‘Tanhaayi’ Installation: Final Project

My project shifted from a performative creation to visualization of a research process.

Documentation of dance improvisation and even more the recreation of it, is extremely difficult. Dance is ephemeral and improvisation is often times forgotten. I wanted to keep the sensations and the facts alive in the visualization of the recreation my improvisation.
My solo in the video was filmed within a small place, similar in the dimension of Oldooz’s apartment in Tehran –where we collaborated. When I was dancing, the painting was not physically present in any form, but rather I was relying on my memory of it. In the editing process, I layered the painting in real life proportions and adjusted the foreground and background in a way that it seemed as though I am in front of the painting. However, at times I merge into the painting, as if we are one. This visualization speaks to my experience investigating my improvisation without the painting present and the sensations of my memory staying active.
The first half is an interactive masking of the painting that invites the audience to be curious and explore something unknown. The image of the painting is being masked by shape actor and is connected to specific depth spaces inside the Kinect range.
The installation did not go as planned. I wanted the audience to be closer to the projection but that required all of the technological devices to be installed inside the ceiling which we ran out of time to do!
Going forward with this project, I will layer the first half with different materials that connect better to the short film. I also want to make the interactive section become a lot more physical and the shapes to leave different affects that help the audience to feel as though they are discovering something.