Virtual Venues +Multi-Location Performance

November 9-10, 2012,  Artistic Director and long time Z-Lab collaborator, John Crawford, organized a symposium titled "Virtual Venues: Exploring Materiality and Gesture."  Z-Lab at UC Berkeley and the Embodied Media and Technology Lab at UC Irvine had a direct real-time interaction on November 9th and 10th. The event focused on a new research model for the University of California system. It involved two days of exchange, research, and creative work.

February 21, 2012: Distance Based Choreography Workshop

Two hour bi-located collaboration with Lisa Naugle’s Advanced Choreography Class with MFA candidates in dance from the UC Irvine Dance Department.  The session included choreographic studies across the network utilizing two undergraduate dancers from the UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. 

February 8, 2012: Workshop on Multiple-location Performance

Workshop in the Z-Lab utilizing two different performance nodes connected through a local area network to create a co-located environment for experiments related to performance. The workshop continued and was included in Lisa’s sophomore seminar class on tele-presence.

 May 27, 2011: “Collage Study #1” with Art.on.Wires 2011

The Z-Lab connected with the University of Oslo for the Art.on.Wires festival 2011. The title of the work that was shared for the festival: “Collage Study #1” Collaborators: John Crawford (Professor, UC Irvine), Jason Geistweidt (UIT/Verdione/World Opera Project), Liv Hanne Haugen (Dance Artist), Lisa Wymore (Professor, UC Berkeley), Ryan Smith (Composer, MFA Candidate Mills College)  Dancers: Liv Hanne Haugen, Lisa Wymore  Organizer: Niels Lund , University of Tromsø/ Verdione/World Opera Project. The performance was derived from a three-hour workshop which took place in the afternoon session of Art.on.Wires festival. It was an exploration between two sites (UC Berkeley and the Art.on.Wires workshop studio) – layering digital materials, virtual bodies, and creating new places within which the performers resonate and communicate. The performance lasted approximately 1 hour and ranged from quiet improvisational scores to full “contact” dance phrases supported by a collaborative musical score utilizing the program Jack Trip.

Below are images from "Collage Study #1"

Spring Term 2011 with performances on May 13 and 14, 2011: Bi-located Performance with Tyler Spencer, a Graduate Student within the Department of Dance, UC Irvine held a co-located performance utilizing the Z-Lab and the Embodied Media & Performance Technology Lab. Over the course of the entire term, Tyler would connect to the Z-Lab during regular scheduled meeting times. Her work involved numerous student performers and participants. Live aspects of the performance were viewed from both the UC Irvine location and within the Z-Lab, both open to the public.

April 23, 2011: Flesh and Media: An Interactive Salon

The Art Research Center created an event for the Z-Lab entitled "Flesh and Media: An Interactive Salon" with Ellen Bomberg, John Crawford, and Abigail de Kosnik. The event included an interactive demonstration of Active Space technology followed by a discussion and a reception.

April 18, 2011 and April 20, 2011: Theater 166 Creative Inquiry in Media, Movement, and Performance

The Z-Lab hosted the class entitled Theater 166: Creative Inquiry in Media, Movement, and Performance, which met – from a distance – with Professor John Crawford’s Digital Media Performance class. These bi-located classes were treated as Open Studios and the public was invited to participate. At each event, over 20 people attended to see students engage with two-way live video streaming and interactive video technology. These Open Studios were part of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies annual concert series entitled the Berkeley Dance Project.