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.
