“Ma Poupée de lumière, 1er mouvement” is an interactive piece for dance, lighting dress, piano
and electro-acoustic band.
On stage, a dancer performs in a illuminating dress. A musician controls the lights (leds) that
are integrated into the dress of the dancer. The dress is designed as an interface that allow us
to see the dancer’s sensations, in response to music.
Extending the musical score to another dimension, the musician plays a light partition. In
addition to the sound, the musician produces light pulses worn by the dancer. These are the
impulses that guide the movement of the latter, making it a “puppet”.
This new possibility offer alternative ways of apprehending the musical playing, and
a new dimension to relationships with the body and relationships with the other.
Conceptual motivation :
Traditionnally, in dance, dancers follow the music: their gesture, either it is written or
improvised, is rythmed by the music. Music emplies us with emotions, sensations. We
sometimes have the impression that music penetrates us within all the single pore of our body,
giving us an intense experience (that can be positive or negative).
Music produces within us a large scale of emotions. How to communicate these emotions with
people surrounding us? We have nowadays powerful information technologies that allow us to
communicate with people all over the world, but how about expressing our intimate feelings?
Sometimes it’s just media that dictate our toughts, behaviours, feelings. « Ma Poupée de
lumière, 1er mouvement » offers a poetic vision on how technology can increase us but also
influence us. The dancer who is wearing the interactive dress moves according to the lighting
of this dress, making him like a puppet.
This project can also be presented as an interactive installation. A MIDI keyboard is placed
next to the dress worn by a model or dressed on a mannequin. A computer make the interface
between the keyboard and the dress. Visitors can interact with the lights on the dress by
playing the keyboard. This option is very interesting as it invites people to experiment playing
with lights.
The dress has 18 LEDs (light electro-luminescent diodes) fixed on it. These lights are
magnifient by flowers made with a semi-transparent fabric. The dress is white and reflects
perfectly the blue of the lights. It is not just lights on a costume, but lights are thought as part
of the costume. The LEDs form kind of a line coming from the bottom to the top of the dress.
Electric threads are hidden. The behaviour of the dress is controlled by a « Arduino »
microcontroller: the lower the pitch of the played note is, the lower part of the dress
illumintes; the higher the pitch, the higher part the dress shines. Furthermore, below a certain
threshold, the dress doesn’t illuminate at all (making a parallel with death). Conversely, the
very high pitches lighten all the lights, insufling the maximum of life to the dress. Transitions
are smoothed by a fonction applied on data, to avoid the « on/off » effect.
Pictures on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26577177@N02/sets/72157605056653058/
Video on :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsG0APKA9Yc
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