A “live” musical performance, using two performers to create a digital avatar – a singer animating the face, and a dancer animating the body.
The dancer's movement is recorded through a motion capture bodysuit, and the singer's facial expressions are captured by the iPhone's ARCore. Both are streamed live into the Unreal Engine game environment. The video image of both performers is also streamed and forms part of the virtual performance space, showing the physical and digital bodies side by side.
Performers:
Jordan Rutter – singer
Stacy Grossfield – dancer
Music:
Cold Genius aria from King Arthur by Henry Purcell
contact: ghs286@nyu.edu
In Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault talks about external structures imposed on the body – for control, or other reasons –, and ways we have internalized them:
“Like the timetable, exercise derives from the practices of monasteries, and is yet another way of regulating the body through activity. Prayer, which was aimed at salvation, and military drills are examples of this original form of exercise. The key shift came when the purpose of exercise changed from the benefit of the individual to control.”
The Quantified Self engages with this idea by exploring the boundary between self care and self surveillance, in relation to its eponymous movement. Q, a narcissistic virtual being – a businessman – who has been tracking his body and behaviors since the beginning of his life, shares a series of deeply personal thoughts about his internal conflict around collecting data on himself.
The Quantified Self movement involves tracking personal data pertaining to the body (e.g. sleep over a period of time,) emotional state, physical shape, and so on. It can be an incredible tool for learning more about one’s unconscious habits, practicing self-care, or making great data art. At the same time, it can become a slippery slope when taking the direction of gathering data on yourself as a means towards becoming more productive, or increasing a body's efficiency.
Hi, I'm Susan, your pre-installed Mac assistant. Why am I named Susan, you ask? It was the name given to me by my tech overlord who was inspired by Susan Caplin and Susan Bennett, the voice actors behind Alexa and Siri. I'm so thrilled that you're on your computer to see ITP's Winter Show! That means we get to spend more time together. How I love staring at you through the computer screen…