zone

Man-machine dance performance
2001

zone (2001)

“zone” is a human-machine performance developed in cooperation with the Ventura Dance Company. The artist and choreographer Pablo Ventura is known for his performances in the intermediate field of dance and digital media.

zone (2001) The one-hour performance involves two KR 15/2 industrial robots and six humans. The moving action is supported by videos from the Swiss artist group tenteki and live local camera images. In the first three quarters of the performance, the dancers dominate the movement. The machines act in the background with large mirrored parallelograms, with which they partially hide themselves. The robots move the surfaces around the space in slow motion to create different geometric configurations. In the last quarter of the performance, the robots develop a stronger momentum of their own. They put down their previous tools and reach for luminous objects, which they use to emphasize their subsequent, increasingly intense activities. Dancers and robots are now strongly related to each other. The robots move synchronously at first, then individualize in order to come together again in their movements.

All choreographies for man and machine were designed by Pablo Ventura in the 3D animation program Life Forms. The dancers rehearse the pre-drawn sequences from the screen. The robots' movement program is generated by a script. The digital design in virtual space therefore determines the movements in real space. However, the transmission by the humans is limited by their actual mobility, strength and endurance and the transmission by the robots is limited by the dynamics of their control system, motors and gears. The result is not a realization of the virtual specification, but an interpretation of the virtual through the real.

The elaborate production lasted over nine months and took place in parallel at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and the Tanzhaus Wasserwerk in Zurich.

Cooperation: Ventura Dance Company Zurich (CH)
Choreography: Pablo Ventura
Dance: Markus Heckel, Arlette Kunz, Yong-In Lee, Barbara Noh, Sonia Rocha, Dwight Witmer
Video: tenteki/Michael Eberli, Tobias Peier
Live video: Tomas Kudrna
Music: Gato Leiras, Michael Renkel (U.M.A. – Urbano Mistica Amplitude)
Senography: Pablo Ventura
Costume design: Arlette Kunz
Stage technology: Christoph Stahel
Light design: Antje Brückner

Performances

Fri 16/11 and Sat 17/11/2001
CYNETart 2001 — Festival for Computerbased Art
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden (DE)

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Sat 05/10 and Sun 06/10/2002
SIDance 2002 Dance Festival
Towol Theater, Seoul Art Center, Seoul (KR)

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