The Great Bike Powered Light Show Dance Party! Steers new technology away from alienation and towards real world, carbon free participation!
Bikers crank power to a boombox and a projector. Music contributed by local musicians plays as digital imagery beams onto the very bodies of the dancer/participants. The visuals follow the shape and movement of the participants, paying attention to every gesture and transforming in reaction to movement and sound.
Goal of Project
Electronic imagery absorbs the focus of our daily lives in an increasing and encompassing manner. We work in front of computer screens, recreate before ever larger TVs, and socialize over smart phones. Before long, reality will be overlaid with Google Glasses, and we will dream of electronic sheep. The time has come for digital images to pay attention to us: to our bodies, our movement, our dance!
Conversely, technology has made our lives so easy that one of the largest health problems facing industrialized nations is obesity. We can order food on the Internet, Skype with friends and work remotely from our beds. It is time that we physically labor, that is we sweat, for our electricity!
First through the technique of dynamic projection mapping to use our bodies as media screens, and second by providing power for all this through bicycle generated electricity, The Great Bike Powered Light Show Dance Party! addresses both of these concerns.
What will participants see?
The participants enter the space into darkness. There are two stationary bicycles in front. Two of the participants mount the bikes and start pedaling. Slightly visible towards the back is an eighties boombox. Also there are white balloons, streamers, and sheets for participants to wrap themselves in. Once everyone is inside, the artist announces the creator of the audio mix and starts the music.
The light show is driven by an algorithm which takes into account the movements of the audience and the sounds from the tape. Light projects onto the walls of the space and the very bodies of the audience. At first they find that they are only partially lit. Some are headless, others only heads. The walls look like that of a prison. Audiences are free to do nothing and remain repressed, or through dance become participants and carve out their liberation. If they move in rhythm with the music the walls open up and more of themselves appear. As participants move together the imagery projected onto them becomes connected. Depending on the music, they may find themselves covered in clouds, lit on fire, or covered in wires with glowing pulses flowing from person to person. The walls become places real and abstract such as forests, space, the sky, or swirls of colored light. The algorithm draws imagery for bodies and walls from a virtual library of images, video, and effects assembled by the artist.