Conceptual Audiovisual Performance

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The Concept

A conceptual performance about held/being tied up, being chained like in a harness, being constricted but being warm, being out of control but in the moment.

Just as when people are asked “How are you?” and they reply “good, busy, but good”, the performance observes and embodies this essence of duality that we embrace in day to day life as a society.

In a similar way that people like being busy (or tied up with something), that they are both constricted and feel limited, but also feel supported by something, they feel meaning, they feel safety.

The performance explores this concept through visuals built by this concept, and in audio that serves to both hold and release.

The poem:
Hugged, or chained. Constricted but warm, out of control but in the moment.
Are you busy or are you tied up? Do you stay looped to feel meaning, to feel safety?
Hold and release me, let me go then pull me close.

The Process

The technical process for the performance experimented with the newest (at the time) image-to-image open source AI models, using a batching technique to piece together png sequences and then using skeleton tracking and depth map extraction to guide the images based on experimental dance source videos.

The prompting used to guide the AI image frames followed the concept and poetry of the piece, allowing intense and compelling images and styles which retained the movement and form of an experimental dance choreography.