On September 29th 2021, VYV’s cutting edge LIDAR-based tracking system was deployed outside the lab to support Touch, an interactive dance performance.
Produced by Lighthouse Immersive in Toronto, Touch is the fruit of an ongoing collaboration between choreographer Guillaume Côté and multimedia designer Thomas Payette. Having met earlier on Frame by Frame, a Robert Lepage dance work produced by the National Ballet of Canada, the creative duo already had experienced the vast possibilities offered by PHOTON when used in conjunction with choreographic content.
Time had passed since and VYV’s relentless R&D led the company to invent a robust, flexible, scalable, marker-less tracking system combining inputs from multiple sensors. Built into ALBION, this new system can merge the incoming fluxes provided by LIDARs to acquire information related to the position and orientation of performers.
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Data tied to morphological changes is also extracted allowing ALBION to see how the performers move. Being able to qualify the performers’ movements allow creators to translate choreographic details into rich generative video content that is directly linked to the ongoing action. Also, the absence of awkward optical markers is definitely a plus since the movements of performers are not hindered — they are allowed to flow freely through a large performance space scanned by multiple LIDARs.
Have a look at the video excerpt to get a feel of the fully interactive stage projects you will be able to create with ALBION.
Creative Direction and Choreography:
Guillaume Côté
Video and Interactive Design:
Thomas Payette
Production Management:
Étienne Lavigne
PHOTON Programmers:
Gabrielle Martineau, Chet Miller