The
flesh made text:
Bodies, Theories and Cultures in the Post-Millennial Era
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of English
14-18 May 2003
"Body - Art & Technological Transformations"
a workshop directed by Johannes Birringer(Dance and Technology Program, Ohio State University, USA)
Friday, May 16, 2003, University Ceremony Hall, 15:oo - 19:00
Public Exhibition of Workshop Process and Discussion - 20:30
A hands-on
workshop for conference participants/artists interested in a
critical exploration of image processing in contemporary performance-media
technologies.
(1) Introduction: real time synthesis
- contemporary arts practice & current research in arts and science -
(transgenic
art, virtual reality systems, motion capture/animated human figure creation,
synthetic embodimenta/avatars, distributed systems/networks)
- Relations between computer sciences and biotechnologies will be addressed
from an artistic/cultural viewpoint -
(2) Practical workshop rehearsal with digital media.
The workshop offers an introduction to computer-based environments as trans-theatrical spaces for action, in which participants will experience and produce other kinds of perceptions of reality, beyond subjectivity or the conventional understanding of body in real time space.
The interaction with real-time digital processes invites a playful exploration of how the boundaries of real bodies or respresentations of bodies can be subject to modification. The workshop offers research perspectives on identity transformations in virtual reality.
Human interaction with digital technology suggests the composition of fictions: not "disembodiment" but a kind of hyperplasticity in which the human and the technological are partners.
* * * * * * * *
The workshop enrollment is limited to 18. Hands-on participation is suggested,
but those with no prior experience working with computer-based media are
also welcome to observe. The practical work is intended to be shown to
a wider public in a 30 minute
performance-exhibition, and there will be an open discussion following