Day 3: (Tue Sep 6, Week 2) Hybrid Performance; Webots Modeling

Notes for 2022-09-06.

New Assignments

  1. New assignment, due before next class: Exercise: Precedent Research.

Administrative

  1. I now have office hour appointment slots posted, please see office hours information for details.

Agenda

  1. Review a few assignment submissions.

  2. Discussion of hybrid performance.

    1. Short presentation framing the questions.

    2. Breakout prompt: what kind of performance could be structured around the double-pendulum pair?

      1. What relationships would you explore between each of performer, machine, and audience?

      2. How would that be expressed purely through movement?

      3. What content questions would you pose?

    3. More related videos (below). See also Videos of Related Work

    4. Discuss assignment for Thursday.

  3. Further discussion of Webots robot modeling. (Didn’t get to this.)

    1. review of node tree

    2. sensor nodes

    3. proto files

    4. introduce the next example

    5. generative motion primitives using numpy

Hybrid Performance Discussion Notes

  1. foreword: we are pragmatic more than theoretical

  2. form and subject matter vs content

  3. a triangle of relationships:

    • audience ⟺ machine

    • machine ⟺ performer

    • audience ⟺ performer

  4. examples to consider

    1. live musician, non-vocal

    2. club DJ (sound + automation, often also light and projection)

    3. theatrical lighting

    4. puppetry (several styles)

    5. costumed mascot

    6. animatronics

    7. motion capture actor

    8. machine operator (e.g. backhoe, machine shop, drone)

  5. questions

    1. performer-centric:

      1. what is the performer interface to the machine?

      2. can intuitive or unconscious intent be expressed?

      3. what are useful working points on the spectrum of improvisation and composition

    2. audience-centric:

      1. can the audience build empathy with the machine?

        1. how does seeing a visible performer change this?

        2. how does knowing about the performer change this?

      2. can the audience’s expectations about machines be subverted?

    3. machine-centric:

      1. is the intended content about machines? or does the performance just use the machine?

      2. is the automation perceptible? does the machine have perceptible agency?

      3. what changes if the performance is recorded and replayed without the human?