DPI:

Why use media on stage?

Hal Eagar:

It just seems like an obvious extension to stage spectacle to me, it always has. Now maybe I should be doing something less obvious but I seem to be good at theatre and media which makes it hard to switch gears; besides after 13 years it's finally caught on; so no stopping now. But really it's satisfing because I'm good at improvising and doing things for which there are no maps or standard techniques. If a technique becomes established then someone with more patience will probably learn to do it better and with more finesse than I do it fairly quickly. But I hope I have moved on to figuring out some new problem by then. Also art, particularly where art and technology meet is one of the sweet spots to do that kind of playful work. I would not want to be take risks or allowed to take the kind of chances and experimental approaches if I was writing code for medical devices, or even contact databases. I do engage in that type of more staid as a day job and it can have some enjoyable challenges, but it's not as playful and the results are not so visceral.

So I said nothing about why the audience should be interested yet. Well, the direct visceral results may be enough for some audience, but that's not my thought when working.

Sometimes do I think about wanting to compete with film and TV and video games but to get to caught up with your competitors may get in the way of fresh ideas so I'll leave that to the media experts, and try to approach media in theatre as a novice not an adept. And so the resasond I do is just to discover what can be done.

DPI:

Do you have a defined aesthetic prior to seeing a script? What is your aesthetic?

Hal Eagar:

Spectacle is defiantly my aesthetic, I said that maybe the work I do is not exactly the work I like to go see, but even so it's still about creating a bit more spectacle. That's the magic that makes it worth it to go to the theatre. Which brings me to the next thing I was going to say, which is that my aesthetic is not cinematic. On the one hand I hardly ever go to the movies, so I probably have one of the least developed senses of cinematic vocabulary of anyone in this country, let alone people working in video. But all the same it's not foreign to me it is the new language of images, an we use it everywhere. I think a lot of the urge to bring media on stage is to create a cinematic effect, because we think in that visual language, and maybe because the theatre is trying to compete with film. And though I probably do, do that a lot, it's really not my intent, there is no way for even a huge budget theatre to compete with a multi-million dollar film. So what theatre needs to give you is something else. Seeing someone you know on stage is one thing, which I love, but it's not something "media" can bring you.
 read full post »

DPI:

What media effects have made you cringe as an audience member?

like fog on stage. Can be good but is dangerously cheesy.

Hal Eagar:

Projecting a picture of the "set", I admit It still sometimes happens in my designs, and actually the "All Wear Bowlers" example I list as a favorite was exactly that, so it's not that it's 100% bad, but it's defiantly a dangerous choice.

Another thing to watch out for is "one big screen", it's not necessarily bad, but it's got a lot of danger to it. There is a high chance of it either being dull, or drawing too much audience focus; or worse both. I like multiple screens, or heck no screens at all, just free floating media.

Do You Copy? is a multimedia puppet show, meaning that we integrate live cameras with the live puppets. I'm not so interested in making videos, but more interested in finding the interaction between real space and virtual space in a theatrical setting. So Do You Copy? uses live video that is projected back onto a variety of mobile projection screens. And also some video textures that are an attempt to create dynamics of emotion or kinesthetic experience. These textures are used like instrumental music that guides a viewers sensations, rather than direct storytelling elements.

So the actual technology of the show is quite simple. I'm not trying to use any fancy triggers or tracking, just really simple interaction via a live camera.

The 'story' of the piece is also about the effects of technology on one's person. Really about the disparate self created via the neverending supply of digital pictures, email accounts, social networking, site aggregators, chat, etc that in some ways define who we are as individuals. And how much control we do or do not, can or cannot have on creating our own definitions.

The content sounds like a very thoughtful show when i read the above paragraph, but really it's more of an action-packed sci-fi. Here are some pictures of the work we did in April at 10 Jay st in Brooklyn.

Further development is happening at the Little Angel Theater in London this July

and
 read full post »

Troika Ranch Champagne Party Fundraiser
EVENT:June 25 2008 7-9 PM $50 and up
Affirmation Arts
523 West 37th St

A chance to reconnect with our local community, meet
new people, and celebrate with live music, art, refreshments and more!

The event will celebrate and expose the creative process of Loop Diver Troika Ranch's current work-in-development. Get a glimpse behind the scenes at the
choreography, sceneography and visual imagery.

The evening will include free-flowing champagne and hors d'oeuvre's, a live excerpt from Loop Diver and a Troika Ranch interactive installation, set design models and drawings from Colin Killian, and the exquisite art of William T. Hillman on view.

The evening will conclude with live music and dancing featuring Jacob Jiles and his band and guests Adam Matta and Noah Hoffeld

Ballet Mécanique / Frequency Hopping
PERFORMANCE: June 22
   7PM Frequency Hopping
   Followed by Ballet Mécanique

3LD Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich St, NYC

Following a special evening performance this Sunday of the Hourglass
Group's new play Frequency Hopping, Paul Lehrman and LEMUR will present
Ballet Mécanique, George Antheil's mind-breaking 1924 work for
sychronized player pianos and lots and lots of percussion. It will be
performed by eight Yamaha Disklaver player pianos and an array of LEMUR
percussion robots including two xylophones, four bass drums, a gong, a
siren, seven doorbells and three "airplane propellors". It will also be
accompanied by the collaborative film of the same title by Fernand
Lèger.

I will probably compile this list into a permanent page on the DPI site, but to get things rolling I'm just starting with a few lists quick postings of some of my favorite resources in NYC.

If you've got a favorite resource I should add then please let DPI know

Digital Performance Institute
15 west 26th st
http://digitalperformance.org

HERE Arts Center
145 6th Avenue NYC
http://here.org

3ld
80 Greenwich St. NYC
http://www.3ldnyc.org

Ontological-Hysteric Incubator
St. Mark's Church131 east 10th st NYC
http://www.ontological.com/INCUBATOR

EYEBEAM
540 W. 21st Street, NYC
http://eyebeam.org

LEMUR / LEMURplex
461 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn
http://www.lemurbots.org

Location One
26 Greene Street NYC
http://www.location1.org

Monkeytown
58 N. 3rd St. between Kent and Wythe, Brooklyn
http://www.monkeytownhq.com

One Arm Red
10 Jay St. DUMBO, 9th floor
http://www.onearmred.com

The Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, L.I.C.
http://www.chocolatefactorytheater.org
 read full post »

Assember Dilator
PERFORMANCE:  June 20,  21 8PM $10
Bushwick Starr

207 Starr St. Brooklyn, NY

ASSEMBER DILATOR is A loud work in progress with Caitlin McDonough Thayer and Mike Sharpie.
Featuring the work of Shannon Sindelar, Mirit Tal, Jon Luton, Andreea Mincic, TaraFawn and Benjamin Brown.

31 Down creates moody, audio-based imagistic work infused with obsession, voyeurism, time and ingenuity; covering such topics as surveillance, privacy, invention and innovation; telepathy, radio, television, the Internet and mass media; sanity, delusions and the last days and thoughts of people’s lives.

QUESTION:

We have three projectors, and want them to all have the same image.
Is there anyway to connect all three projectors to one computer?

ANSWER:
 read full post »

DPI:

What is your favorite tool(s)?

Hal Eagar:

Well the easy answer is the Computer, or maybe the Nvidia or ATI 3D card. Because maybe my favorite effect is trilinear filtering, (which is an anti-aliasing filter on resized textures. I could blab about that more but it's a bit obscure and uninteresting.

Anyway it's the software that you interact with, so how about I change the question to my favorite software on that "computer"?

Flash, it works the way I think animation ought to, with free running nested time lines.

I really like the nested structures of everything from computer programs, to little drawers, to good play scripts. Anyway programming flash has gotten more complex as they add more and more features, but it's still manages to stay in that sweet spot for me of being easy to just bang out something quick, while letting you get deep and solid and complex when you need to.

Tack a shell like SwfStudio or Zink onto flash and it's a great fast prototype development platform. And that's what theatre is, fast development.

(and hey I think the new flash beta may finally use some of that 3D trilinear scaling)

I still love PERL for the same reasons, easy to hack or get deep and powerful. Though it's way out of style now days, I should be hacking Python instead, but I still prefer PERL.
 read full post »

Ellen Stewart's new adaptation of The Raven

PERFORMANCE: June 12-29
7:30PM $25
La MaMa E.T.C. Annex (66 East 4th
Street)

An American-premiere musical based on the play by 18th-century Italian writer Carlo Gozzi. Ellen Stewart has set
Carlo Gozzi's tale of enchantment in China, transforming the work into a poetic
new musical that blends the Venetian author's timeless fairytale with new
elements inspired by the theatrical aesthetics of China

The Raven tells the story of King Milo who shoots a crow during a hunting expedition, then is placed under a horrific curse by the bird's owner. To be delivered from that curse he must find a
woman who possesses special qualities.

featuring an international cast from The Great Jones Repertory Company

QUESTION:

"Is there some equipment I can hook up to a mac mini that will let me output the control screen to a monitor and the video to the projector?"

ANSWER:

1. Matrox DualHead 2 Go or Matrox TripleHead 2 Go
   1. This is probably the best easy option for the Mac Mini.
   2. Dual Head to go $140 Plus shipping
   3. TripleHead 2 Go $250 Plus shipping
2. A scan converter with zoom feature
   1. You still have One "monitor" output, but you put the Video off to the side, say in 1/4 of the screen, and use the scan converter to zoom into that quarter of the screen,
   2. Then you have to build the controls in the other quadrants.
   3. If you run the monitor @ 1280x1024 the Quarter screen resolution will be 640x512 which is a bit higher resolution than composite video so you don't suffer that much loss. (unless you are using HD content)
   4. Problems with this are that
      1. Most scan converters suck on some level.
      2. They don't recall the zoom and pan settings when you power them down so you have to reset them each time.
   5. Scan Converter $60 - $170 for low end. ($500 - $2000 for high end)

DPI:

What was your favorite show/moment/effect? Why?

Hal Eagar:

I love spectacle really, and stuff that either just barely makes sense, or is just so spectacular that you don't give a dam if it makes sense. I don't think that's the kind of theater that I tend to make myself, but that's what I like to go see. Sxip Shirey is all that in a totally non-video way, spectacular and surprising, and maybe for me the no video thing is a bonus too. His show "Blood is the Only Good Adhesive in Heaven" may be my favorite theatrical experience.

The first Richard Foreman piece I saw probably triggered some similar moments of wow spectacle being in audience, but that's burned off after a few of his shows.

The start of "All Wear Bowlers" were possibly my favorite 'video' moments, when the two silent film clowns walk in and out of the film. It really brings the video actors into one cohesive place. And even though you might say it's an old trick, it's still great spectacle, and clowning is all old tricks, it's just about doing them well.
 read full post »

Frequency Hopping

BENEFIT PERFORMANCE: June 7th 2008 8PM
$25-$100

9:30pm Antheil's Legacy concert.

10.30pm+ Afterparty with Joshua Fried's RADIO WONDERLAND

3LD Art & Technology Center.
80 Greenwich Street at Rector

Immediate Medium : Benefit and Chuck. Chuck. Chuck.
PREVIEW PERFORMANCE:
June 7, 2008
PARTY: 9pm
$12 - $20
THE TANK at 279 Church Street
BURN THE MOTHER DOWN
Light a fire in your belly with a preview performance, party and open bar to benefit Immediate Medium.

Featuring Megan Campisi, Max Dana, Brady Jenkins, Ben Kerrick, JJ Lind, Siobhan Towey, Liz Vacco,
and Ben Vershbow. Music Consultant Jacob Cooper.
Audio/Video Design by Rob Ramirez.
Music Director Ben Kerrick.
Choreography by Liz Vacco.
Production Design by Maki Takenouchi.
Directed by JJ Lind.
Music by Rob the Rich, Chew Rocks, The Eye of Horus and Lathan Hardy.
Live visuals by Vade.

Pyromania / performance & party
$20 door / $16 advance

The Blowtorch Special
$15 door / $12 advance / party only

The Glowing Fireball Package
includes admission for four people to the performance and
party, with a VIP table with bottle service.
$125 advance purchase only.

Witness Relocation : Vicious Dogs On Premises
www.witnessrelocation.org
PERFORMANCE: May 29 - June 14 2008 8PM $17
Ontological-Hysteric Incubator
www.ontological.com

There are traitors to the Eternal Grand National Assembly of the Great Democratic People’s Republic of DOGMACHINA. This show is about them, and the people who oppose them. It is also about following instructions, having too many options, making choices, torture, paranoia, shifting loyalties, dog fighting, violent criminals, never taking things for granted, dance numbers, falling in love and a possible happy ending.

director/ choreographer DAN SAFER
video KAZ PHILLIPS
sound RYAN MAEKER
technical director DREW BUCK
set/ lights JAY RYAN
costumes PANDORA ANDREA GASTELUM
performed/ co-choreographed by
HEATHER CHRISTIAN, SEAN DONOVAN, MIKE MIKOS, LAURA BERLIN STINGER
inspired by, & with scenes from, a script by SAVIANA STANESCU
press JONATHAN SLAFF

DPI:

What were you doing before that and how did you get lead into using media or live performances?

Hal Eagar:

I seem to have always fallen into the theatre tech even in elementary and middle school, it's a bit freaky because it's not like there was any opportunity to do it, I just somehow did. But anyway by the time I was in High school there was opportunity, and I did a lot of design and crew work. So when I went to school at Purchase being a stage hand was what I was doing to pay my way through school. (though not in their theatre design-tech program). Video and Computers were always pretty easy for me, I worked for a AV rental house doing conventions in Hawaii where I went to High School, doing low and high end video for corporate meetings. And I also worked for the Community College on Maui for a while, in their pretty decent video studio doing satellite video teleconferencing classes.
 read full post »

http://www.nycresistor.com/2008/05/16/more-classes-at-nycr/

CLASSES: June 7,8

This time it's a pretty interesting pair of classes on Wind Power, Wind Micropower Workshop, and Motor Contro, Graceful Motor Control.

But at the http://www.nycresistor.com/ you will find a constant line up of interesting little classes.

I've been dreaming about sticking a small generator out my window and see just how much I can generate, if I can generate enough to power my ipod and radio then I'd be happy.