ANNEX 1

Singapore Arts Festival 2005

APPARITION

Synopsis

Apparition is an interactive dance and media performance conceived and directed by Klaus Obermaier, in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab, featuring Robert Tannion and Desireé Kongerød.

It challenges the performers and audience with questions such as:

  • What choreography emerges when software is your partner?
  • What happens when virtual and actual image space share the same physics?
  • What emerges when everything that moves on the stage is both interactive and independent?
  • What is the result when any form, dancing or still, can be transformed into a kinetic projection surface?

With these questions as the starting point, Apparition takes interactive performance to another level through the creation of a unique stage work integrating live performance, sound, projection and an interactive system comprising real-time image generation and computer vision.

Director’s Notes

After my dance/media works D.A.V.E. and Vivisector, which are still touring and have become a world wide success with its unique combination of body and video, Apparition goes one step further.

Sophisticated interactive technologies release the performer from the determination of set choreography and generate the video content in real-time. The goal was to create an interactive system that is much more than simply an extension of the performer, but is a potential performing partner.

Computational processes that model and simulate real-world physics create a kinetic space where the beauty and dynamics of the human body and its movement quality are extended and transferred into the virtual world.

ANNEX 2

Singapore Arts Festival 2005

APPARITION

Klaus Obermaier

Director/Composer/Visual Artist

Klaus Obermaier graduated with first class honours from the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts and he also studied visual arts. Over the years, Obermaier has developed into one of the leading international artists for interactive and cross-media art as well as electronic music. He created the cloned sound, a media composition for the Kronos Quartet, which was commissioned by the Ars Electronica festival for its opening event in 1993. His multi-media works jobOpera and actOpera were presented in 1998 and 2000 at the Linzer Klangwolke, one of Europe’s biggest annual outdoor multimedia events for approximately 70,000 people. His interactive media installations were shown at galleries in Europe and New York City. Apart from presenting his original works and compositions at international festivals and on tours to many parts of the world, Obermaier has played with the Ensemble Modern, one of the leading ensembles for contemporary music; composed music for musicians as the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and worked with artists such as Ornette Coleman, John Scofield, Peter Erskine and members of the Nederlands Dans Theater.

Robert Tannion

Dancer

Robert Tannion is a London-based director/performer/choreographer, perhaps most known for his work with DV8 Physical Theatre, Russell Maliphant, and Complicite. Tannion is currently creating work under his own name.

Desireé Kongerød

Dancer

Desireé Kongerød was born and grew up in Norway. She moved to London to study dance at LondonContemporaryDanceSchool and Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. Since then she has had a successful career as a contemporary dancer touring throughout Europe and the United States working with Yolande Snaith Theatre Dance, Rosemary Butcher and S.O.A.P. Dance Theatre, Frankfurt,amongst others.

Peter Brandl

Interaction Designer/Programmer

Peter Brandl studied Telematics at the Technical University Graz and then changed to the Polytechnic University of Hagenberg. He graduated in 2003 in Multimedia Technology and Design. Brandl has been involved in conceptual work, design and interactive programming at the Ars Electronica Futurelab since 2002 for various international projects. Since 2003 he has been involved with the HagenbergUniversity in programming exercises and working as a project coach.

ANNEX 3

Singapore Arts Festival 2005

APPARITION

Credit List

Concept, direction, music and visualsKlaus Obermaier

Choreography, performanceRobert Tannion, Desireé Kongerød

Interactive design and technical developmentPeter Brandl, Jing He, Christopher Lindinger (Ars Electronica Futurelab); Hirokazu Kato (OsakaUniversity)

Dramaturgical supportScott deLahunta

Co-produced by Singapore Arts Festival, Ars Electronica Centre Linz, South Bank Centre London

Supported by European Commission-Culture 2000