The Murdock funds, which I received in March 2001, enabled me to continue work in dance and technology. My first project, under a Culpeper grant, was to purchase the Life Forms animation software and spend a summer teaching myself to use it. Later I enrolled in a distance learning course in Life Forms from Simon Fraser University that helped me get a better grip on using and teaching the software. Students were interested in animation, but seemed to want to use technology directly in performance. This is where the Murdock grant was useful for me.
Grant funds were used to purchase a Macintosh G-4 computer and a Canon digital video camera, model Elura 2 MC. That summer I attended a "Live-I" workshop at the Santa Fe Art Institute conducted by Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello of Troika Ranch Dance Company. During the five-day workshop I worked with digital video, still images, live dance performance, and a computer. Using a software package called Imag/ine and sensors placed in the stage space, I devised a prototype performance piece in which my actions on stage could trigger sound or video events. This performance piece was a sketch for later potential pieces. When I returned from Santa Fe, I used department funds to purchase parts for assembling a trigger mechanism. The following spring, Mark Coniglio developed his own version of the interactive software called Isadora that I acquired and installed on my G-4.
I have taught two dance and technology courses since receiving the grant. Students have created performances using the digital video camera in several innovative ways. The first showing of this work, called "Digital Canvas" included a dance using a live dancer and digital video feedback, and an improvisation structure in which the camera picked up details of the dance as it was happening and projected this on the wall behind the dancers. Thus, the audience could view the whole dance in normal scale as well as large-scale video projections of microcosms within the work, all taking place in real time. Students have also used the G-4 for editing digital video for individual works for the department's regular concerts. They have created stand-alone videos, and have combined live dance and video for works performed on stage in the Kaul Auditorium.
Next academic year during my sabbatical/leave I plan to work with the Troika Ranch folks on perfecting my skills using Isadora. When I return I plan to collaborate with students in mounting a performance using video, still photographic images, and sound triggered by dancers' actions onstage.