Research > Experiment > Workshop: Theater as Laboratory


In a workshop called Theater as Laboratory: Experimentation with Non-Human Partners in Expanding Dramaturgies with Rebecca Rouse & Ashley Ferro-Murray, the other participants and myself were tasked with creating something in response to their research surrounding the Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet and the ideas of technology as extensions of the body. This already being a part of my research, I used these ideas to manifest a live performance with projections and an augmented reality body in Unity through OBS to Zoom. It was a wonderful workshop that led to quick prototyping and empowered making. The community created was open and it was amazing that we were able to cultivate such a responsive and genuine environment and community in only a week.

I recorded the performance from my phone and mirrored the video to my desktop with LetsView. I unfortunately didn’t have a video capture card on hand for a handheld camera, however, this view perhaps integrated a more personal view because you could see the phone controls such as the record symbol etc.

I created a simple Isadora patch (top right) where the projections transitioned between a blackout, a scene with a white shape box distorted by the corner and a scene with a spinning version of an image from “Oskar Schlemmer’s “Man and Art Figure”. I re-colored my avatar from moonshot: solos for your home and created a 3D green screen in Unity (left) and then superimposed this avatar on the live video feed using OBS (bottom right).

This was a great first experiment integrating all these tools in this way and essentially creating a performance with my augmented reality app. The choice to change the colors of the avatar was in response to Schelmmer’s costume colors as was my own costume. In addition, I chose the white shirt to embed myself into the projection in hopes of bridging the live projections and superimposed avatar. The shadows also played a part in an attempt to bridge mediums and realities.

I will post some links to the workshop and showings once they are available.