Johannes Birringer - Mixed Reality: The Creation of Moveable Worlds

Friday 22 October

6-7pm
Garwood Lecture Theatre
Univeristy College London

This film-lecture grounds its inquiry into augmented reality on an artistic research/production developed by DAP-Lab (Center for Contemporary and Digital Performance, Brunel University) during 2008-2010.

The mixed reality installation UKIYO, created with partners in Tokyo and deriving inspiration from Japanese drawings (ukiyo-e) and anime, presents scenographic practices that connect physical space to virtual worlds and explore how performers can move between material and immaterial spaces. The spatial design for UKIYO is inspired by Japanese hanamichi and western fashion runways, emphasizing the production company's cross-over experimentation with different movement languages, retro-futurist wearable design for interactive performance, acoustic and electronic sound processing and digital image objects that have a plastic as well as an immaterial/virtual dimension. The work integrates various forms of making art in order to
visualize things that are not in themselves visual, or which connect visual and kinaesthetic/tactile/auditory experiences, while expanding current collaborative convergences between arts and science/engineering. The “Moveable Worlds” of UKIYO are also reflections of the narrative spaces, subtexts and auditory relationships in the mutating matrix of an installation-space inviting the audience to move around and follow their sensorial experiences,
drawn near to the bodies of performers and to their avatars.

Bio
Johannes Birringer is a choreographer and media artist. As artistic director of the Houston-based AlienNation Co., he has created numerous dance-theatre works, video installations and digital projects in collaboration with artists in Europe, the Americas, China, Japan and Australia. His recent production, the digital oratorio Corpo, Carne e Espírito, premiered in Brasil at the FIT Theatre Festival in 2008, and the interactive dancework Suna no Onna was featured at festivals in London. His new mixed reality installation UKIYO went on European tour in June 2010. He is founder of Interaktionslabor Göttelborn in Germany (http://interaktionslabor.de) and director of DAP-Lab at Brunel University, West London, where he is a Professor of Performance Technologies in the School of Arts. His new book, Performance, Technology and Science, was released by PAJ Publications in 2009.

Getting to UCL:

The nearest Tube stations are Euston Square and Warren Street. For full details, see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/public-transport

How to find the Garwood Lecture Theatre:

Once you enter the main gate of UCL in Gower Street, you will face the Portico in the UCL quadrangle courtyard. Please take the right hand side diagonal and walk to the right corner of the building. You will see the brass tablet indicating South Wing. Enter the second entrance door at the South Wing, and you will find the Garwood Lecture Theatre on the first floor. There will be signs from the entrance that will help you to find the exact location easily.

You may also consult the UCL maps at:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/maps

Entrance is free, all welcome

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