At the WEAR-ME!!! Wearable computing Network Exchange in Norwich, Marie-Claude Poulin and Martin Kusch, along with collaborator Johan Versteegh, otherwise known as Kondition Pluriel, gave a Process demo, in which they lifted the lid on technology and techniques which will feature in their Future Physical commission scheme II.

They began with some background on where they came from as artists; both Poulin and Kusch are currently based in Montreal; Poulin is Canadian, whereas Kusch is German/Austrian. They have been working together for three years, since meeting at a body-technology workshop in Berlin in 1999.

Kusch described the group's origins: "We had the idea of developing within a responsive setup a basic system using camera recognition, with very simple video sequences." Poulin added: "I reduced the choreographic system to really basic things like falling and walking."

Kusch then said: "We developed a base of certain ideas over time, and decided we needed specific tools, especially to analyse small gestures." Poulin added: "We wanted to put forward the idea of research and experimentation."

Which evolved into scheme and, during Future Physical, will become scheme II. Kusch said, regarding scheme II; "We are showing three points today. We wanted to work with live cameras; with pre-recorded video material manipulated by movement; and with virtual environments." They then played video excerpts to illustrate aspects of what we can expect to see in scheme II. The first showed a live work in which Poulin danced in the middle of a space: "In a constricted part of the real space" with prostheses - essentially crutches - on her arms. Her movements controlled a wireframe version of the actual space, constructed by Kusch. Sound was recorded during the performance, and played back in a later performance without the crutches, thereby allowing Poulin to interact with her previous performance.

Kusch also showed a sequence where dancers, via their movements, controlled three cameras, switching between each: Poulin explained: "Every space we go to, we get images and sound from outside the space itself, which creates a flow in the piece." And the final demo showed dancers controlling movements around a photo-textured rendition of the space in which they danced.

Johan Versteegh added some technical insight: "With scheme II, we can finally do the things we've been talking about for the last three years. Now we have sensors with processors attached. We have all this data coming in, but we're looking for gestures, so we need subtlety of movement. We use MAX as the main control, VNS will be used in scheme II for triggering, and we will use SoftImage for 3D modelling. We want to constantly research while we are performing."

Click here for images from this Process Demo...