Shadowing

3

Interact ive Insta l lat ion by Pipo Tafe l

An interd isc ip l inar y pro jectConcept, d i rect ion and product ion Pipo Tafe lDevelopment Danie l Ber wanger & Pipo Tafe lSpacia l concept Taro Gragnato Stage Design Weimar Exh ib i t ion Phi l ipp Schöpfer / 45 k i lo

Shadowing

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

5

DESCrIPT Ion P 06 - 07

ThE ShADoW AS v ISuAl InTErfACE P 08 - 09

ArT IST IC mESSAGE P 10 - 11

ChAllEnGES of ThE ProjECT P 12 - 13

ShADoWInG TEChnICAl ABSTrACT P 14 - 15

WorkfloW WITh mA x /mSP/j IT TEr P 14 - 15

CAmErA SETuP P 16 - 17

Ex IB IT Ion SETuP P 18 - 19

ProDuCTIon DETAIlS P 20 - 21

fEES P 20 - 21

AWArDS, ExhIB IT IonS,

fEST IvAlS AnD rESIDEnCIE P 22

CrEDITS P 23

CurrICulum v ITAE P 24 - 25

WATCh ShADoWInG onlInE P 26 - 27

index of Content

When I enter the space I suddenly perce ive my own shadow, as i f the sun was pro ject ing i t on the p lat form in f ront of me. I wa lk some steps fur ther in to see i f the shadow fo l lows my movements which i t rea l l y does. At a cer ta in po int my sha-dow suddenly jumps imi tat ing my di rect past. I ’m conf ronted wi th the footpr int of my prev ious movements. my presence seems not to be present any more.

deSCRiPtion

7

9

ShADoWInG is an insta l lat ion in which the v is i to r dances and p lays wi th h is own shadow, which seamless ly swi tches between the v is i to r ’s present and immediate past. The spe-c i f ica l l y developed sof tware adapts in rea l-t ime the shadow pro ject ion to a v is i to r ’s s i lhouet te and movement. The in-teract ive audio env i ronment insp i res and gu ides h im in h is movement exper ience.

The arch i tecture of movement, shadow and sound as cho-reographyThe parameters of a v is i to r ’s movement - movement inten-s i t y, accelerat ion, s ize, pos i t ion, and t ime of st i l lness – a re the interact ive system’s source of informat ion for the creat i-on of the shadow p lay. There a re th ree sound layers: 1. an atmospher ic sound layer which is constant ly present and independent of movement in space, 2. an interact ive sound created on ly when the v is i to r moves and a th i rd layer reac-t ing on the pro jected shadow. An interact ive choreography of movement, sound and shadow p lay is created.

the Shadow aS viSual inteRfaCe

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

11

Shadow p laysAt some point af te r ch i ldhood, the quest ion r ises about the sense of th ings.

Why am I here? What am I doing here? What ’s the sense of a l l th is? What w i l l I be leav ing beh ind?

When l i fe is over, death st i l l overshadows l i fe. What could i t mean to forget onesel f in the movement of one’s own shadow? Does i t mean to be? Even i f i t is just fo r a moment, to back-pedal in the d ia lect ic between seeing and being. The percept ion between be-fore and af ter. Between th is minute and in a shor t whi le. To be appro-x imate ly in the moment...

ShADoWInG manipu lates the cau-sa l connect ion between a move-ment and i ts resu l t ing shadow. A se l f ev ident phenomenon seems to be unhinged. As a resu l t of i t the v is i to r of ShADoWInG is conf ron-ted by a rediscover y of h is percep-t ion.I move into the insta l l a t ion space.

aRtiStiC MeSSage

My movement c reates sound. My shadow moves and changes the acoust ic sphere a round me. Where to go, what to do, how to behave – my behav iou r t r igge rs the shadow - the shadow creates sound - the sound creates scenography - the scenography moves a round me - I move w i th( i n) th is choreography. E x te r io r sound is hea rab le, reve rbe-rat ion appears. I stop mov ing. The echoes of my movement commun i-cate w i th me.

The p lay w i th the own shadow (Peter Pan) cor re lates to rudol f von laban‘s credo that „ever ybody car r ies a dancer in h imsel f “. The immater ia l p ro ject ion of ShADo-WInG as a contemporar y out l ine to a dancer ‘s ins ight th rough dig i ta l media creates an augmented se l f-percept ion wi th a rea l-t ime sha-dow inter face. Wi thout knowing and wi thout be ing educated, the v is i to r - th rough p lay ing wi th h is interact ive shadow - exper iences, fee ls and choreographs movement. P lay fu lness and cur ios i t y l ies in a l l of us, ever ybody is a dancer.

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

13

I t ’s one th ing to wr i te a concept, but fee ls l ike exp lor ing another p lanet to rea l ize i t. I was luck y to f ind a team which suppor ted a v is ion of a pro ject and the st ruggles in the communicat ion between the di f fe rent a r t fo rms were intense. But how to f ind a language between an express ive a r t fo rm (dance) and a systemat ic approach (programming)? Apar t f rom the technica l demands, the cha l lenge of the pro ject consisted of the interd isc ip l inar y approach and rea l isat ion process but sta r ted wi th a s imple quest ion: how could I connect the spectator ’s v iew f rom h is seat w i th the exper ience of the dancer on the stage? Two perspect i-ves that I wanted to un i te. In the beginn ing of ShADoWInG there was just a theoret ica l idea but no proof that the con-cept would work out.

Would i t be possib le to make „normal“ v is i to rs of the ins-ta l lat ion dance, to make them explore the i r bodies through movement just by a manipu lat ion of the i r percept ion in re la-t ion to a se l f ev ident phenomenon – the i r shadows? A l l that w i thout teaching them, just th rough phys ica l exper ience?Would i t be possib le to achieve a t rue human body exper i-ence by us ing a set-up of severa l opt ica l and dig i ta l -hence pure ly technica l - dev ices?

ChallengeS of the PRoJeCt

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

15

hardwareThe room is ana lyzed by two b lack & whi te CCT v Cameras, a lso known f rom v ideo sur ve i l lance. The cameras are equipped wi th inf ra red f i l te rs to make them bl ind for the changing l ight of the v i-deo pro jector, that work w i th l ight w i th in a d i f fe rent range of wave-length (more in the b lue range). The b&w camera-sensor in com-binat ion wi th the inf ra red f i l te r is a lso less suscept ib le to fau l ts of var iat ion in l ight c i rcumstances in the room (for example the l ight of mobi le phones etc.).The cameras are equipped wi th var io-zoom lenses, so they can be adjusted for a setup in d i f fe-rent spaces, w i th d i f fe rent s ize in h igh and dimensions. Ana logue cameras are used, to be ab le to use cables wi th more than 5 me-ters. uSB and f i rewi re is l imi ted by a cable length of 5 meters. r ight now wi re less cameras are not ac-ceptab le in te rms of latency, cost and re l iab i l i t y.

ShadowingteChniCal aBStRaCt

Al l camera informat ion is captured wi th a v ideo capture card that ’s ab le to prov ide th is informat ion to the computer in rea l-t ime. Wi th a max imum latency of on ly 40 mi l-l iseconds, the t ime for t ransfor-mat ion of movement into sound and image is near ly impercept ib le to the v is i to r. A l l mot ion-captur ing and mot ion-ana lys is, as wel l as the creat ion of sound and the an ima-t ion of the pro jected shadow is rea l ized wi th the programming en-v i ronment max /msp/j i t te r 5.0.7. The sof tware is p layed on Win-dows 7 wi th a standard PC, but w i l l work on di f fe rent computer se-tups inc luding macoS, i f p rov ided.The sof tware is a lso prepared for var iab le sound creat ions and v ideo setups wi th programmable preset set t ings.

woRkflow with Max/MSP/JitteR

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

The f i rst camera is at tached above the cent re of the space, absolu te min imum is 4,80 meters. Wi th th is camera, the sof tware is ab le to ana lyze severa l behav iours of the v is i to rs movement, fo r example the posi t ion, the speed of movement, fo r ward and back ward movements, the of f-a x is angle of the v is i to rs shoulders etc. There a re def ined parameters the sof tware uses to ana lyze the v ideo informat ion prov ided by the cameras. To reco-gnize the movements, the sof tware is programmed wi th the so ca l led background-subtract ion technique. Wi th th is technique, the captured p icture is a lways compared wi th an p icture of the empt y room that is recorded in advance. Ever y aber rat ion of p ixe l in the rea l-t ime ana lys is of the v ideo p icture to the pre-recorded model of the empt y

CaMeRa SetuP

room is interpreted by the sof t-ware as movement.

The second camera is pos i t ioned on the shor t end of the wal l op-posi te to the back drop in 0,8m height in a specia l meta l cube, which conta ins a l l e lect ron ic equipment (PC, inter face, ampl i f ie r ). Wi th th is camera the s i lhouet te of the an imated sha-dow is generated. Wi th the back-ground-subtract ion technique the out l ine of an v is i to r is recognized by the sof tware and can be t rans-formed in i ts d imensions, can be rotated etc.. The requi rement for a t idy out l ine recogni t ion is a wel l i l luminated background wi th inf ra-red l ight informat ion. Th is method is comparable to the b lue screen used in f i lm and v ideo technique.

17Zkm karlsruhe | technical drawing ShADoWInG neues museum Weimar

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

19

Technica l requi rements of the presentat ion spaceThe needs of power of the v ideo pro jector and the 4-channel sur round system depends on the d imensions of the room, where the setup is im-p lemented.A l l changes in the stage design has to be ar ran-ged wi th th is technica l needs. for example: d i f-fe rent f loor mater ia ls acqui re a d i f fe rent inf ra red l ight setup because of the mater ia ls l ight ref lec-t ion, or new inf ra red lamps wi l l perhaps resu l t in other needs for the inf ra red f i l te rs of the cameras . . .I f const ructed in the standard setup as descr ibed here and in deta i l in the technica l r ider the ope-rat ion of the insta l lat ion is approved. Specia l ized super v isor y staf f is not necessar y. The museum / exh ib i t ion guards swi tch on the lCD pro jector in the day and swi tch i t of f at n ight by remote cont ro l. The system successfu l l y ran at the exh ib i t ion v IS Ion. DAS SEhEn at neuse museum Weimar in summer 2011 in a 6 weeks non-stop presentat ion inc luding ever yday auto sta r t /stop. ht tp://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stor ies/stor yreader$7718

exhiBition SetuP

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

Year of product ion 2011funded by kunstst i f tung nrW / A r ts foundat ion of nor th rhine- Westpha l iaCo produced by Char le ro i /Danses Cen-t re chorégraphique de la Communauté f rança ise de Belg ique Suppor ted by Tanzhaus nrW Düsseldor f Weimar exh ib i t ion suppor ted by kunst-st i f tung nrW / A r ts foundat ion of nor th rhine- Westpha l ia

PRoduCtion detailS

Exhib i t ion fee Pr ice on requestconsist ing oforganisat ion fee Pipo Tafe l (exh ib i t ion product ion & di rect ion) setup fee Danie l Ber wanger ( technica l d i rect ion & on-s i te adaptat ion) equipment fee ( l is t ava i lab le / see technica l r ider)

Terms and Condi t ions are negot iab le.

feeS

217

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

foundat ion Baden-Wür t temberg St i f tung media A r t & f i lm Promot ion Pr ice 2011

w w w.ku l tu rpre is-baden-wuer t temberg.de/pre ist raeger/pre ist raeger-ku l tu rpre is-2011.html

Zkm Centre for A r t&media kar ls ruhe Wal ter-f ink-Award for Dance,

E lect roacoust ic music and media 2010

w w w.f ink-pre is.de/pre ist raeger2010.html - tafe l

Pè lèr inages Ar t and music fest iva l new museum Weimar Exh ib i t ion 2011

„v is ion. Das Sehen“

ht tp://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stor ies/stor yreader$7718

(work ing t i t le) known as ‚ThE Box of PETEr PAn’

Tanzhaus nrW Düsseldor f Temps d’ Images fést iva l 2010 chant ie r

ht tp:// tanzhaus.st-development.com/f i les/assets/ images/164_or ig ina l.pdf?2011

Charleroi/Danses programme européen france- Wallonie-vlaanderen InTErrEG Iv residence

http://charleroi-danses.officity.com/Public2/DossierSpectacle.php?ID=1982&child1=4463&page=1&language=eng

le manège.mons/Centre des Écritues Contemporaines et numériques 2 vIA 2010 festival panel

f e S t i v a l SexhiBitionSReSidenCieS

23

Ar t is t ic Copyr ight of th is pro ject and tex t P ipo Tafe l

Photos by Paul Schöpfer / pau lschoepfer.de

CReditS

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

Pipo Tafel is video artist and dancer and was born in Stuttgart, South Germany, in 1979. he studied media Arts at the university of Arts and Design karlsruhe and contemporary dance at the folkwang university Essen. he completed his studies with the accomplishment of the D.A.n.C.E. master Courses in Brussels, marseille, Aix-en-Provence and Dresden. his collaborations include projects with artists such as William forsythe, Wayne mcGregor and Thierry De mey. he has been showing his installation and dance related film works in festivals in Europe and northern America since 2006. Since 2010 he regularly teaches dance & film at the Palucca university for Dance Dresden for the Bachelor and master Degrees as well as for foundations and cultural programs in Stuttgart and Cologne. Pipo Tafel lives in Cologne.

rECEnT ExhIBITIonS

TrIkonSTrukTIon Borderline / mixed media, EWErk, media Arts at oberrhein, 2012www.vimeo.com/pipotafel/trikonstruktion

onE ThrEE TWo (133)Zkm karlsruhe ImATronIC festival of Electronic music, 2011 http://vimeo.com/pipotafel/onethreetwo

rEkonSTrukTIon Clouth Werke Cologne 2011www.vimeo.com/pipotafel/rekonstruktion

AWArD AnD rEfErEnCES

2012Grenzwerte | mixed media, exhibition ‘media Art at upper-rhine‘, E-WErk freiburg

2011foundation Baden-Württemberg Stiftung new media & film Promotion Price 2011

PiPo tafel CuRRiCuluM vitae

25

2010Walter-fink-Award of the Zkm karlsruhe for Dance, Electro acoustic music and mediaStipend Dance research #6 nrW kulTursekretariat / Theater festival fAvorITEn 2010 Dortmund Temps d’Images festival 2010 chantier Tanzhaus nrW Düsseldorf Working stipend of the north-rhine-Westphalia Government Dance & new media residence Project Charleroi Danses - Centre chorégraphique de la Communauté française Bruxelles InTErrEG Iv

2009 honorary mentioning of the German filmbewertungsstelle for SAlZ Im AuGEPerforming Arts Stipend 2009 of The Arts foundation Baden-Württemberg fine Arts funding of the Arts foundation of north-rhine Westphalia 3x3 Choreographic Dialogues, PACT Zollverein Choreographic Centre nrW Essen

2008 – 2012Studio stipend of kölnischer kunstverein, Imhoff foundation & rheinEnergiestiftung

2008 Tanzplan Dresden Promoting young talent Dance production at Semper oper Dresden kleine szene

2006 - 2007German Academic Exchange Service Stipend, leonardo da vinci Stipend of the Eu Sadler‘S Wells Theater london, Dance Camera West film festival los Angeles national Short film funding, film funding nrW, Arts foundation nrW

2006Yearly Stipend for Choreographers and Dancers of the Arts foundation of north- rhine Westphalia Scholarship of the french government/ hCCfA (haut conseil culturel franco allemand)Cartes Blanches, Ballet Preljocaj - Centre national de Chorégraphie Aix-en-Provence

2004 kunststiftung nrW participation scholarship Symposium blast theory, forsythe, rimini Protokoll@PACT Zollverein Essen

27

Tr a i l e r

w w w . v i m e o . c o m / p i p o t a f e l / s h a d o w i n g

watCh Shadowing online

E x h i b i t i o n S e t u p

w w w . v i m e o . c o m / p i p o t a f e l / s h a d o w i n g w e i m a r

Pipo Tafel dance film installation

i aPPReCiate youR attention

29

Pipo Tafe l2012

Shadowing

CONTACT

Pipo Tafe l +49 176 9651 9902 Mai l p ipposch@web.de

Ar t ist websi te www.v imeo.com/pipotafe l