Greetings, It was wonderful to have Robert Wechsler participate in the ICMC. After following his posts to this forum regarding the Hellerau workshop and other goings on this summer, it was nice to see his developments in person and to have some interesting exchange between the disciplines. (It was also nice to see someone actually *move* during a presentation...) It was one of the conclusions of the panel on interactive performance (where Robert gave an impromptu presentation) that we must endeavor to integrate the activities of the ICMA initiatives in interactive performance, and the initiatives of this body as much as possible. It seems that many technical issues of sensing and performance interface have now been solved, or will conceivably be solved in the near future, and the real question at hand is how shall we employ these technologies - collaborating to make effective art. In my own work with dancer Tomie Hahn, we have found a great difference in the collaborative process when making interactive works as compared with our previous "time-based" pieces. Tomie, being a trained musician as well as a dancer, is able to regard her movement both as a dancer and as a performer of a virtual musical instrument. Still, there is a great deal of give-and-take in terms of how the interface and interactive musical structure affect her movement vocabulary and how her movement vocabulary affects my musical structures. I'm glad that Robert is interested in taking an active role in developing the resources of the ICMA work group for interactive performance. I hope that in the future there will be more representation by dancers at the ICMC, and I encourage that musicians active in the development of interactive performance be included in various conferences, panels and workshops on dance and technology. Cheers, Curtis Bahn Asst. Prof. of Computer Music Composition and Interactive Performance Asst. Prof. of Information Technology and the Arts Integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer, iEAR studios DCC 135, 110 8th Street Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, New York 12180 (518) 276-4032 crb@rpi.edu http://www.music.princeton.edu/~crb >Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 18:11:41 +0200 >From: Robert Wechsler <robert@palindrome.de> >Reply-To: dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu >To: dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu >Subject: ICMC, some observations, an idea > >Greetings, > >Two of my palindrome colleagues and myself were at the ICMC in berlin. >http://icmc2000.org > >ICMC must surely be the musicians' equivalent of IDAT. It is however, as >you might expect somewhat larger. It seems also, I must say, more >self-confident. At IDAT99 there were many who were curious about dance and >technology. Some were experimenters of course. At ICMC most of the >participants, it seemed, have been doing it for YEARS, and with CONVICTION. > They were not only on the whole much more technically savvy, but they were >also more engaged and had clearer vision of why where and how they were >headed. > >It was really quite inspiring (we'd planned to stay 2 days, but ended up >staying 4). As with the dance-tech world, "interactive" artists and >methods represented only a minority of those involved, but there were, as i >said, still many more of them, and the works they made, as well as the >research and development issues they were discussing and presenting papers >on were more sophisticated. > >Clear, musicians are not smarter than dancers -- i mean there is a whole >row reasons for this discrepancy. I'd like to talk though about other things. > >For example, the fascinating overlaps of our interests. For example, "the >human body interface", which includes such things as interface sensor and >software development. There is a considerable body of published work, for >example, dealing with analysis of what music scientists call "gesture" (in >relation to music creation). Basically this means how do move your body >and its parts to generate artistic expression (in their case, of course, >mediated by sound-producing devices). Check their proceedings, or ask me >for details. > >Two effective and refined video-based sensor systems were presented (one >developed by Antonio Camurri, et al, at University of Genova; and, ahem, >our own, EyeCon), as well as papers on a number of hand-manipulated devices >(including some with forced feedback). There were some studies on the >accuracy of control for given musical tasks. Fascinating. > >There is a newly-formed icma (computer music association) work group >concerned with interfaces, interactive performance forms and so on. I am >offering my participation. I have some ideas for better >cross-fertilization (see below). > >Somewhat disappointing, and frankly curious to me was the fact that i >seemed to be the only dancer there. (There _were_ those there I had met at >IDAT, a musician and installation artist, just no dancers/choreographers!) >I just I mean YOU GUYS MISSED SOMETHING! > >We have so much to learn from our fellow computer-using artists. Dance, as >we all know (well, as some of you might agree) is not exactly the most >"advanced" of art forms. > >so here's my idea: > >Since only a fraction of the submissions here address interactive media >issues of interdisciplinary collaboration, etc., and the same is true for >the corresponding musicians and technology group, > >it occurred to me, one might set up an anthology internet-based discussion >group. It would simply re-print the submissions to both groups pertinent >to interactivity and the human movement interface. get it? it would >itself accept no postings (only subscriptions) and thus would offer no >competition to either group. It would be a resource to those overwhelmed >by, what to them is irrelevant mail, AND it provides the first central >meeting point between our two camps. > >What do you think? Have I overlooked something? Are there technical, >efficacy or ethics issues involved? Is there someone out there with the >resources (i suppose a server) and time to do the submission filtering? > >With friendly regards, >Robert Wechsler > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >Robert Wechsler >Artistic Director >PALINDROME Inter-media Performance Group >Johannisstr. 42 >90419 Nürnberg >fon: 49 911 39 74 72 >fax: 49 911 377 8311 >mobile: 49 179 511 0400 > >complete information, including scheduled touring, photographs, and so on >can be found under: http://www.palindrome.de >
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