Trans-locale
Trans-locale is a hybrid, in person and online performance exploring the transitory nature of interaction, and movement as a physical and virtual activity.
Year: 2001
Performances: ‘National Review of Live Art’, The Arches, Glasgow, Scotland (2001); Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2001); ‘INTERSTANDING 4 - end repeat’ at Arts Centre Rotermann's Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia (2001); ‘Virtual Incarnations Exchange’ Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England (2002).
Trans-locale was a performance intervention within the environment of online video conferencing, in it’s early days. The work used the CuSeeMe client, a vast and varied network of users, connecting to video conferencing reflectors or servers, organised by themes, level of experience and membership. Within this, then still relatively new technology, certain standards had already evolved, particularly in how users present themselves, which was generally as a talking head, staring blankly at the computer screen.
In stark contrast to this, trans-locale threw into this video conferencing environment, perhaps one of the most inherently physical activities, dance. And within that, one of the most stereotypically passionate and intimate of dances, the Tango.
"It prevails as the most passionate portrayal of life's inherent feelings passing into a suite of prescribed motions" ('Tango' Richard Martin)
The work broadcast two spot-lit dancers, live from an in person performance space, onto a programmed series of online video conferencing reflectors. Here they weaved another level of 'dance', as the programme automated the dancers’ digitally broadcast stream around the globe, connecting to a conference for a set period, before disconnecting and connecting to the next. In this way the dancers leapt from server to server, country to country, temporarily visible to those connected to each of the selected conference reflectors, before disappearing off to the next.
Within the in person performance space the audience experienced the dancers live, within the same physical space, and simultaneously witnessed their broadcast as a digital CuSeeMe stream, projected as a large-scale backdrop. The dancers became both performers, mediated content and a bridge for the audience, between the in person and online environment.
Collaborators: Clea Wallis and Paul Rous, of Dudendance (dancers), Colin Hall - Electronic Design & Software Consulting (programming)
Funded by: The work was a co-commission between New Media Scotland, the Richard Hough Resource at Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, and New Moves International.
