SUMMARY OF THE EXHIBIT
Images are everywhere. With images, artists and video game creators go from imagination to reality. Police officers use them to trace criminals. Astronomers and doctors use images to tell our universe's history and diagnose disease with greater precision. How is all this possible? The exhibit Beyond The Image , demystifies the science of digital imaging.

One of the sections of this exhibit which will travel for 5 years across Canada will focus on the LARTech (January 2008). Visitors will be able to see and understand the aims and conclusions of this research/creation based on the paradigm “dance without body” as defined by the LARTech directors, Martine Époque and Denis Poulin.

NoBody Danse :   NoBody dance : a tribute to the World through the meeting of art and science. A work in progress developed by Denis Poulin and Martine Époque.

Built in a 3D environment, NoBody dance is a digital choreography which tries to express the magnificence of a dance completely freed of its dancers’ bodies. On a soundtrack that evokes the elements, the images of this MoCap digital dance suggest in filigree a visual transposition of Igor Stravinsky’s mythical music “The Rite of Spring”.
This project combines two methods completely different from traditional key-frame animation. The first requires using MoCap to animate the dancer. The second is adding animated particles inside these virtual transparent characters.

With NoBody dance, the human movement is choreographed by a palette of luminescent particles that must transcend the body to create a new identity with no boundaries and do so beyond the stage and beyond the body.

This research/creation is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2005-2008) and the Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies.

The initial excerpts presented at the opening of the exhibit will be  :
Part 1    Section 4 : Spring Rounds (transposition of music into movements)
                         Section 5 : Rituals of the Rival Tribes (transposition of music into movements)
    Section 7 : Dance of the Earth (transposition of music into visual effects and movements)
          Part 2     Section 10 : Glorification of the Chosen One (transposition of music into movements)
                         Section 13 (finale) : Sacrificial Dance (transposition of music into movements)
The other sections of the exhibit will be added as they are completed.

 

Directed by Denis Poulin and Martine Époque, the NoBody dance team of the LARTech is :
Tarik Boukhalfi : production supervisor, digital choreographer (section 7)
Frédérick Gravel : assistant choreographer, Hexagram/UQAM MoCap system operator, 3D animation
Normand Marcy : soundtrack composition, Hexagram/UQAM MoCap system operator, 3D animation
Cédric Dubois : digital choreographer (sections 5 et 10)
Franck Lechenet : modeler, Maya spécialist
Philippe Vita : assistant choreographer, dance director (2nd part excerpts)
Manon Levac, Charles St-Onge, Philippe Vita, Karine Cloutier, Sophie DesGagné, Caroline Dussault, Sophie Goulet-Delisle, Caroline Gravel, Catherine Lafleur, Séverine Lombardo, Normand Marcy :   dancers
Denis Lavoie : MoCap costume designer

Denis Poulin, digital choreographer section 7 and 14
Martine Époque, choreographer section 4,5,7, and 13
Philippe Vita, choreographer section 10