Phil and I discussed my project in class today. I was unsure about the product I wanted to make out of my Myo interaction, but I wanted to incorporate dance into my gestures and use it to tell a story. We’ve narrowed it down to a more solid direction. A text-based story onscreen responding to gesture (and, if we are lucky, proximity sensors). A story that changes as it progresses. From happy to trapped to ripping apart to free
I want to connect each gesture to a command in Processing (or another text emulator?? Check what program Andrew Stewart was using), that adds, subtracts, or changes words in the story. Some a little - others drastically, and the changes completely alter the meaning of the story.
I want to go as grim as I can, and then fix it all again. I think I need the story first in three-four iterations, representing the progress of it from start to finish.
In all likelihood, it’ll be a relationship story, but not romantic. I don’t want to associate Halsey with my father, but that’s the story I feel is being written. So I’m going to go generic.
There is an interesting choice available to my performance. You could watch the physical, or the text, or try and catch both, in the same way that you might see the surface of a circumstance, or possess an understanding of the whole, or anywhere in between, but the visual at the end will always be different than the beginning.
There is also the risk that not all of the gestures will read properly during performance. I actually like that. The story isn’t guaranteed a resolution. It may break down entirely. The surface image (physical performance) may come to a happy ending, but there’s not guarantee that the context, behind the scenes (text portion) will find the same. The struggle is an appealing quality. I want it to be hard to watch. I want it to be hard to perform. I want it to be such an intimate look into a personal battle that people look away in shame from seeing it (and/or from doing nothing about it). Well, not quite that intense. Shouldn’t put myself through that kind of mindset for the next few weeks over and over again, no matter how much the sadistic writer in me is just like, “Do it : )”.
Misuse: This is a connection that is being misused. A relationship that was taken advantage of. It’s not just that I’m controlling the narrative with the Myo, it’s that the Myo (the relationship between myself and the text, the stand-in for this other person) is monitoring me. We can each act on the narrative (it by sending commands, myself by writing the code), but it is most dynamic when we work together - and it cannot make changes without first working through me. It is acquiring its own quiet sentience, and can be embodied with human personifications. Malicious intent, love, protection, damages, power struggle.
The wonderful benefit of using the Myo is that it hugs my arm so nicely - and leaves distinct (gorgeous) red outlines on my skin. If I take it off at/towards the end, it’ll look like chain scars.
Inspirations: Funny as it seems, Terry Crews’ muscle music commercial. Not the kind of feeling I’d like to inspire, but the same principle of using muscles and sensors to create musical experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9iKC7vb-Ts
HALSEY - Gasoline? Colours (Pt1&2)? Probably Colours (pt1), because I have so much choreographed already and the lyrics work so well
You were red, and I was blue
But you touched me and suddenly, I was a violet sky
But you decided purple
Just wasn’t for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trzzg6qL7Ic
Cause and effect - ‘wrong’ directions (Thank you for that idea, Erin, https://erin-pickard24.tumblr.com/.) In a text based work, this could work with gestures that mean one word traditionally (direction especially) creating an opposing word on screen
Text-Myo relationship: Andrew Stewart’s Disappearing
https://player.vimeo.com/video/191386076
