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Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

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Fabricating Performance

Fabricating Performance

Performance is presented as a process of fabrication. Reciprocally, fabrication is presented as a process of performance. A circularity of human body-gesture and computer machine-gesture leads to the construction of notational spatial artefacts. Space is constructed through the transforming conditions of dance, and performance is constructed through the transforming conditions of architecture. The project is a spatially interactive design system. Driven by the motivation of a participating performer/designer, body movement is tracked, analysed and translated into tool paths for fabrication by a robotic armature and an industrial CNC pipe bending machine. Discrete construction elements are fabricated in response to the dancer/designers performance. The generative cycle of construction encourages bodily interaction and the aggregation of a form of spatial notion that described repetition, rhythm and pattern. ‘Fabricating Performance’ qualifies movement in space and raises questions of how these qualitative motion segments can be articulated in a quantitatively physical manner.

For a detailed description read our article the making of fabricating performance

 

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Performance-driven Fabrication scenario diagram

Performance-driven Fabrication scenario diagram

 

 

Optitrack recording display and Camera

Optitrack recording display and Camera

 

Movement Data-analysis | Improvised movement / Rule-based movement / Choreographed movement

Movement Data-analysis | Improvised movement / Rule-based movement / Choreographed movement

 

Rationalised movement data (Improvised / Rule-based / Choreographed).

Rationalised movement data (Improvised / Rule-based / Choreographed).

geometry study

geometry study (Top view)

Performance led structure

Performance led structure

Read our paper for the Architecture InPlay Conference July 2016

Key References 

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Gehm, S., Husemann, P., & von Wilcke, K. (Eds.). (2007), Knowledge in Motion: Perspectives of Artistic and Scientific Research in Dance. transcript Verlag.

Goldberg, R. (2012), tonight: The Languages of Dance, Performance: The Art of Notation [Online] Available from: http://performa-arts.org [Accessed: 30rd December 2014]

Goulthorpe, M., et al. (2001), ‘Aegis Hyposurface: The Bordering of University and Practice’, Work-in-Progress, Part1, ACADIA, p.p. 344-349

Groves, R, M. (2012), William Forsythe and Practice of Choreography: It starts from Any Point (review), Dance Research Journal, 44:2, winter2012, pp.117-121

Kamvasinou, K. (2010), Notation timelines and the aesthetics of disappearance, The Journal of Architecture, 15:4, pp.397-423, DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2010.507517

Kolarevic, B. & Malkawi, A. (2008), Performative Architecture: Beyond Instrumentality, Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1531-314X.2006.00068_1.x.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964), The primacy of perception: and other essays on phenomenological psychology, the philosophy of art, history, and politics. Northwestern University Press.

Negroponte, N. (1970), The Architecture Machine: Toward a More Human Environment, Cambridge: MIT Press

Rentschler,Ingo et al. (1988), Dance, the fugitive form of art. Aesthetics as Behaviour, Beauty and the Brain, Birkhäuser, Basel Boston Berlin

Salter, C. (2010), Entangled: technology and the transformation of performance. MIT Press.

Schwabe, C. (2010), Eureka and Serendipity”¯: The Rudolf von Laban Icosahedron and Buckminster Fuller ‘ s Jitterbug. Bridges, pp.271—278.

Sparacino, F., Wren, C., Davenport, G., & Pentland, A. (1999). Augmented performance in dance and theater. International Dance and Technology, 99, 25-28.

Sparacino, F. (2002), Narrative Spaces: bridging architecture and entertainment via interactive technology. In 6th International Conference on Generative Art, Milan, Italy.

Sparacino, F. (2008), Natural Interaction in Intelligent Spaces: Designing for Architecture and Entertainment, Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal, Springer

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Thomsen, M.R. (2004), Discovering Mixed Reality, University College London

Tschumi, B. (1996), Architecture and Disjunction. The MIT Press

Waterhouse, E. et al. (2014), Doing Duo — a case study of entrainment in William Forsythe’s choreography “Duo”, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, October 21, DOI: 8:812, 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00812

Weinstein, B. (2008). Flamand and His Architectural Entourage, Journal of Architectural Education, 61:4, pp.25-33, DOI: 10.1111/j.1531-314X.2008.00184.x

Weinstein, B. (2013), Performing Architectures: Closed and open logics of mutable scenes, Performing Research: A Journal of the Performing arts, 18:3, pp.161-168, DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2013.818328

 

Source of Figure

Positive space image: Gjon, Mili. (1947), Ballet Essay Stroboscopic image of ballerina Nora Kaye doing a pas de bourree. [Online] Available from: http://time.com/photography/life/ (Accessed: 12 June 2015).