The AVA Project
Terra incognita: human nature/technology
A transmedia exploration of sound/dance/set objects/projection
website: http://www.rpi.edu/~ruiz/projects/ava/web.html
The AVA Project: Part I will be showcased in a week-long residency, May
18-26, 2002, culminating in a workshop performance
at 7PM on May 25 at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, New
York.
OVERVIEW
The AVA Project is a series of trans-media performances and
installations exploring the delicate relationship between humanity,
technology, and creativity. Envisioned by artist and RPI Professor of
Electronic Arts, Kathleen Ruiz, The AVA Project brings together a unique
collaboration of six artists in dance, music, sound design and the
visual arts.
The artists are dancer-choreographer Vicky Shick, virtual choreographer
and dancer Lisa Naugle, composers Elise Kermani and Sarah Plant, visual
artist Barbara Kilpatrick, and digital media artist Kathleen Ruiz. AVA
is an animated human figure, an archetype or synthetic embodiment
(avatar) that is projected onto the set of the dance performance with
interactive and composed sound and sculptural set objects.
The AVA Project explores the artists' interplay with each other and with
technology. Like technology itself, Ava becomes a compelling figment
capable of transforming our imagination - exactly how remains to be
seen.
THE ARTISTS
(See below for more information)
Kathleen Ruiz - virtual character animation / project designer
Elise Kermani - sound composition / interactive design
Barbara Kilpatrick - physical set design / set objects
Lisa Naugle - virtual / physical choreography
Sarah Plant - composer
Vicky Shick - physical choreography
PROCESS
Together the artists construct an interactive world of movement,
projected images, objects and sound using traditional and digital
elements. These range from sculpture, costume, and dance to digital
motion capture, animation, interactive sensors, and sound design.
Written descriptions of dance movement are motion captured by Naugle,
Director of the Motion Capture Studio at the University of California,
Irvine. Kathleen Ruiz at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute transforms the
motion capture into AVA's virtual body and creates the animations for
projection. The animated AVA becomes a virtual dancing partner for Shick
and Naugle as her image is projected onto set sculpture designed by
Kilpatrick. Kermani's sound design and textures incorporate some of
Plant's compositions and are generated spontaneously by her "body chime"
motion sensor housed within the sculpture. The chime's infrared sensor
is triggered by dancer's movements and body heat.
MOVEMENTS
1. PROLOGUE: ToySpace
Immateriality/Physicality - the suspension of disbelief
2. HOMUNCULI
Creation & Interplay
3. FIGMENT
Interchange
4. TWIN COAT
The nature of humans
5. ORPHANED SPACE
Is Ava a part of us or are we a part of it - her?
6. MIMICRY (Solo Flight)
joy of human endeavor
SCHEDULE
The work has been developed at a series of short residencies at The
Kaatsbaan International Dance Center Tivoli, N.Y.
The AVA Project: Part I will be showcased in a week-long residency, May
18-26, 2002, culminating in a workshop performance at 7PM on May 25 at
The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, New York.
The AVA Project will be traveling to São Paulo, Brazil in the fall of
2002.
AMPLIFICATION OF ARTISTS' INFO
ELISE KERMANI
Sonic media artist Elise Kermani has created original audio work for
theater, film and dance since 1985 and has produced several CD's on the
IshtarLab Recordings Label since 1992. She has a background in
performance art and is known for her work exploring technology, language
and the female body. Her current multimedia work on the internet is an
extension of her fascination with ancient writing and modern philosophy.
She is a recipient of many grants including Franklin Furnace, Grand
Marnier, Electronic Arts Grant Program, Meet the Composer and the Puffin
Foundation and her work has been reviewed in several publications
including The Village Voice, High Performance, Los Angeles Times, and
Time Out New York. From 1996-2000 she was the Executive Producer of the
Electronic Arts Performance Series at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in Troy, NY. http://ishtar.cdemusic.org
BARBARA KILPATRICK
Barbara Kilpatrick is a visual artist who lives and works in New York
City. Her sculpture, photographs and paintings have been included in
group shows in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Washington DC.
She has had two solo exhibitions in New York City, most recently at The
Kitchen in November 2000. Since 1996, she has collaborated with dancers
and choreographers, especially Vicky Shick. Their work has been seen at
the 92nd Street Y/Harkness Dance Project, The Kitchen, PS 122, Danspace
at St. Mark's Church, and Movement Research at Judson Church. Kilpatrick
and Shick were also artists in residence with Companie Christiane Blaise
in Grenoble. http://ishtar.cdemusic.org/bk.html
LISA NAUGLE
Lisa Naugle, Assistant Professor of Dance at The University of
California, Irvine where she is responsible for research activites in
the Motion Capture Studio, received her MFA from New York University,
Tisch School of The Arts and earned her Ph.D for New York University,
Music and Performing Arts Professions. The title of her thesis is "A
Study in Collaborative Choreography using LifeForms and Internet
Comunication". Lisa was a member of The Nancy Hauser Dance Company and
has performed with several companies in the United States and Canada.
Her background as a dancer includes training with Hanya Holm, Alwin
Nikolais, Merce Cunningham, Eric Hawkins and others. She has taught at
the Julliard School, New York University, Marymount College, Simon
Fraser University and has been a guest artist at universities and
colleges in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Her papers and
publications have been presented at CORD, SDHS, MTAC, ICKL, IDAT '99,
Korean Society for Dance, Dancing with the Mouse Conference and in Dance
Research Journal, Journal of Distance Education, and IEEE Multimedia.
Her research and creative activity includes computer-based applications
for dance such as motion capture, telematic performance (Internet2), and
dancer-controlled interactivity. Lisa's telematic performance works, The
Cassandra Project, Janus/Ghost Stories, and Songs of Sorrow Songs of
Hope integrate dance, music and theatre from different geographical
locations in the United States, Canada and Eastern Europe. She is one of
the founding member of ADaPT (Association for Dance and Performance
Telematics. Lisa is the recipient of the Cecil and Ida Green Honors
Professor's Award, 2000. Her videodance, inviTRIO was presented in the
Dance and the Camera Festival, 2001 in New York City. Her choreography
has been presented in London, Amsterdam, Germany, Italy, Poland,
Budapest and Canada, and the USA. Her recent works, SPLIT, PORTAL, and
INVISIBLE WALLS are part of a trilogy that involve digital image
processing techniques and live performance. Lisa teaches modern dance,
improvisation, choreography, digital technologies and motion capture at
UCI. http://dance.arts.uci.edu/lnaugle/
SARAH PLANT
Composer Sarah Plant was Associate Music Director, arranger, flutist for
Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated feature, "Eat Drink Man Woman." She has scored
feature and documentary films, including "Juliette of the Herbs" (PBS),
"Borderline Fractures," "For Love of Julian," and the six-part series,
"In the Eye of the Spirit." She has composed for "Bravo Profiles: Julie
Taymor," for installations at the American Museum of Natural History,
and for the Bill T. Jones Dance Company. Her compositions have been
performed at the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie
Recital Hall, the Public Theater, Spoleto Festival, and on radio and
TV.
KATHLEEN RUIZ
Kathleen Ruíz, is a digital media artist who has exhibited her work in
the U.S., Europe and Japan. She creates interactive virtual
environments, simulations and digital photographs that express issues
about the structure of perception, behavior & interaction, and
restructured reality. Ruiz is an Assistant Professor of Electronic Arts
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she develops and teaches
courses in digital imaging, virtual environments/3D web, advanced
digital 3D and experimental gaming. She is represented by The Sandra
Gering Gallery in New York City. She has taught and developed curriculum
at the School of Visual Arts, New York University and others. Her work
has been published in The New York Times, Wired, El Pais, USA Today,
Aperture, Leonardo, Art News, ARTI and others. She has received numerous
awards including the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Award, a New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Commission and a recent
Electronic Media & Film Exhibition NYSCA grant for her new work which
comments on violence in computer games and the confluence of the real
and the imaginary. http://www.rpi.edu/~ruiz/
VICKY SHICK
Vicky Shick has been involved in the New York City dance community since
the late 1970s. She was a member of the Trisha Brown Company for six
years and received a New York Dance and Performance Award (a "Bessie")
for performance. Shick has performed with many other choreographers,
including Yoshiko Chuma, Irene Hultman, Wendy Perron, Stephen Petronio,
Marta Renzi, Susan Rethorst, and Sara Rudner. Shick's choreography has
been shown in New York City at The Kitchen, Dance Theatre Workshop, PS
1, Movement Research at Judson Church, Danspace Project at St. Mark's
Church, The Dia Foundation, Dixon Place, University Settlement House,
and the Harkness Dance Project at the 92nd Street Y. Vicky Shick teaches
regularly in New York at Movement Research and the Trisha Brown Studio.
She has also taught at universities, festivals, and the workshops and
throughout Europe.
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