Concept and development: Jaime del Val
Sound and visual composition and space-design : Jaime del Val
Original Max-jitter Programming: Gregorio García Karman
Adaptation of the Max-jitter Programming: Jaime del Val
3d Programming in Virtools: Ricardo Gadea and Luka Brajovic
3d Design: Jaime del Val, Ricardo Gadea and Luka Brajovic
Production: REVERSO

THRESHOLDS is an interactive dance installation in which the public generates complex visual and sound compositions/environments through full body motion. The movement of the interactors is captured through a video camera and analysed in real time for the production of video, electroacoustics and 3D image.

Thresholds explores the frontiers of language and representation, of corporeality and the self. In the abstract, embodied and multiuser environment, the body, the subject, materialises and dematerialises in an uncertain process, in the frontier of intelligibility, in an open horizon of non verbal communication.

Thresholds challenges the perception of the body (proprioception) and proposes ways to redefine embodyment as a process of emergence of new language. The dark space induces an immersive experience in the threshold of both perception and understanding, in a twilight of the senses where the architecture of the subject opens up.

Thresholds investigates also the nature of the interface: here the body is a threshold of light, as it is captured by the camera and analysed by the computer. This ephemere interface, apparently disembodied, is the ground for the embodyment of space, which becomes like a living instrument. This has to do with the interaction design, based in concepts of dance, as opposed to the formalised, disembodied interfaces of our everyday computers, that are based in formal, logocentric language models (mouse, keyboard, etc.).

The spatialised sound merges with the holographic like appearance of the image projected onto several layers of four to twelve transparent screens. The transparent screen symbolises the threshold of representation, that gives way: it is no longer the impenetrable surface of the total screen.

The environment is thus like a projection of the body, a liquid space of the body, a presence that exceeds the body itself.

In the installation, the life image and voice of the interactors is captured, analysed and transformed in real time through the parameters of their own movement, thus becoming a complex visual and sound composition.

The public is interactor and performer, but also the raw material of the image and the sound he transforms. There are different levels of interactivity. The system will detect the presence of the interactors. There will be no sound and no new images will be produced without their presence. The system also analyses 14 different parameters of the movement of the interactors, such as position in the x and y axes, speed, direction, distance between bodies or stretching of one body, aspect relationship, size and others. These are mapped in a variety of different ways to the parameters of the evolving visual and sound composition, consisting of 70 different visual and sound trails that generate only through the interaction, as well as generative 3D structures (virtual architechture) that transform through body interaction, like a virtual extension of the bodies. An interplay is thus generated between representation of the "real" body and those of a "virtual" body, wehereby the distinctions are put into question.

The voice of the interactors is captured through a wireless microphone and processed. The granulation and delay and sampling of the voice generates an everchanging sound trail, a fragmented chorus of dissolving voices that are sometimes recognizable and sometime not, as it moves interactively in the quadraphonic space.

Thresholds is part of a larger project, Frontier Bodies, that explores the possibility to redefine communication, technology and language through multidimensional non determinist models that open up to an indeterminate number of levels of non verbal communication. The project explores how the redefinition of corporeality occurs thorough technology and reviews in particular the current status of technology in neoliberal society as instrument of implicit control that, according to Foucault's account of productive power, reproduces identity categories. In a time in which we are becoming more and more embedded in technology, control becomes ever more implicit and is displayed through processes of standardisation. Frontier Bodies researches the representation and language models that are at the base of such mechanisms of control and seeks to propose open models that are not subjected to logocentric frameworks.

Thresholds is an instrument of generative design, interactive and abstract cinema, expanded cinema, and interactive and generative virtual architecture.

The everchanging forms of the video image produce an everchanging abstract film.

The everchanging forms of the 3d generative image produce an everchanging fluid architecture, like an extension of the body.

Every five seconds the computer registers an image from the ones produced interactively in real time. This means that in a normal exhibition venue some 8000 images are generated during a 10 hour session. They are in fact a record of the day's activity, but take on a life of their own, either as a film or separately, in the form of small digital prints. Some are shown on the internet, where the person who produced them could recognise them, others are printed out and exhibited during the exhibition.

THRESHOLDS is an dance installations in which the interactors generate a complex visual and musical composition through full body motion. The movement of the interactors is captured through a video camera and analysed in real time for the production of video, electroacoustics and 3D image.

The installation explores the body as interface, as threshold of light. In the era of hiperreal media that induce a virtualisation of reality and a complex disembodyment of communication and real space, Thresholds proposes new ways to reembody communication. The installation explores different forms of nonverbal communication in the context of open models that open up to contingency in communication.

The transparent screen on which the image is projected symbolises the threshold of representation: the total screen of hiperreal media fails and the public becomes performer and process.

The installation explores the frontier between the abstract and the concrete, both in the visual and sound aspects, proposing a generative process that unfolds on this uncertain threshold of intelligibility.

Thresholds consists of three different installations that can be presented separately or combined in a variety of different ways. They are derived from the interactive dance performance Morphogenesis, in which the dancer generates the environment with his/her movements.

In the first installation, called The Dissolution of The Multiple Body, the life image and voice of the interactors is captured, analysed and transformed in real time through the parameters of their own movement, thus becoming a complex visual and sound composition.

The public is interactor and performer, but also the raw material of the image and the sound he transforms. There are different levels of interactivity.

The distorted relation between the interactor and his projected image (inverted and distorted thorough the projection angle) provoke a further distancing form the processesed image and an explosion of perspective.

The spatialised sound merges with the holographic like appearance of the image projected onto several layers of four to twelve transparent screens.

The visual trail is related to the sound trail in different ways: there are relations between the color range, tone, saturation and brightness and the sound register, density of events, speed and other parameters.

The environment is thus like a projection of the body, a liquid space of the body, a presence that exceeds the body itslef, as a multidimentions sedimentation, a multiple body in constant formation and dissolution.

The voice of the interactors is captured through a wireless microphone and processed, sometimes together with prerecorded body sounds. The granulation and delay and sampling of the voice generates an everchanging sound trail, a fragmented chorus of dissolving voices that are sometimes recognizable and sometime not: this threshold of concreteness is the territory explored in the installation, not as a narrow line but as a broad zone of negotiation where the subject itself is put into question.

The interactive spatialisation of the sound as related to body movements tries to make explicit some metaphors used in dance concerning the projection of the body in space: here different notions of projection are raised as the dissolving voices swirl around the interactor or become a distant slow moving echo. This approach to generating spatial sensations through sounds is coloured by the use of body sounds that might make you feel that you are inhabiting an inner space of the body.

The installation is related to a photography series, Frontier Bodies, in which the long exposures of the moving body produce dissolving abstract forms, a multiple body of light.

Thresholds explores the nature of the interface: the body is a threshold of light and sound, a threshold of presence and excess, of dissolution and formation, also perhaps a threshold of representation, that gives way: we no longer have the surface of the screen: the transparent screens and the oblique projections distort the perspective, the total screen fails, the line between spectator and performer has dissolved in different ways. This paradoxal or apparent disembodyment of the interface -the threshold of light- is actually producing an embodyment of space and redefining embodyment altogether.

On every occasion the installation has a different variation of the set-up, adapting to different sizes and spaces, and of the composition, This added to the unpredictable aspects of the interactive, generative composition and the many levels of contingency involved makes every different setup entirely unique. The variations in the composition programming that are introduced on each occasion have to do with the interaction design and the visual and sound composition, Different movement parameters are used in different ways thus proposing different interplays between the users and between these and the environment.

The Installation could thus be seen as an instrument that can be played in different ways. A complex hyper-instrument, the core of which might be in the software, in the more subtle levels of technology, but which extends to the hardware, the space and the interactors themselves.

The everchanging forms of the video image produce an evarchanging abstract film.

Every five seconds the computer registers an image. This means that in a normal exhibition venue some 8000 images are generated during a 10 hour session. They are in fact a record of the day's activity, but take on a life of their own, either as a film or separately, in the form of small digital prints. Some are shown on the internet, where the person who produced them could recognise them, others are printed out and exhibited during the exhibition.

The core of the instrument is composed of 3 netconnected computers that analyse the image of the interactors in order to extract the movement parameters, process the image, and process and spatialise the sound in four independent channels.

The system will detect the presence of the interactors. There will be no sound and no new images will be produced without their presence. The system also analyses 14 different parameters of the movement of the interactors, such as position in the x and y axes, speed, direction, distance between bodies or stretching of one body, aspect relationship, size and others. These are mapped in a variety of different ways to the parameters of the evolving visual and sound composition, consisting of 70 different visual and sound trails that generate only through the interaction. The interactors are thus part of the process at several different levels.

Core system: three netconnected computers
Movement capture interface: video camera
Audio system: four independent channels

Thresholds is a set of interactive dance installations in which the public generates complex visual and sound environments through full body motion. The movement of the public is captured thorugh a video camera and analised in real time for the production of video, electrocoustics and three dimensional image. Thresholds consist of three different installations that can be presented separately or combines in a variety of different ways. They are derived from the interactive dance performance Morphogenesis in which the dancer generates the environment with his movements.

In the first one, called the dissolution of the multliple body, the life image and voice of the interactors is captured, analysed and transformed in real time though the parameters of their own movement, thus becoming a complex visual and sound composition.

Thresholds explores the nature of the interface: the body is a threshold of light and sound, a threshold of presence and excess, of dissolution and formation; also perhaps a threshold of representation. We no longer have the surface of the screen, the transparent screens and the oblique projections distort the perspective, the total screen fails and the line between spectator and performer has dissolved in different ways. This paradoxal or apparent disembodyment of the interface, the threshold of light, is actually producing an embodyment of space, and redefining embodyment altogether. The spatialised sound merges with the holographic like appearance of the image, projected onto several layers of four to twelve transparent screens.

The visual trail is related to the sound trail in different ways. The environment is thus like a projection of the body, a liquid space of the body, a presence that exceeds the body itself, as a multidimensional sedimentation, a multiple body in constant formation and dissolution.

On every occasion the installation has a different variation of the setup, adapting to different sizes and spaces, as well as variations of the composition. This added to the unpredictable aspects of the interactive, generative composition, and the many levels of contingency involved, makes every different setup entirely unique. The variations in the composition programming that are introduced on each occasion have to do with the interaction design and the visual and sound composition. Different movement parameters are used in different ways, thus proposing different interplays between the users and between these and the environment. The installation could thus be seen as an instrument that can be played in different ways, a complex hyperinstrument or body, a metabody; the core of which might be in the software, in the more subtle levels of technology, but which extends to the hardware, the space and the interactors themselves.

The core of the instrument is composed of three netconnected computers, that analyse the image of the interactors in order to extract the movement parameters, process the image, and process and spatialise the sound in four independent channels.

The voice of the interactors is captured through a wireless microphone and processed. The granulation, delay and sampling of the voice generates an everchanging sound trail, a fragmented chorus of dissolving voices, that are sometimes recognisable and sometimes not. This threshold of concreteness is the territory explored in the installation.

The public is interactor and performer, but also the raw material of the image and the sound he trasforms. There are different levels of interactivity. The system analyses 14 different parametrs of the movement of the interactors. These are mapped in a variety of different ways to the evolving visual and sound composition.

The everchanging forms of the video image produce an everchaging abstract film. Every five seconds the computer registers an image. This means that in a normal exhibition venue some 8.000 images are generated throughout a ten hour session. The following images were produced between 11 and 12 in the morning on monday 29th november 2004 in the exhibition in Estampa, in Madrid. They are in fact a record of the day's activity but take on a life of their own, either as a film or separately in the form of small digital prints. Some of the are shown on the internet, where the person who produced the could recognise them. Some, like these, are printed out and exhibited during the exhibition.

In the second installation, called Reverse Landscapes, prerecorded abstract films and "body landscapes", so called microdances are interactively processed, together with prerecorded body sounds, as a kind of interactive and expanded cinema.

In the third installation, called the dissolution of the body-space three dimensional abstract structures are generated and transformed interactively, like organic spaces, body fragments perhaps, that evolve into a liquid generative architecture, where space and form dissolve in different ways.

The different installations can be presented separately or in various combinations. The installation can be setup in exhibition venues or in public open spaces. In the future several developments are contemplated, such as the telematic connection of several installations and the use of onbody sensors, biofeedback and tactile feedback devices.