Austrian composer and multimedia artist Klaus Obermaier had National Concert Hall audiences enthralled in March when he joined forces with the National Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Brad Lubman to present his Le Sacre du Printemps — Interactive 3D Media Dance.
The mix of Igor Stravinsky’s score, Austrian ballerina Julia Mach’s lithe body, the technology created by Ars Electronica Futurelab in Austria and Obermaier’s fertile brain was mind-blowing and left audiences hungry for more.
Luckily, New Aspect had already booked Obermaier into the National Theater this month with another of his multi-media productions, Apparitions II, created in 2006.
The hourlong show combines live performance — by dancers Desiree Kongeroed and Matthew Smith — with real-time video projections, motion-capture technology and a soundscape by Obermaier. It expands on Apparition, which was created in 2004 with Smith as the sole performer.
In Apparition II, Smith and Kongeroed not only interact with each other and the projections created by Obermaier, they also serve as the canvas for the electronic imagery. The motion tracking system feeds the dancers’ outlines to a computer, which then calculates the speed, direction and intensity needed for the visual projections, as well as the volume of the music. Smith and Kongeroed not only influence what the other is doing, but the music and visuals as well.
During his visit to Taipei in March, I asked Obermaier about his creative process and Apparition II.
Taipei Times: You are described as a musician, artist, director and choreographer. How do you define
your role?
Obermaier: I studied music and visual arts at the same time. When I was 14 years old I decided to become a painter, but there was always the music. It came together by going into performing arts.
The stage, I was always thinking about how to present yourself, even when I was just beginning to learn the guitar. So it was natural to work with dancers. I see stage design as a visual art form. Working with performers I became more and more interested in choreography.
I don’t feel these are different jobs, for me it’s perfectly natural. It’s an integrated process that I enjoy very much. I don’t have to wait on others.
I even do some programming, not the hard-core, like C++, but the video, just because I’m interested in it. All these things are equally important. A choreographer who wants to add something first does the choreography, then adds the new technology. For classical music, the music is the most important thing and then they add something else. But for me, it is different. It’s not adding an extra. When I’m doing this, everything is completely integrated, completely equal. That’s what interests me. This is a totally different view, but you have to do it this way, it’s perfectly natural.
TT: How do you choose your projects?
Obermaier: Usually I have some idea that I work on, and then someone comes along and asks me to do something. I had the staging for Sacre and then the director of the Bruckner Festival asked me to do something with Sacre. I am always surprised by this. Someone always asks me. I enjoy working by myself and then someone comes along and says, “we have to stage this.” I’m not interested if someone asks me to do a video for them. I’m lucky enough I can do it this way, I must say.
TT: What inspires you?
Obermaier: Usually the content of the project, the story. I don’t do narrative projects, but there is a narrative. D*A*V*E* was about new technology and bodies. That was interesting on one person, but would not have been with five people. Vivisector was a totally different thing — how virtual stories [videogames] are changing how we behave, how we look, the speed. This was a kind of experiment so it made sense to have more people. Apparition is about interaction. The immediate idea was to have a man and a woman and an interactive system. Sacre is about the sacrifice of a woman, it’s one dancer and the audience are the masses. So the choice is quite simple, the idea is very clear from the beginning.
TT: How long does it take you to develop a project?
Obermaier: It took one year to develop this production [Apparition II]. It’s very similar to when two persons are dancing on stage; they don’t always see each other. If you have a digital system, it’s a real performing partner. Sometimes dancers, one jumps or when one is holding you, you have to trust them. This digital system, you know it, you trust it, so there is not much difference with this digital system and a human partner.
It is also an interesting thing with Apparition II is that it doesn’t tell a story, it’s about interaction. I created different situations and then had to work with these contexts. It’s about communication, interactivity by itself.
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