Performance | Portrait | a canary torsi

Performance | Portrait

2016

A person stands on a platform and interacts with a video (a performer gesturing in front of a white curtain.).

A child stands on a platform and interacts with a video (a performer gesturing in front of a white curtain) during a gallery opening event.

A person stands on a platform and interacts with a video (a performer gesturing in front of a white curtain) inside The Wndr Museum.

A projection of a performer standing in front of a white curtain hangs by a small square platform inside a glass house at night.

“an experience to be seduced by, to breathe with”

— Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Infinitebody, “A nearly-winter Wonderland of art at Invisible Dog”

Performance | Portrait was an interactive video installation that invited visitors into an intimate encounter with a performer. A life-size video image of one of four performers holding the gaze of the spectator was projected onto a vertical screen to form the environment. The live action was that of the visitor—whose performance as spectator determines playback of the recorded image. Utilizing a Kinect 2 sensor, the spectator’s gestures and shifts of weight (perhaps in empathic response to the performer) were tracked. The exchange was subtle and unpredictable, inviting a duet between visitor and projected image.

Performance | Portrait was commissioned by and premiered at The Invisible Dog Art Center.

Team

Lead Collaborators: Yanira Castro (Concept), Kathy Couch, Stephan Moore, Julie Wyman

Performers: Anna Azrieli, Leslie Cuyjet, Peter Schmitz, David Thomson

Works-in-Progress

BRIC, BRIClab, Brooklyn, NY, November 20–21, 2015

Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology at Connecticut College, 15th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology, New London, CT, Feb 25–27, 2016

Choreographic Interface Conference, Brown University, Providence, RI, March 3–4, 2016

Presentations

The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY, December 3–31, 2016 and January 5–15, 2017 (World Premiere)

SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME, July 9–August 28, 2021

Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, ME, July 14–31, 2021

Wndr Museum, Chicago, IL, February 26–August 18, 2021

Press

Eva Yaa Asantewaa in InfiniteBody, “A nearly-winter Wonderland of art at Invisible Dog”

Mark Rifkin, This Week in New York

Funding

Commissioning support for Performance | Portrait provided by The Invisible Dog Art Center and Immediate Medium, Catherine Tell Foundation, and the Creative Art Council at Brown University, as a part of The Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI). It was sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). The work was developed, in part, during a BRIClab residency at BRIC House (Brooklyn, NY), a residency with producing partner High Concept Labs (Chicago, IL), and with residency support from Gibney Dance Center (NYC), ISSUE Project Room (Brooklyn, NY), and Amherst College (MA). Additional support provided by UC Davis, CA.

Video

Works