The performance is called “The Space Between Us”, choreographed by Utam Moses and composed by Eric Lindsay. This performance was held in April 2010 in the United States. This performance shows dance choreography with costumes that can generate and control sound with the help of pressure and flex sensors. Designed by Amy Burell and Jay Garst, this costume allows the dancer to be able to control the strength of the audio according to the strength of his/her movements, hence making the dancer not a slave of the pre-composed music. It is not stated whether this project use open source technology or not but I think it did use OSS because this project would not happen without the networking between talents from different fields (choreographer, musician, costume designer and engineer), which would be much easier to achieve with the help of OSS. Moreover, the complexity of the technical aspects would require a convenient shared storage system, which could be done using OSS.
In my own opinion, this project is jaw-dropping and one-of-a-kind. Most of the time, people would like to create costume technology which something to do with lights (or other visual matters) instead of sound. A lot of sensors would have been used all over the body to make this marvel happen. I think this would need more than just creative minds but also the scientific ones.
Good first effort with the research critique, informative and you picked an interesting piece. However, there are some ways you can improve your research critiques overall. From a technical standpoint, be sure that you incorporate hyperlinks that refer back to the project Websites, and perhaps even the artists who worked on the project. Also, I don’t think you quite understand what OSS, so we should discuss this in class. OSS is specific to our work at ADM and no one else uses it outside of the University. I think what you are referring to is the collaborative nature of the work. Galina can speak further on this, but when you are doing research about costume and textile, you should take time to describe these elements in the work. If it’s not certain whether or not open source technology is used, it is best not to mention, or just say you don’t know. If it is true, be sure that you include a reference as to where it says it used open source technology. Quotes and references are always good to incorporate into your research posts.
ah, okay sir! And yes I think I didn’t really get what is Open Source Technology even though I did read the articles. I will try to understand it through further close readings. Will do better next time with the research assignments 🙂
Feliciana Randal’s feedback is very important.I would like to add few notes in support of the costumes reflection.I believe that you will now have better understanding of the costume design after the workshop on electronics.The costumes are embedded with LilyPad Ardino technology; One of the dancers’ (with the round skirt) costume combines LilyPad components and a XBee (wireless transmitter) together with pressure and flex sensors connected by conductive thread, which detects and transmits the movements of the dancer to the composer’s laptop, which are then used to generate and control sound within a MAX/MSP environment.
Thanks Galina. And Feliciana, one more comment about open source studio: I had asked everyone in week 1 to go through the course Website and that is where you will find information about open source studio, not in the reading. Sorry if there was any confusion about that.