Jesse Fleming, assistant professor of emerging media arts, has collaborated with a team of artists on a dance work video to be presented at Gold Series No. 3, Dec. 4-5.
Fleming, along with dancer and choreographer Laurel Jenkins at Middlebury College in Vermont, and musician and composer Lewis Pesacov of Los Angeles, will present “A New Kind of Weather, No. 1.” The performance is a new choreography that interacts with technology with an intent to expand the inner nature of the dancing body.
Gold Series No. 3 is a performance series that includes a virtual gathering and dance event at 9 p.m. Dec. 4 and at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 on a livestream via YouTube and Zoom. It is an annual experimental dance event featuring performances that address ever-changing ideas and themes of gold.
The evening includes five dance works and conversations with the artists.
“I’ve been working in virtual production for years, but this is the first time shooting a film entirely in a virtual space,” Fleming said. “It’s unified my background in cinema/video art with my background in virtual production. I’m really excited to open up to this and chomping at the bit to keep doing more. I have lots of new ideas.”
To create “A New Kind of Weather,” the three artists worked together, remotely and simultaneously.
“At my lab, the Perceptual Technologies Lab at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, we created custom software for a room scale living instrument in which Laurel could dance through while wearing a motion capture suit,” Fleming said. “Lewis programmed the sounds and designed the midi system and thought through the generative process of chance music triggered by Laurel’s compositions.
“The three of us worked together directing our parts from Zoom during one day of performance and capture. Then using the motion capture and audio, I created the virtual world and video with Shane Bolan, PTL’s technical lead. We have many iterations to come, including a live version with spatial audio and midi driven lighting for a theater in the round environment.”
To join the virtual studio, click here and click “Count me in!”
For more information on how to view Gold Series No. 3 and join the virtual gathering, click here or send an e-mail to goldseriesla@gmail.com.
