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source: rzm-research

Dance installation piece “border” will be released this December at Spiral Hall located in Aoyama, Tokyo. Rhzomatiks Research is in charge of planning and projection of this work, with a dance company “ELEVENPLAY “. This piece is a brand new performance work of Rhizomatiks and ELEVENPLAY which many people had long been looking forward from the last piece. Rhizomatiks is represented by great media artists such as Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi, and ELEVENPLAY was founded by MIKIKO who is an amazing choreographer. Their last piece “MOSAIC” was presented in March of 2013, and this piece attracted a great number of people all over the world. Creators made full use of AR technology for “border”, and they produce an installation space as one kind of the stage. And this dance piece is created with full of ideas which is extremely unique.

CONTENTS
“border” is an innovative style of dance performance since it consists of the participation of both dancer and audience. Audiences are able to feel the installation space with their senses by riding personal mobilities all controlled by the system. 10 WHILLs -the personal mobility audiences ride- are prepared, so that 10 people can join at one time of the performance. This means, audiences who do not ride WHILL can enjoy the stage from outside of the performance area. Those who rides WHILL, put on headset formed display of virtual reality at first, and the small camera is set up on the surface of that display. These WHILLs are controlled by the system through radio wave, so that people cannot control them directly, and 10 WHILLs move on the stage in each speed and movement by the control of automatic computer programs. “WHILL” is produced by the WHILL Inc.
With the start of dance performance, audiences can see the virtual space of the stage through the display they put on, and also the real scene through the camera set up on the headset formed display. AR, augmented reality, enables people to enjoy both scenes of virtual and real, so that they can appreciate the stage from each point of view while each WHILL moves around. On the stage, some dancers of ELEVENPLAY share the space with WHILL, and perform their dance. In the AR, the seamless transition of real movements of real dancers and virtual movements of virtual dancers on the data, are showed to audiences on the WHILL. Then audiences can be greatly excited by the both worlds of spatial and physical expression. Since real dancers touch audiences sometimes, they may be pulled back to the real space, and realized themselves as the real physical existence. This installation space will be presented as one that can be appreciated from outside of the stage as well.
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source: wired

DRONES WILL CHANGE how we ship goods! They’ll revolutionize search and rescue! We hear about these futures all the time. It’s less often that we’re asked to consider how autonomous flying machines might be used for more poetic ends. But, as with any technology, drones can be just as invigorating for art as they are for commerce. “Shadow” is the just the latest example.

It’s a collaboration between dance troupe Elevenplay and the stellar Japanese design crew Rhizomatiks, who began exploring the possibilities of drone-assisted performance early last year. In their first effort, the groups essentially used drones as flying props. It was novel, but not much more than that.

Here, the drones are put to more thoughtful use: They’re robotic spotlights. Continuously reconfiguring their position around a single, human dancer, the ensemble produces a mesmerizing play of shadow and light.

It’s more than a cool gimmick. Instead of having drones on stage just for the sake of having them, the clip shows how the machines can be used in subtler, more expressive ways. Being able to choreograph the three independently-moving light sources around a performer presumably lets you create all sorts of visual effects you simply couldn’t achieve otherwise. At first, the drones flicker their lights in sequence, projecting a stop motion movie in shadow on the wall behind. After that, they explore other configurations around the dancer: spotlighting her, hiding her, and revealing her again in silhouette.

Daito Manabe, the lead Rhizomatiks wizard, occasionally posts YouTube videos of these works in progress. A recent series hints at what we might expect to see next: a 24-drone troupe. They’re less flying spotlights and more like floating lightbulbs—super-sized fireflies whose movements can be programmed. I eagerly await their debut.
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source: rzm-research

Rhizomatiks Research（ライゾマティクス リサーチ）が企画制作する、ダンスカンパニーELEVENPLAYとのダンスインスタレーション「border」をこの12月スパイラルホール（東京・青山）で初公開します。本作は、メディアアーティストの真鍋大度・石橋素らが率いる「Rhizomatiks Research」と、演出振付家のMIKIKOが率いるダンスカンパニー「ELEVENPLAY」のコラボレーションによる、2014年3月に発表され注目を浴びた「MOSAIC」に続く待望の新作公演です。AR技術を駆使しインスタレーション空間がステージにもなるという、きわめて斬新なアイデアに満ちたダンス作品です。

CONTENTS
「border」 は、インスタレーション空間内で、ダンサーと観客が参加して成立する、斬新な形式で成立するダンス公演です。観客は、動きをプログラムで完全制御されたパーソナルモビリティに各自が座って体験します。（*WHILLは同時に10台準備されており、1ステージを10人ずつ体験します。WHILLに座れない観客はエリアの外側からステージを鑑賞することが可能です。）観客はまず、ヘッドセット型のバーチャルリアリティのディスプレイを装着し、パーソナルモビリティ「WHILL」*に乗り込みます。このWHILLは無線で制御されており、観客自身はさわって動かすことができず、10台のWHILLは自動生成によるコンピュータープログラムによって、ステージ上を個別の速さや動きでバラバラに移動します。
*「WHILL」はWHILL株式会社による製品です。
ダンスが始まると、観客の装着したディスプレイの視界には、高精度のデータ空間で描写されたバーチャルのステージ空間が広がり、装着したカメラ映像による実写風景が、データ空間に重ね合わされるAR（オーグメンテッドリアリティ：拡張現実）によって、各自が動き回りながらそれぞれの視点からステージを鑑賞することになります。ステージ上ではELEVENPLAYの複数のダンサーがWHILLと空間を共有しながらダンスを展開します。ARの中で、リアルタイムのダンサーの存在とバーチャルなデータ上のダンサーの動きがシームレスにトランジションする様子が目の前に繰り広げられていき、WHILLに乗った観客は、リアルとバーチャルの区別がつかなくなる迷宮的な空間表現と身体表現の世界に酔いしれることになるでしょう。時折、ダンサーが観客に接触する仕草をおこなうことで、観客はリアルな身体存在に引き戻されることになります。このインスタレーション空間は、ステージの外から自由に歩きまわって鑑賞することができる形でも公開されます。