Intelligence, Interation, Reaction and Performance

Susan Broadhurst is a writer and practitioner in the creative arts. She is the Subject Leader of Drama Studies and has worked at Brunel since 1999. Prior to this she was based in Australia at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth. She is also co-editor of the Body, Space & Technology online journal and is currently working on a series of collaborative practice based research projects entitled, "Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance," which involve introducing various interactive digital technologies into live performance including, artificial intelligence, 3D film, modelling and animation, and motion tracking. The first of which was Blue Bloodshot Flowers. In this chapter, she discusses a series of performances that utilize new technologies. The first is Blue Bloodshot Flowers and the second is Dead East, Dead West. Through both of performances she wants to say about new liminal spaces, that is, tension-filled spaces where opportunities arise for new experimental forms and practices.
Blue Bloodshot Flowers is a movement-scripted piece. It involves the remembrance of a love affair. It performed at Brunel University, West London, and the 291 Gallery, London, in 2001. It consisted of the real time interaction between a human performer, Elodie Berland, and Jaremiah, an avatar(computer-generated image). Jeremiah is a head model based upon Geoface technology(DECface). Jeremiah consists of computerized artificial intelligence with the ability to track humans, objects, and other stimuli and to react to what's going on near him directly and in real time. Most people find him 'spooky' at first and then familiarity. From a technological perspective, Jeremiah is based around two subsystem: a graphics system, which constitutes the head; and a vision system that allows him to see.
Dead East, Dead West was an experimental sound- and movement-based piece with some fragmented script, and was fused with 3D interactive technology. It consisted of motion tracking, interactive pads, and miniature cameras. In addition, Dead East, Dead West was an intercultural and interracial performance that explored and exploded the margin between what is seen as dominant Western art practices and the 'exotic' performance of the 'other'.
She says that 'Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance' is an ongoing project of what is hoped will be a variety of performances which combine the physical and virtual in performance. In conclusion, she proposes that although much interest is directed towards new technologies, technology's most important contribution to art is the enhancement and reconfiguration of an aesthetic creative potential which consists of interaction with and reacting to a physical body, not an abandonment of that body.