Exposing layers: a behind-the-scrim look at choreography in mixed reality environments

My thesis work is a performance that uses a live camera to capture dance on a proscenium stage and projects it on a downstage scrim. The audience can see through the scrim’s projection to observe dancers and camera movement upstage. Today, internet access has made unveiling digital art techniques a secondary performance through tutorials and “behind-the-scenes" explanations. This work is situated in a constant “behind-the-scenes" point of view. It is a performance of method as well as a performance of the relationship between live action and real-time feedback. It makes the ”cause and effect” visible on the stage and scrim, which offers a viewing experience that is different from solely stage performance or cinema. The choreography considers a dialogue between the stage performers and mediated bodies on the scrim to ask how they co-exist. Knowledge of the inscribed dancing body is used to create movements of the camera as an extension of the body. To support my research, I am utilizing a growing archive of sources which currently includes written work by Sita Popat, Douglas Rosenberg, Karen Wood, Kim Vincs, Christine Whyte, Peggy Phelan, Jennifer Nikolai, and bell hooks.