The final requirement for this course is a reflection and documentation of your final project. This written reflection is a way to document your project, your process and your learning through this project.
Please create written reflection in response to each of the following prompts. Include some visual documentation (finished piece or process) in this reflection. (We will have video of the final performance, which you do not need to include in your reflection.)
Our class calendar shows that we will hold Individual Technical Rehearsals on Thursday, April 18. For the Individual Technical Rehearsal each team will have a time slot to rig, present their performance, de-rig, and receive feedback (notes) from Olivia and Garth. Each team’s tech rehearsal will last about 30 minutes (including the rigging, performance, de-rigging and discussion). We will video record the performances at the Individual Technical Rehearsal.
Expectations
Each team is expected to present their full performance during the Individual Technical Rehearsal. This performance must be at least 3 minutes and no longer than 10 minutes. The performance includes using the lighting, motors, rigging, performance fabrics or objects, and performance computer. Teams should rehearse using all of these elements together (at least in the VR-green-area in A5) prior to this Technical Rehearsal in Kresge.
What Will be Provided for You
For the Individual Technical Rehearsal, you will be provided with the items listed below. If you need additional equipment, you will need to bring it with you for the Individual Technical Rehearsal.
Provided Equipment:
What You Will Need to Provide
Teams will need to prepare for the Individual Technical Rehearsal. We have created the following checklist of items for this Tech Rehearsal. This includes a few diagrams that you will need to make that show how you will set up particular elements of the performance (lighting, rigging, and the stage in general). These will be shared with Garth and Olivia.
Checklist:
For your final project you will work with a classmate as a team to create a live, public performance using cloth and robotics. This project is a realized performance for which you made a proposal in a previous assignment. Your team’s stage show will develop over the last seven weeks of the semester into a culminating collaborative concert with the Exploded Ensemble.
We will perform our final show on May 4 in the Kresge Theater in CFA in conjunction with the Exploded Ensemble. Our aim is that the visual composition of the fabric pieces work in a dialogue with the music, neither existing as visual rendition of the music (e.g. ‘music video’) or the music as a voicing of the visuals (e.g. ‘soundtrack’).
We will also be scaling up our technical hardware from the lab to a stage setting, including lighting and possibly fans. We will have limited access to the Kresge stage on the day of the performance, so we anticipate using a portable set of rigging based on C-stands. There is some potential for using the box seats in Kresge in addition to the stage. You will have access to more motor channels and digitally-controlled stage uplighting.
As stated in the proposal assignment, our aim is that each project be completely prototyped and moving by April 9 so the final weeks can focus on choreography, improvisation practice, and minor technical revisions.
A project of this scale is complex and utilizes many of your skills to actualize it. We have developed this rubric to help communicate the elements that we believe are important for your project and for your learning from this experience:
Concept/Rigor: The team challenged itself to cultivate the concept within the project as part of the process of becoming more precise with the project’s goal and outcome. The concept matured over time and showed qualities such as: being resolved, articulating an idea, posing questions, follow-through with an intuited idea, and general development as the project progressed.
Experimentation/Risk-taking/Play: The maker’s willingness to take risks (in composition, formal choices, materials, and content) are evident. Also important is the team’s openness to new ideas, chance occurrences, and feedback and suggestions from peers and instructors throughout the creative process.
Development/Execution: The project demonstrates the team’s investment and effort in developing the initial idea into a realized work. Samples and prototypes, explorations with techniques and materials, and other forms of research were an integral part of the process. The resulting material and behavioral elements of the project were fully considered, and the finished project transcends the elemental parts used. The choices made within the project support the concept. Enough time was invested into iterations of the project to arrive at a matured, engaging resolution within the project and its elements (looks, sounds, movements).
Performance/Execution: The project demonstrates the team’s careful consideration of the ways in which the work is presented at the public performance (including site, location in space, relationship to the viewers, relationship to musicians, etc). The team is present and focused throughout the set-up, performance, and strike of the performance. During the performance, the team remains focused, fluid, and improvises smoothly through any surprises or “mistakes”. The team is supportive of other team’s performances and assists where they are able if needed.
Management/Production: The team internally functions with clear communication and mutual respect. The team is on schedule with ordering parts, meeting personal deadlines, finishing mechanisms, producing sculptural elements, and resolving software. The team is disciplined about its own weekly progress and allows for time for iteration and revision. The team clearly communicates with other classmates and instructors.
Documentation/Reflection: The team creates a thoughtful reflection and documentation of their project. This includes photos and video of the finished project as well as the process. The reflection includes a thoughtful statement that describes the project and also a discussion about the process, what they learned, what went well, what they would do differently, and what does this project inspire next.
Here is a link to the rubric spreadsheet.
]]>For this sixth assignment, we are preparing the first stage of developing the final performance. It will serve as a project proposal, a proof-of-concept test, and an exploration into incorporating music with motion.
Performance Context
We will perform our final show on May 4 in the Kresge Theater in CFA in conjunction with the Exploded Ensemble. Our aim is that the visual composition of the fabric pieces work in a dialogue with the music, neither existing as visual rendition of the music (e.g. ‘music video’) or the music as a voicing of the visuals (e.g. ‘soundtrack’).
We will also be scaling up our technical hardware from the lab to a stage setting, including lighting and possibly fans. We will have limited access to the Kresge stage on the day of the performance, so we anticipate using a portable set of rigging based on C-stands. There is some potential for using the box seats in Kresge in addition to the stage. For now, we encourage you to think more broadly about using a large space, allowing for more motor channels, and using digitally-controlled stage uplighting.
Proposal
As a proposal, we would like you to consider the complete course of the project over seven weeks leading to a live performance. The course calendar has a rough breakdown showing how we envision using this time: three weeks of iterative development and testing prior to Carnival, followed by three weeks of technical and creative rehearsal. Our aim is that each project be completely prototyped and moving by April 9 so the final weeks can focus on choreography, improvisation practice, and minor technical revisions.
The main elements of the proposal itself are as follows:
Proof of Concept
For this assignment, we would also like to choose a physical element to rapidly prototype and animate which will help resolve some element of the plan. Our goal is for you to identify the area of greatest uncertainty and develop a first test to prove the concept. Some possible approaches are making an experiment toward working out an unknown technique, creating one prototype for a series of multiples, or testing a visual textile effect.
The Exploded Ensemble has both improvisatory and scored performance styles, and so it would be best if we explored both. For now, the closest proxy we have is to improvise or score against the ensemble’s previously recorded tracks. As a proof-of-concept test, we would like you to choose an excerpt from a 2018 performance and create choreography which works in coordination with it (without necessarily articulating it). Given the generally ambient character of this performance, this likely means creating movements with a pacing and tone that either coordinates, contrasts or complements what we hear.
As before, please begin by manually puppeting the fabric pieces to explore movement ideas, working with your selected musical excerpt. You are encouraged but not required to rig and automate the movement. Please carefully document your performance on video. Please make sure the musical soundtrack is audible, we recommend overdubbing the audio track with a time-aligned clean sound file.
Resources
Music excerpts are available on Google Drive in Audio Samples.
Deliverables
To be uploaded as a post to the course blog:
For next class period, each student will brainstorm and storyboard 5 different ideas for a final performance to take place in Kresge Concert Hall at the end of the semester. Each storyboard should have 4 frames to develop the movement idea over time. Your final performance will be 3-5 minutes, so your storyboard should represent that time frame. Your storyboards can be digitally created or physically created. If they are digitally created, bring them printed onto paper for class. Please use paper or board no bigger than 9×12 inches for your storyboarding. We will share the storyboards in class. The main goal of this mini-assignment is to generate a few different low-stakes ideas that might seed your final project. You will have time to develop and change these ideas over the rest of the semester.
Deliverable:
Storyboarding Examples:
Audio Examples:
]]>For this fifth assignment, we are going to consider not only the fabric structure and rigging, but the software which provides the affordances for animation. Our expectation is that fully realizing the kinetic potential of the fabric and rigging will require customizing the human interface and automation. In this way we hope you can create a kinetic instrument a human can both perform and choreograph.
The assignment will also be performed in assigned pairings. We would like each member of the pair to make their own fabric structure, then compose them into a single animated scene in which the movement considers the relation between the pieces. You are welcome to use the samples we pleated together in class as your fabric pieces or to create new fabric samples on your own.
The emphasis is on the possibilities of pleating, but all previous techniques (boning, cordage, shirring, etc.) are also available.
As before, please begin by manually puppeting the fabric pieces to explore movement ideas. Then carefully consider both a rigging design and the kinds of motor movements which will activate it. Using the software simulator, create a customized input mapping to enable your choreography. After the choreography has evolved, please move to the capstan bench and create an automated version. Please carefully document the resulting performance.
Please document your discoveries and points of interest.
Interface Inspirations
Here are a couple of ideas for performance interface improvements to stimulate your thinking:
Resources
Sample code is now available incorporating both the hardware interface and the simulator, please download exercise5.zip. The course software is documented under Software Resources.
Assignment Specifics
For this exercise, please:
Deliverables
To be uploaded as a post to the course blog:
We will review your posts prior to class and select one or more to discuss at the start of our next class.
When you go to run the hardware, the exercise 1 lab notes will help.
The following code sample was included by inserting a block of type “SyntaxHighlighter Code”, selecting Python from the Code Language combo box under Settings on the right panel, then inserting the plain text of the code using cut and paste. It is important that indentation and original line lengths be preserved for legibility.
class ControlLogic(kf.midi.MIDIProcessor):
"""Core performance logic for processing MIDI input into winch commands."""
def __init__(self):
super(ControlLogic,self).__init__()
self.winches = None
self.display = None
self.frequency = 1.0
self.damping_ratio = 1.0
self.winch_dir = [0,0,0,0] # array to keep track of currently moving winches for aftertouch control
return
def connect_winches(self, winches):
"""Attach a winch output device to the performance logic, either physical or simulated."""
self.winches = winches
def connect_display(self, display):
"""Attach a console status output device to the performance logic."""
self.display = display
#---- methods to process MIDI messages -------------------------------------
def note_on(self, channel, key, velocity):
"""Process a MIDI Note On event."""
log.debug("ControlLogic received note on: %d, %d", key, velocity)
row, col, bank = self.decode_mpd218_key(key)
# Each column maps to a specific winch.
# Rows 0 and 1 move forward, rows 2 and 3 move backward.
# The middle rows make small motions, the outer rows make larger motions.
delta = 5 * velocity if row <= 1 else -5 * velocity
if row == 0 or row == 3:
delta = delta * 8
self.winches.increment_target(col, delta)
self.winch_dir[col] = 1 if delta > 0 else -1 if delta < 0 else 0
return
def note_off(self, channel, key, velocity):
"""Process a MIDI Note Off event."""
log.debug("ControlLogic received note off: %d, %d", key, velocity)
row, col, bank = self.decode_mpd218_key(key)
self.winch_dir[col] = 0
self.winches.set_velocity(col, 0)
def control_change(self, channel, cc, value):
"""Process a MIDI Control Change event."""
if cc == 3: # Knob #1 on MPD218, use to control resonant frequency
self.frequency = 0.05 + 0.1 * value
elif cc == 9: # Knob #2 on on MPD218, use to control damping ratio
self.damping_ratio = 0.05 + 0.01 * value
self.winches.set_freq_damping(self.frequency, self.damping_ratio)
self.display.set_status("Frequency: %f, damping ratio: %f" % (self.frequency, self.damping_ratio))
def channel_pressure(self, channel, pressure):
"""Process a MIDI Channel Pressure event."""
log.info("aftertouch: %d", pressure)
velocities = [direction * 10 * pressure for direction in self.winch_dir]
self.winches.set_velocities(velocities)
]]>For this fourth assignment, we are going to incorporate shibori resist techniques to both shape and tint fabric samples. Our expectation is that the reshaping and texturing of the fabric in the shibori process will create opportunities for movement which include expansion, contraction, and stretching, possibly including changes of color as new surfaces are revealed.
The assignment will also be performed in assigned pairings. We would like each member of the pair to make their own fabric structure, then compose them into a single animated scene in which the movement considers the relation between the pieces. You are welcome to use the samples we dyed together in class as your fabric pieces or to create new fabric samples on your own.
The emphasis is on the possibilities of shibori, but all previous techniques (boning, cordage, shirring, etc.) are also available.
As before, please begin by manually puppeting the fabric pieces to explore movement ideas. After the choreography has evolved, please move to the capstan bench and create an automated version. Please carefully document the resulting performance.
Please document your discoveries and points of interest.
Assignment Specifics
For this exercise, please:
Deliverables
To be uploaded as a post to the course blog:
We will review your posts prior to class and select one or more to discuss at the start of our next class.
When you go to run the hardware, the exercise 1 lab notes will help.
]]>Due: Mon, Feb. 11, 11:59PM.
We will build upon what we learned through the second assignment: experimenting with gathering & shirring for texture and movement. For this third assignment, we going to incorporate machine stitching and creating channels through which cords or lines can move or boning can be inserted.
The channels we will create are sewn pathways through which we can place other items: lines, cords, and boning or tubes. Channels can be used to create gathered or shirred effects, as well as other effects specific to this techniques, such as gliding along a line.
For this exercise, we would like you to investigate the movement possibilities inherent to fabric with machine stitched channels for line, cord, or boning. Your choice of cloth material will affect how the stitched and bunched areas will behave, both by themselves and in contrast to non-stitched areas. We would like you to restrict yourself to working with one piece of fabric at a time and to using only machine stitched channels.
As a first step, we recommend the following process: Create a channel or channels in your fabric. Thread a line or lines through your channel and practice manually puppeting the fabric to explore possible motions. Make adjustments to your channels. Puppet the fabric again. Try adding piece of tubing as boning in a channel to see the effects on the movement. Work back and forth between puppeting and adjusting your fabric.
Move to the capstan bench and see what is possible there using the winches and counterweights. Adjust the channel(s) and line or cord as needed. Some structures may require more line force that our current winch system can produce; if so, please document the result of hand-puppeting and assess the range of motion and level of force required to help us gauge the needs for additional motion hardware.
As starting points we suggest exploring the prompts from last week in addition to these prompts:
The key to a compound effect that combines cordage with boning will be balancing the different effects of tension and compression. The boning can be a rigid dowel or a flexible tube or strip, but in either case supports compressive forces applied by the cordage or fabric. The cordage or lines can only support tension forces. We can envision several permutations of how a counterbalance can be built from external lines, internal cordage, internal boning, and gravity:
Please document your discoveries and points of interest.
Assignment Specifics
For this exercise, please:
Deliverables
To be uploaded as a post to the course blog:
We will review your posts prior to class and select one or more to discuss at the start of our next class.
When you go to run the hardware, the exercise 1 lab notes will help.
]]>Our first assignment focused upon moving a basic piece of cloth using hand-puppetry and the capstan bench. This second assignment will build upon that exercise with an additional dimension: piercing the cloth with thread to change its range of possible motions and textures.
Gathering and shirring are two similar forms of traditional textile manipulation. Gathering converts the edge of a piece of fabric into mini-folds bunched together. Shirring is creating by gathering multiple areas of fabric over larger portions of the cloth. In contrast to the gathered or shirred areas, the untouched areas of cloth erupt into irregular, rolling folds or drapes. The gathered or shirred areas take on a stiffness and the unstitched areas a fluidity.
In addition to changing the quality of the cloth itself, the gathered and shirred areas become a path for potential movement. If a gathered or shirred area is constructed in an impermanent way, the cloth might also expand or contract along the stitched lines. Gathering and shirring can be done by hand or by machine stitching.
For this exercise, we would like you to investigate the movement possibilities inherent to gathering or shirring the fabric. Your choice of cloth material will affect how the stitched and bunched areas will behave, both by themselves and in contrast to non-stitched areas. We would like you to restrict yourself to working with one piece of fabric at a time and to using only hand stitching.
As a first step, we recommend the following process: Create some gathered or shirred elements in your fabric. Then attach lines to your fabric and practice manually puppeting the fabric to explore possible motions. Make adjustments to your gathered or shirred areas. Puppet the fabric again. Work back and forth between puppeting and adjusting your fabric. Move to the capstan bench and see what is possible there using the winches and counterweights. Adjust shirring or gathering as needed. As starting points we suggest exploring the prompts from last week in addition to these new prompts:
Document your discoveries and points of interest.
Assignment Specifics
For this exercise, please:
Deliverables
To be uploaded as a post to the course blog:
We will review your posts prior to class and select one or more to discuss at the start of our next class.
When you go to run the hardware, the exercise 1 lab notes will help.
]]>