March 23, 2006

News Stories for March 23, 2006

- Two wonderful 3D animation works on DVblog from artist José Carlos Casado that feature bodies in motion that merge and interact in captivating ways.

- Devolution Vs. Robot Dance Party: Why is it that popular culture is a gazillion light years ahead of the performing arts when it comes to taking advantage of the mind-boggling distribution opportunities of the online universe? In one corner you have performances such as Devolution from Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) and in the other corner you have a robot dancing at a party (via Boing Boing). Not an online video to be found of Devolution. But the video for the dancing robot was uploaded yesterday and has 1,715 views. It strikes me that the powers that reign within the performing arts world - dance companies, critics, promoters and arts organizations - are completely disconnected from the digital landscape and have no idea how to engage modern-day audiences. That probably sounds too harsh. But there simply has to be a way to explain this disconnect because dancers are flat-out missing a great opportunity.

Cover RealTime+OnScreen Magazine
Featuring Devolution Robot and Dancer

- Actor Colin Farrell performs ballet dance in the nude to calm the nerves of co-star Salma Hayek (via Onward and Upward). But I doubt that Colin Farrell can match the celebrations of the human body that are featured in the dance videos on the Impulstanz site.

"The Modesty of Icebergs“ © Jaques Grenier

- "The Wedding Crashers" embeds the viewer into the action. I got a kick out of this Flash presentation for the Wedding Crashers movie that allows users to add themselves to the on-screen action. Essentially, you upload a picture of yourself and become one of the characters in this film trailer. I uploaded a picture of Gene Kelley as my own - I could have done a better job with the picture selection - but you get the idea (see below). I think that a lot of this user interactivity that's taking place online and with games such as PlayStation's EyeToy, where a dancer's image is inserted in real-time into the game, points the way toward some much more sophisticated online dance programs that mesh a digital performance with high levels of user engagement. Here's my foray into the Wedding Crashers:

Click for Larger Image

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