programming

MOBILIZED: An essay pretending to be a game

Mobilized is a participatory performance exploring the power and potential of the smart phone. Rather than asking you to turn it off when entering the theatre, we ask you to keep it ready for use. Your phone will be the portal that takes you and other audience members into the constructed reality of the piece. The format is based on simple instructions and choices that appear on your screen through text, images and sound. The instructions shape different situations and collective movements. The piece is 45 min long and will be performed in English.

CREDITS

Made by: Nea Landin & Gabriel Widing

Sound design: Scott Cazan

Supported by: The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, DansPlats Skog, Site Sweden, Inter Arts Center, Nyxxx

2024 TOUR

  • SITE Festival, TBA
  • Riksteatern, TBA

2023 TOUR

Datenight på domens dag (Kulturnatten, Kulturhuset)

Bild från prototyp

På Kulturnatten, 22 april, 2023 blir det ny-designad, ny-kodad speeddate på Kulturhuset i Stockholm

Kom med på en infernalisk speed-date och lär känna nya vänner, älskare och småjävlar. Din mobil (detta djävulens påfund) kommer att leda dig och de andra förtappade själarna på plats genom en serie rykande möten och situationer. Speed-daten är skapad och leds av koreografen Nea Landin och regissören Gabriel Widing.

  • 19:00, 20:00, 22:00 och 23:00, Panorama
Bild: Erica Jacobson

Mer information om hur du bokar din gratisbiljett kommer inom kort. Först till kvarn! Platserna är begränsade.

Barpianist:  Panayot ”Pancho” Mihaylov

Teaching Processing at BTH

Processing example

I’ve spent 3 weeks at Blekinge institute of technology, teaching coding to Digital Image students. I’ve been using Processing, which was designed by MIT to make interactive graphics, animations, and multimedia projects. One advantage of using Processing to teach coding is its simplicity. Processing is built on the Java programming language, but it has a simpler syntax and a a lot of built-in functions for visuals and geometry, making it easy for students to get started. Also, it’s an open-source tool, meaning that students can use it for free, and there are plenty of resources and tutorials to help them get started. The visual aspect of Processing helps students to see the results of their code immediately, which builds motivation and keep them engaged. It’s a pleasure to introduce students to generative image making and let them to develop creativity through code. There are things you could do that you would never even come up with within the frames of Photoshop or equivalent tools.

Prototyping for movement with mobile phones

Playtesting

I’ve been spending a week with dancer and artist Nea Landin at a residency initiated by Danscentrum in a new studio in Stockholm called Söderkupolen. We met in a coding course at Konstfack and have similar interests in instruction based performances. In the residency we started working with real-time multi-user web technologies. Instructions are distributed through the participants mobile phones. These ideas have a lot of potential and I think we are only in the very beginning of something very exciting. Even if the instructions are simple they can mobilise big audience numbers in collective action.

Prototype screenshots

We drew some inspiration from a really nice article (in Swedish, in Hjärnstorm) by Rasmus Fleischer, outlining some anthropological insights from Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History written by William H. McNeill.

Some snippets from McNeill:

Moving briskly and keeping in time was enough to make us feel good about ourselves, satisfied to be moving together, and vaguely pleased with the world at large.

“Boundary loss” is the individual and “feeling they are one” is the collective way of looking at the same thing: a blurring of self-awareness and the heightening of fellow-feeling with all who share in the dance.

Coded poetry at Twisted shout #1, Fylkingen

Twisted Shout Poster

I will show my 9-page hell poem the void is positively charged at Twisted shout text-sound-festival at Fylkingen. The list of live acts is juicy:

* Gå på stället vocal duo
* Casey Moir vocal
* Beatboxer Mathias Yilbar
* WOL performance duo
* Performance/talk by Ilmar Laaban expert Jan Malin from Tallin
* Pyspunka – performance piece by Teddy Hultberg

You are very welcome!

Ekstasis in progress

Ekstasis Icon

Me, Ebba and Elize from Nyxxx is working with Leo from Pusselbit games to produce a 4-player synchronized app scenario under the title Ekstasis. It is written for four friends and can be played/performed at home with standard mobile phones and head phones.

This time we decided to do the voice work ourselves so we have been in Bagisstudion making recordings including instructions, dialogue and a demon.

Recording in studio

The script was written over the summer by me and Ebba. It is revolves around a feeling of loosing control. This feeling is manifested by an inner demonic voice possessing the roles of the scenario one by one.

Here is a prototype, made in Unity, with a Firebase connection to interconnect the players:

The players can make a few choices that forks the story. Will you resist or let go?

Find out on December 3rd when the app is released on iOS’ App store and Android’s Google Play.

The project is funded by Kulturrådet & Region Gävleborg