The Golem Labor is an international interactive workshop series that uses motion capture technology for dancers to explore and create movement across virtual space. The Labor takes place at Goethe Institute locations around the world, partnering with local dance communities and technological institutions for this cutting-edge research series.
The Golem Labor explores movement interactions with the Rokoko Motion Capture System. Each workshop is designed to explore modalities of movement within motion capture software, dancing, tracking and researching how the body moves in virtual space. The series is furthermore designed to create a safe space of play and experimentation to enable dancers the opportunity to co-create and utilize technology in an artistic capacity. Participants in the workshop will be trained on how to use the Rokoko system and provided with research prompts to guide movement. These movements will be captured and recorded via the Rokoko system, compiling an archive of recorded dance across the Labor series. The resulting research will culminate in a performance, combining virtual movements and environments. We hope to create a community of like-minded creatives through the Golem Labor workshops to connect through motion-captured dancing over two years (2020-2021).
NEW LABOR STRUCTURE
The Golem-Labor will facilitate remote motion capture labors with each partner city (Bogota, Riga and Tel Aviv). Rokoko motion capture suits will be sent to each Goethe-Institut partner city facilitating a satellite labor structure. The movement data will be sent back to the Golem-Labor Berlin team to assemble into a unified virtual movement visualization.
To simplify the labor due to the remote structure, we will focus on the dancers’ research and embodiment with Motion Capture Technology. The new emphasis will be on the dancers’ movement research, engagement and dance generation with the technology in order to record a robust dataset of movements and ensure a high-quality labor experience. We will host a 1–2-day remote Labor, where the dancers work with one technologist to explore moving in the Rokoko motion capture system and record movements to be sent back to the Berlin team.
END RESULT
The end goal is to take the recorded movement of dancers from the cities internationally and assemble a virtual theater with an Interactive visualization of motion-capture dance from around the world. This interactive visualization would be via Mozilla Hubs in which a user could click on different cities and view the representations of movement from each location and their unique expressive modality.
TIMELINE:
Riga, Latvia: September 27, 2021
Bogota, Columbia Labor: TBD Fall 2021
Tel Aviv, Israel Labor: TBD Fall 2021
December
Final Presentation in Virtual Space of Interactive movement visualization. We will meet in Mozilla Hubs in curated rooms; different rooms will be different cities and dance sections. This virtual interaction will allow for individuals to engage with the movement data personally and have collective discussions.
Produced by Goethe Institut in Riga in cooperation with the RIXC Center for New Media Culture.
