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Setting the sense/stage 

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Theatre has always offered audiences the chance to watch people perform in real time. But what happens if the scripted performance is enhanced by a call/response interaction between the performers and their environment? Imagine if staged movements could trigger lighting and sound effects, or responses from scenery and props.

Christopher Salter and Ana Cappelluto (the former of Computation Arts and Design, the latter of the Theatre Department) and Marcelo Wanderley (Music Interaction Lab at McGill) have been exploring this idea though SENSE/STAGE. Using facilities from Hexagram and McGill, they are developing wireless sensing devices and interactive system software and incorporating this technology into staging practices.

With an international SSHRC Research and Creation project approved, Salter, as principal investigator, is on his way to India to work with Jayachandran Palazhy, artistic director of the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts.

Palazhy, a choreographer and dancer, was here last term, getting an idea of the technology’s capabilities. The equipment will be incorporated into a production called Chronotopia, which will “allow the stage space to take the thoughts and inner moods of the characters into the landscape,” said Salter.

The dance theatre piece is inspired by Chilapathikaram, an unusual Tamil epic in that it has a female protagonist and tells the story of people, instead of gods. Chronotopia is an exploration of the human mind struggling to make sense of the rapid changes that often defy conventional notions of space and chronology.

Salter and Palazhy’s team will spend the next eight months developing the production in both Bangalore and Montreal. The SENSE/STAGE technology will be adapted to the project. The show will premiere at the end of November in Mumbai, and then tour through India.

The project builds on the relatively new field of ubiquitous computing, where computation potential is embedded into everyday objects and is not specific to computers as we traditionally understand them.

“This type of cutting edge wireless sensing technology is normally used on battlefields and for seismographic analysis,” said Salter, who is enthusiastic about the opportunity to apply such specialized and usually industry-driven equipment in a performance context.

Salter was introduced to Palazhy two years ago through Chris Ziegler, who will also be collaborating on the project. Ziegler has collaborated with Sandeep Bhagwati, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Art Practice and Theory in Music and Theatre. He will also work on the development of music for Chronotopia.

In addition to the Attakkalari project, the three-year grant will be used to develop two other performances slated to tour internationally and facilitate collaborations with artists in the United States and China.