Cycle 1: Collaborative Performance

With my initial thoughts about building a “supportive system”, I set my cycle 1 as a collaborative performance with the help of the audience. I make people into three groups: performer, lighting helper, and audience member. The performers will feel free to dance on the center stage space. The lighting helper will help me trigger the lighting cues to keep the dance going.

Actually the mission for the lighting helpers are heavier. I have a connect capture the depth data of the lighting helpers. They will run and then land on the marked line I preset on the floor so that they will appear in the depth sensor capture area to get a brightness data. When the brightness data bigger than a certain number, it will trigger my lighting cue. Each lighting cue will fade in dark after a certain amount of time, so my helpers will keep doing the “running and land” movement action to keep the performance space bright so that audience members can see the dance.

Also, I have a lighting cue which uses five different lights to shine one by one. I set this the same function as a count down system. This cue is for the lighting helper to notice that they are going to be ready, and run after this lighting cue is done.

I want to use the human’s body movement to trigger the lighting instead of press the “Go” button on the lighting board so that audience members can be involved into the process and be interactive. However, I found the performer seems become less and less important in my project since I want the audience members to help with the lighting and really get a sense of how lighting works in the performance. I want to build a space where people can physically move and contribute to the lighting system. And I think I want to develop my project as a “tech rehearsal”. I will become the stage manager to call the cues. And my audience members will become my crew members to work all together to get the lighting board run.