Embodiment & Architecture III: Rehearsal

Up to now the project has been speculative; having only produced mockups in the studio we still weren't 100% sure that it would work in the theatre. So the time had come to bite the bullet and rent a venue where we could put all the theory into practice, and see the fruits of our labours. Besides, the project has really come to an impasse as far a developing it any further in the studio is concerned, due to such factors as:

• Space restrictions: We can't pull the projector back any further than about 4 meters. The restrictions this places on the dancer are glaringly obvious in this video we made early in the year.
• Fine lighting control: In the studio we only have one 300W lamp with an infrared filter, and no dimmer for it. This can cause a lot of noise and produce long cast shadows, which in turn results in innacruate and jumpy graphics.

We therefore decided to rent a small theatre in the Rua Red Arts Centre in Tallaght on Monday 13 December, 2010. This has been the single greatest factor in pulling the project together in summation of our efforts throughout the year. For a meagre €100 we were given access to a beautiful new venue, lighting rig and a very helpful technician (Hugh).

Needless to say we are very pleased with the results of our rehearsal. The motion tracking of the performer works very well, and the graphics are beautifully responsive. It's a satisfactory conclusion to a big year of research and development. See the results for yourself...

Rua Red Rehearsal from Neill O'Dwyer on Vimeo.

The calibration of the camera and projector need a bit more fine tuning, so that will be another couple of days at the coding-drawing-board for Colin and I. However, Monika can now push ahead with the choreography and narrative and we can begin to curate the graphics and theme. Exciting days ahead of us.