Isadora

Just downloaded a copy of Isadora, a real-time interactive performance program (THERE'S a mouthful of words). It allows dancers on a stage to interact with a computer, which is connected to... whatever you like.

The application holds a hundred different actions, which are programmed to respond to events, times, to sound or light inputs, even motion - via a camera "talking" to it. That's the "interactive performance" bit of it. The output can be projected onto a screen (or the dancers), or fed into another program. Images, sounds & movies can be preloaded, or you just see what the dancers create on the spot. We saw a short performance today using Isadora; the techies said the show was quite different from four rehearsals they'd had just earlier!

It calls to mind a fantastic Australian invention, 'Stagestruck' which was created for the centenary of federation (8 years ago). It is a brilliant virtual production program, with costumes, sets, music, choreography, etc. all in the program. But Isadora is for real dancers.

Yeah yeah, it's not strictly Web 2.0, but wow it's exciting... getting computers to respond to creativity always stirs me, & this piece almost gives you the spectrum of immense artistic control, to "let the computer have a crack at it". The interactive web and the interactive stage are just tools for human ingenuity.