February 16, 2007

Pilobolus Dance Video and the Art of Audio Searches

This post follows-up on my post from last week on the future of online search for dance content.

I was experimenting with the audio search engine Podzinger and came across this 2005 video of Pilobolus performing "Symbiosis" at the TED conference. (Visit Pilobolus site.)

TED (technology, entertainment and design) is an annual event for "thought-leaders, movers and shakers" - an accurate description.

On the TedTalks section of this website, you can search an audio transcript of speeches from past conferences to find very specific references. For example, if you plug-in the word "dance", you'll find five videos where this word is spoken. And, you can start the video clip at the exact point where the desired word or phrase is uttered.

I encourage you to give it a try and click on the links for Ken Robinson's speech from 2006 once you do a search for "dance". He has fascinating things to say about dance and education.

TedTalks uses a customized version of Podzinger. What Podzinger does is convert the audio content of a podcast or video file into a written transcript. Then, the search engine allows users to find specific words or phrases mentioned in the audio or video recording. You can visit the Podzinger home page to test this audio search tool. Enter the phrase "modern dance" into the search engine to see what you come up with.

Podzinger would be a great tool for searching the complete transcripts of college and university lectures about dance. You could plug in any combination of keywords and find specific references to choreographers, dancers, historical developments and any other topics you're exploring.

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