The application of motion-capture technology in telematic and virtual dance performance through a framework for long-distance remote communication
In our currently funded AHRC Covid 19 project, we have successfully undertaken the development, testing, and implementation of an open-source software tool for the real-time streaming of motion capture data. This streaming tool has allowed us to bring dancers from different geographic locations into a shared virtual space to dance together with a convincing sense of physical copresence, direct interaction, and virtual touch.
In May and November 2021, we have had the opportunity to successfully demonstrate the framework and share our findings with an international audience. In our showcases and Q&A, we evidenced not only that a sense of liveness could be achieved in the virtual space, but also that this could be done with a set of generative and aesthetic visual effects that render the dance in radically new ways – in turn abstract, narrative, and illusionistic.
Year 1 - 2020
Investigating the applications of motion capture technology in telematic and virtual dance performance
Funded by Goldsmiths/LASALLE Partnership Innovation Fund and MCCS ‘Future of Media’ research theme.
In collaboration with LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, Akram Khan Dance Company, and Target3D. Before the beginning of the pandemic, we offered an interdisciplinary collaborative project; to research the potential application of new forms of inertial sensor wireless and markerless motion-capture in remote creation, rehearsal, teaching and performance of choreographic dance work. This resulted in a series of experimental test sessions, where two dancers, one in London, and one in Singapore, danced together but virtually, wearing the Perception Neuron inertial sensor (IMU) motion capture system. Dance data was streamed in real-time from a dancer in similar studio space in LASALLE college in Singapore, some 6700 miles away, with barely noticeable delay or latency.
Year 2 - 2021
Developing a framework for motion capture streaming, AKA ‘Goldsmiths Mocap Streamer’
Supported by the AHRC, within their ‘Ideas that address Covid19’ fund.
This project addressed a perceived need for useable and accessible technology for dance practitioners to move beyond the limitations of video conferencing platforms for sharing dance during the pandemic lockdowns. As many dance companies pivoted from touring and the production of new work to other alternative and online activities, we made a strong case for the application of time and resources into streams of research into potential futures of choreographic practice that can be digitally shared worldwide.
The tool Goldsmiths Mocap Streamer was developed to address the issues surrounding the isolation and physical distancing of the Covid19 restrictions, by first connecting dancers remotely through a framework for motion-capture data streaming, and then seeing what kinds of emotional, aesthetic, and affective connections could be made within virtual spaces. These concerns were framed and led by our collaborating artists, honed and developed through a series of practice-led research workshops with artists both local to Goldsmiths in London, and as far away as New York and Hong Kong. However, we knew that beyond the immediate concerns of the pandemic, this tool had a much broader applicability, possibly offering itself as a critical turning-point in a 50-year history of the aesthetic and technological evolution of telematic performance practice.
Year 3 - 2022
Building an international network for virtual dance collaboration
We would now like to take this project to the next level, playing to the essential strength of the system - the possibility to remotely connect performers for meaningful and productive collaborative dance practice. We suggest that this is not only for online and virtual performance, but also has potential to be embedded within many other choreographic practices; of co-creation, rehearsal, teaching, and training. If proven effective this could be a profound change in working practices for many dance companies, offering clear economic and environmental impacts within the industry in ways that directly address this funding call.
Having evidenced the functionality of our Mocap Streamer framework in both technical and aesthetic-poetic terms, we now wish to roll it out to a truly international network of dance companies as a next logical step in our research process. We aim to empower performers who might not have previously considered doing digital dance work to freely experiment in the forms of aesthetic expression and meaningful communication that we have already shown are possible.
