Like Someone Who Wants to be Alone With Their Laughter

An interactive dance installation by Ken James, Alone With Their Laughter, encourages an embodied presence of the audience while bringing up themes of labor, nature, and place.

Laughter required 3 image mapped video projectors, three Raspberry Pi computers with cameras for interactivity, multiple directional speakers, all run through Isadora.

like someone who wants to be alone with their laughter

A digital interactive dance installation consisting of a three-sided room with projections on the inside and outside walls. Dealing with themes of connection and separation, obscurification and clarity, this installation works to engage the audience so that they have a visceral, embodied experience of the work.

12 dance and movement artists from Berlin to San Francisco will participate in the creative work for this piece, plus 6 artists behind the scenes working on sound, sets and video.

The walls of the room are 10’x10′ or 12’x12′ depending on space with a video on each outside and inside surface. The installation has two ‘sides’ and the outside of the room is more external, movement oriented – less personal, the inside is a short series of loops triggered by using headphones, which are more surreal and story oriented.

• Length of outside room loops:  15 minutes with alternate loops/images
• Length of inside room loops: 3-6 minutes

Goal:

The goal is to have the audience/viewer be the embodied component in a digital dance environment, and to discuss how we connect (or not) with others and our own selves.

Testing

The initial testing of interactivity and images was done at the Franklin Junior High Buildings, a multi-use space in Des Moines Iowa. Because of physical space limitations, the test was limited to the outside projections of the installation. Audience actions were tracked, images were tested and, really, a lot of fun was had.

Test images were shot in prairie areas using hand held cameras and drones with our expert drone pilot Leo. Other images were shot in pools, on walls, and used from footage previously shot by Ken James and FTPG.

These images are then image mapped onto a model of the room to test how effective they are in conveying the images and context for the work.

Phase 1 of the final production was shown at the Franklin Junior High School Project. Over 70 people viewed and interacted with the installation in Spring of 2019.