Big Tent: A Portable Immersive Intermedia Environment

Big Tent, a large scale portable environment for 360 degree immersive video and audio artistic presentation and research, is described and initial experiences are reported. Unlike other fully-surround environments of considerable size, Big Tent may be easily transported and setup in any space with adequate foot print, allowing immersive, interactive content to be brought to non-typical audiences and environments. Construction and implementation of Big Tent focused on maximizing portability by minimizing setup and tear down time, crew requirements, maintenance costs, and transport costs. A variety of different performance and installation events are discussed, exploring the possibilities Big Tent presents to contemporary multi-media artistic creation

Live popular Electronic music ‘performable recordings’

This research focuses on Electronic Dance Music (EDM), or popular electronic music, and the way a band can perform live having the same sonic attributes with those of a studio production, investigating production techniques and performance practices that work with these contemporary mediatized live performances. For the purposes of this research, an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) live act has been formed including conventional instruments, such as electric guitar and keyboards, and other more sophisticated electronic devices such as midi controllers and electronic drums along with vocals. The emerging phenomenon of new types of bands or performers, who try to bring the studio sound on stage, created a gap between ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ that requires performers to work with technology in new ways, in this musical style. This thesis builds upon research on authenticity and its relation to aspects of liveness in these types of live performances. More specifically, it builds upon research on Moore’s tripartition of authenticities and the two forms of authenticity that are most salient in this process of ‘musicking’. These are the 1st and the 3rd person as described in Moore’s (2002) model. The 1 st person authenticity relates to the extent to which the participants feel that the performers engage in authentic human expression through their performance. The 3rd person authenticity relates to the participants’ assessment of what constitutes an authentic sonic example of a musical tradition or genre – in this case EDM. In addition to what it should sound like, 3rd person authenticity is also concerned with what are the appropriate ‘tools’ that should be used and factors such as the coherence between aural and visual, employment of skill, performativity and the constant awareness of a ‘standard of achievement’. The aim is to create a musical process in which all the participants feel that the band is performing authentically while being sonically faithful to the genre or tradition. The key is the combination of machine accuracy with some aspects of human expressive performance in a way that maintains the integrity of the popular electronic musical style. Following on from the multiple theories that underpin this research, various methodologies have been followed. Qualitative and quantitative research methods have been followed, through interviews, video observations, and audio data analysis. Having said that, a real-time production and performance process has been developed and is called ‘performable recordings’, that is, ‘a type of music production that enables the artist to perform a musical piece live, using, in real-time, the mixing and post-production processes that create the aesthetics of a studio produced version'. This model intends to promote and support performers' emotional expression and creativity that comes from spontaneity, musicianship, face to face performance and freedom of movement that over the past years were minimized or eliminated due to contemporary production processes and performance practices. Furthermore, it creates opportunities for performers and musicians to get involved on stage with a broader range of modern musical styles and genres

Design de figurinos dinâmicos e iterativos para a performance artística

Tese de Doutoramento em Design, com a especialização em Design apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Doutor.O objecto de estudo em análise é o design de figurinos para a performance artística, envolvido num campo de acção onde a moda tem carácter de obra de arte, contribuindo para evocar emoções. Para tal, o uso de novas tecnologias têxteis é fulcral na criação da forma significante, que será dinâmica e interactiva, coadjuvando o performer na sua actuação, numa ligação cada vez mais estreita entre aquilo que ele expressa e o que o vestuário caracteriza. A problemática em causa assenta no facto de o potencial dos protótipos inteligentes e semi-inteligentes não ter ainda sido direccionado para responder verdadeiramente a estímulos psicológicos do utilizador e comunicar deliberadamente emoções específicas. O contributo realmente cognitivo do vestuário em questão está em encerrar a comunicação bidireccional performer/público, emoldurada pelos estímulos do meio ambiente, e na qual o figurino ganha significado. A combinação entre tecnologia e cognição sumaria a co-experiência em que se vêem envolvidos naquele campo de acção. É então necessário compreender interligações e níveis de interacção entre superfície têxtil e o seu suporte (o corpo), fazendo convergir territórios simultaneamente funcionais e emocionais, para permitir a elaboração de figurinos que reajam a estímulos, colocando o utilizador e o meio ambiente como actuadores de funções específicas. Para aliar ciência e técnica, numa prática do design que englobe conceitos como design de interacção, co-design e design participativo, é apropriado recorrer a uma metodologia mista, não intervencionista e intervencionista e de base qualitativa. Num vestuário que une forma e fundo, objecto e contexto, performer e expectador, a inovação está no contributo recíproco para os campos do design e da engenharia têxtil. Espera-se, com esta investigação, aproximar a inteligência têxtil àquela que lhe deu origem (a humana), conjugando noções de materialidade e imaterialidade. Com o dinamismo do vestuário e a interacção por este proporcionada a reflectirem um enfoque na redefinição do corpo como espelho da mente, desafiamos os limites conceptuais e plásticos da moda.ABSTRACT: The object of study under analysis is the costume design for the performance art, involved in an action field where fashion is understood as a contemporary work of art, contributing to evoke emotions. For this, the usage of new textile technologies is fundamental in the creation of the signifying shape, which will be dynamic and interactive, supporting the performer during the performance, in an ever more narrow relationship between what he/she expresses and what the attire represents. The problematic at stake exposes the lack of true response to psychological stimuli from the wearer by the intelligent and semi-intelligent prototypes, and therefore an absence of deliberate communication of specific emotions. The truly cognitive contribution of the clothing in question is in comprising the bidirectional communication between performer/audience, framed by the environment stimuli, in which a costume gains meaning. The combination of technology and cognition summarizes the co-experience in which they find themselves involved, regarding that particular action field. It’s therefore necessary to understand the interrelationships and interaction levels between the textile surface and its bearer (the body), converging simultaneously functional and emotional territories, so as to allow the development of costumes that react to stimuli, placing both the wearer and the environment as actuators of specific functions. To ally science and art in a design practice that encompasses concepts such as interaction design, co-design and participatory design, it’s appropriate to turn to a mixt methodology, noninterventionist and interventionist and of qualitative basis. In clothing that unites form and background, context and subject, performer and spectator, the innovation itself lies in the reciprocal contribution to the fields of design and textile engineering. We expected, with this investigation, to approach the intelligence in textiles to the one that has invented it (the human being’s), combining notions of materiality and immateriality. Having the dynamism in clothing and the interaction it provides linked to the focus in the redefinition of the body as a mirror of the mind, we challenge the conceptual and plastic limits of fashion.N/

A Perceptual Approach to Audio-Visual Instrument Design, Composition and Performance

The thesis presents a perceptual approach to audio-visual instrument design, composition and performance. The approach informs practical work as well as a parametric visualisation model, which can be used to analyse sensory dominance, sonic expression and spatial presence in any audio-visual performance language. The practical work intends for the image to function as a stage scene, which reacts to the music and allows for attention to focus on the relation between the sounds themselves. This is challenging, because usually vision dominates over audition. To clarify the problem, the thesis extrapolates from audio-visual theory, psychology, neuroscience, interaction design and musicology. The investigations lead to three creative principles, which inform the design of an instrument that combines a custom zither and audio-visual 3D software. The instrument uses disparities between the acoustic and digital outputs so as to explore those creative principles: a) to threshold the performerʼs control over the instrument and the instrumentʼs unpredictability, in ways that convey musical expression; b) to facilitate perceptual simplification of visual dynamics; c) to create an audio-visual relationship that produces a sense of causation, and simultaneously confounds the cause and effect relationships. This latter principle is demonstrated with a study on audio-visual mapping and perception, whose conclusions are equally applicable to the audio-visual relationship in space. Yet importantly, my creative decisions are not driven by demonstrative aims. Regarding the visual dynamics, the initial creative work assures perceptual simplification, but the final work exposes a gray area that respects to how the audienceʼs attention might change over time. In any case, the parametric visualisation model can reveal how any audio-visual performance work might converge or diverge from these three creative principles. It combines parameters for interaction, sonic & visual dynamics, audio-visual relationship, physical performance setup and semantics. The parameters for dynamics and semantics reflect how stimuli inform attention at a particular timescale. The thesis uses the model to analyse a set of audio-visual performance languages, to represent my solo performance work from a creative perspective, and to visualise the workʼs versatility in collaboration with other musicians