shifting right underneath us, so the only part of us that can stay relevant is the part that can dance. And in this way, dance is the universal rhythm of survival, and of that which we experience in wanting to stay connected to life at its core.

I think that sums up the mission statement, or my interpretation of it. The tech aspect is a higher function of that.

Thanks to Wei and all his talented collaborators I feel there is hope after all...

By Marc Fawzi

March 20th Lab

  What can we learn from artificial intelligence? Are dancers and choreographers even necessary in a world where we manifest dancing figures at will, moving their bodies in ways impossible to the moving human?

    Such questions circulated the lab as we interacted with Florian’s dance “robots” on Tuesday night. Florian used lattice noise to create moving figures with controllable muscle strength. These moving figures were dazzling with impeccable release technique, as they performed intricate contortions and fluid sequences of complex choreography. The dancers attempted to follow the movement sequences of these robots, following the choreography of the figure, but found it impossible to keep up. Though the movement seemed feasible, it was much more difficult to execute in the human body, requiring strength and much endurance.

   Should we worry about our careers as artists? Not yet! While the dancing figure has the ability to create complex choreography, he has yet to discover the ability to stand up. His movement is entirely floor-bound and it would take many cycles of lattice noise to even get him into an upright position. At least human evolution gives us a bit of an advantage- at least for now! 

Video of the lattice robot exploration:

 https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10151364780702308

Welcome!

  Welcome to Kinetic Media Lab! We are a collaborative of dancers, programmers, tech/ media geniuses, choreographers, artists and physicists sharing our mutual passion for movement and technology.
   We meet on Tuesday evenings at Kunstoff Arts in San Francisco. Follow us for updates on our explorations, thoughts and adventures in the world of dance, movement and media. We are currently working on a performance installation to be shown at Kunstoff on May 20th and 21st.