Double District

The six-channel stereo video dance installation is configured in the Re-Actor system, an hexagonal projection environment offering the audience a mobile and versatile platform for sophisticated artistic and cultural manifestation and a physically immersive three-dimensional space of representation that constitutes an augmentation and amalgamation of real and virtual realities. The audience can choose to move freely around the hexagon to view individual screens or step back and watch the screens simultaneously. Each screen displays the same scene from the dance performance specifically choreographed and recorded for this installation, in time synchronicity but from a different perspective, analogous to the architecture of the space within which it is projected.

This configuration of the system arrangement allows members of the audience to experience an immersive three-dimensional virtual space (the architectural container of Re-Actor) in the physical world. The outcome is a very natural interface that does not require introduction or explanation. In common with the material world, a transformation in location and orientation in the exhibition space leads to an equivalent perspective change in the virtual world or the viewpoint the dance performance is observed from.

The properties of a stereo image capture system are critical for the overall quality, depth perception and the sense of reality a viewer observes. The complex relationship between inter-ocular distance, near and far plane, the range of subject movement, focal length and position of the zero parallax plane all had to be defined. These parameters were generated in a theoretical mathematical model first and its values confirmed in an experimental set up. The subjective qualities of the experiment results lead to a minor adjustment of some of the parameters.

Specifically for this installation, Saburo Teshigawara and Rihoko Sato choreographed and performed multiple solos and duet scenes lasting between 30 seconds and 4 minutes long. The multiple view point capture configuration challenged Teshigawara to rethink the traditional notion of stage performance, where the audience is usually restricted to the seating area and the dancers direct their performances accordingly. In this case, the virtual observer is omni-present, and the choreographer does not have knowledge or control over the position of the audience members at any time during the performance. In addition, the relatively restricted usable space on stage and the properties of the stereo capture system influenced the choreography.

The linear composition of the piece was defined as a series of solos and duets in which each began and ended in total blackness. From the beginning of each take, the performers were in place on the dark stage, then the lights faded in, and the take ended with fading lights. This notion simplified the final arrangement of the segments and gave the piece its structure.

State of the art remote-head compact single chip CCD cameras were used to achieve archive cinematic quality and fidelity of imagery. The cameras are able to capture images in high pixel and color resolution (1600×1200 pixel, 10bit) and high frame rate (30 fps progressive). First-rate lenses (Bolex 10mm, from 16mm film cameras) allowed adequate aperture control, minimal color aberration and good focus. Image sensing, capturing, recording and previewing are all in the digital domain, ensuring the best possible image quality. The raw uncompressed data from the twelve cameras is streamed through capture boards directly onto hard disk arrays within the recording computers.