Out of the Box is a live performance interactive light and sound show that focuses on the concept of connection between people.
Dancers perform alone or in groups, enclosed in transparent boxes. Their movements are captured by each box using different sensors (cameras, gyroscope and accelerometer bracelets attached to their arms).
These affect the sound, the projection image and the lights outside the boxes.
How does it work?
Our project is translating into the realm of interactive performance the concept of creating white light inside the RGB color model, which is the model used for electronic devices. If the three colors (red, green, blue) are superimposed with the full intensity of light, then the white color is formed.
Based on this principle, the three boxes present in our installation, whose main background color (given by LED lights) are RGB, are able to make connections of light between each other and change the color of the light accordingly. Not only that, but each connection made affects the sound, and is made visible on the projection screen.
What is a connection?
A connection is made when one of the dancers pulls the rubber bands towards one of the neighbour boxes.
For example, if Red triggers the Blue, then a RB connection is made, and the lights are changing accordingly: both Red and Blue boxes start blinking, and then parts of the boxes change their color to Magenta (which results as an addition of Red and Blue).
The same principle is applied to whichever box initiates the connection. When both neighbours are triggered, this implies that all three colors are going to be added, thus leading to the formation of White light. So, if Red triggers both Green and Blue, all the boxes are going to blink, and then transform from R, G, B to White.
This last connection, the climax, also marks the end of the performance, and takes away from the performers the possibility to initiate new connections. After the climax state is done, the performance is ready to start again, while the visitors are free to leave the garden (this was created during the pandemic, so it was necessary that a continuous flux of people would pass through the garden).
This performance is the work of an interdisciplinary and international group, comprised of students from:
- DN MADe light management option, Lycée Branly (Lyon)
- Master in Interactive Technologies For Performative And Media Arts, CINETic UNATC (Bucharest)
- Architecture, HTWK (Leipzig)
- Drama/movement/dance, Arts en Scène
- Choreography, artistic direction (Natacha Paquignon): Compagnie Corps au Bord, Lyon
- Technical assistance: French-German Youth Office, Grand Lyon la Métropole, Goethe-Institut Lyon, German Consulate in Lyon, City of Leipzig and Rakor Plomberie.