Pools, pixies and potentials

Abstract

Interactive dance works create new dramaturgical challenges, where notions of relationship and inter-relationships may be dynamic, where overall structure and form are malleable and where, the performer often needs to have multiple, parallel awareness’s. Composition of a work is challenging in this arena as form, narrative (linear or non-linear) and the consideration of ‘interaction’ all require careful and simultaneous deliberation. Furthermore, systems that do not use pre-recorded content (music or video), but rely on synthesis of all material in performance, break down the traditional processes of content creation and rehearsal, where constraints are set on material and the work is formed into a known whole, followed by a performance phase. In an interactive system with real time synthesis, the performance is also the moment of content creation. The authors are addressing these challenges through constructing clusters of potentials with inherent sets of relationships. Pools of potentiality may contain any number of composed foci and become the fundamental dramaturgical device, suggesting paths through the work, and relationships between interactive input and performative outcomes.