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An Another Language Production
<br>
InterPlay: Loose Minds in a Box <br>
April 15 – 16, <st1:time minute="0" hour="21">21:00 EDT</st1:time>
and April 17, <st1:time minute="0" hour="18">18:00 EDT</st1:time>
<br>
ArtGrid Virtual Venue Theater
<br>
<a href="https://bazaar01.chpc.utah.edu/Venues/default">https://bazaar01.chpc.utah.edu/Venues/default</a>
and
<br>
<a href="http://www.anotherlanguage.org/interplay">http://www.anotherlanguage.org/interplay</a>
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
<st1:place><st1:PlaceType>University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName>Utah</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>
<br>
INSCC Auditorium
<br>
155 South 1452 East
<br>
<st1:place><st1:City>Salt Lake City</st1:City>, <st1:State>UT</st1:State></st1:place>
<br>
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<br>
Contact: Jimmy Miklavcic, 801-585-9335, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jhm@chpc.utah.edu">jhm@chpc.utah.edu</a>
<br>
<span style=""> </span>
<br>
For Immediate Release:
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<br>
It was like a page from history. One could imagine seeing
Alexander Graham Bell speaking, for the first time, through a strange
black
device to his assistant Watson, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see
you.” In
a recent and similar experiment, Charles Nichols, Professor of Music at
the
University of Montana, Missoula, sits in front of his desktop computer
and
tells Many Ayromlou, Research Engineer at Ryerson University, Toronto,
Ontario,
CA, who is sitting at the MIDI control keyboard, to play high C. He
presses the
key in <st1:City><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:City> and the
sound jumps
out in <st1:City><st1:place>Missoula</st1:place></st1:City>. <br>
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<br>
This is just a small example of some of the exciting
preparations in process for Another Language’s latest excursion into
the
fascinating merger of art and technology. Another Language celebrates
its 20<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary with its newest production of <i style="">InterPlay:
Loose Minds in a Box</i>. This InterPlay is a multi-faceted telematic
event
that consists of six simultaneous performances that occur in six states
throughout <st1:place>North America</st1:place>. The performances
incorporate
theater, text, music, performance art, virtual reality, and motion
capture and
are concurrently captured, mixed, digitized, encoded and streamed onto
the
network.
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<br>
Loose Minds in a Box is a collaborative work that explores
the basic concept of the “box”. The box is a metaphor for the physical,
social,
political or psychological constraints that we and/or others place upon
us. The
box also represents a sense of place in the realm of the virtual as
well as in
our sub-conscience. With the aid of performance artists,
electro-acoustic
musicians/composers, virtual reality and motion capture
artists/technologists
and others, we look at many of the numerous representations the “box”
encompasses. In <st1:State><st1:place>Utah</st1:place></st1:State>,
Another
Language’s Artistic Director, Beth Miklavcic, will perform in a closet,
investigating how our personalities are bounded by the clothes we wear.
Sculptor, Eric Brown, will slowly construct an enclosure around himself
depicting how we encase ourselves in a social fortress. It either
protects us from
unwanted human contact or keeps us from interacting with the outside
world.
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<br>
In <st1:State><st1:place>Maryland</st1:place></st1:State>,
Nadja Masura plays with the box that we live in. Using video processing
techniques, Nadja will place remote performers into different rooms of
her
favorite doll house. Nicholas Bartoli and Brian Buck will dance within
the
constraining characteristics of the video box as well as augmenting
Beth
Miklavcic’s “clothes encounter” by changing their personalities with
new
fashions.
<br>
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<br>
A team of artists in <st1:State><st1:place>Indiana</st1:place></st1:State>
include Dioselin Gonzalez (VR designer), T. J. Rogers (motion
performance),
Carol Cunningham (choreographer), David Sigman (graphic designer) and
Joe Hayes
(dancer). They will delve into the virtual box where a performer
transmits him
self through a bazaar world of unique characters and environments,
created by
Miho Aoki in <st1:State><st1:place>Alaska</st1:place></st1:State> and
David
Sigman. At times, Joe Hayes will remotely control, through movement,
electro-acoustic music in <st1:State><st1:place>Montana</st1:place></st1:State>.
<br>
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<br>
The concept of confinement will be explored by artists Tina
Shah and Helen-Nicole Kostis in <st1:place><st1:City>Chicago</st1:City>,
<st1:State>Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>The
audience will participate by imprisoning
the performer and witnessing the physical effects of isolation while at
the
same time viewing the metamorphosis of the performer's psyche in a VR
world.
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<br>
Charles Nichols, composer and violinist in <st1:place><st1:City>Missoula</st1:City>
<st1:State>Montana</st1:State></st1:place>, will probe the musical
possibilities of the “black box”. Scott Deal, composer and
percussionist in <st1:place><st1:City>Fairbanks</st1:City> <st1:State>Alaska</st1:State></st1:place>
will toy with numerous box icons
such as a music box and Pandora’s box. The music is transmitted to all
sites in
real time, providing the entire work with piercing percussion and wild
melodies.
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Back in <st1:State><st1:place>Utah</st1:place></st1:State>,
Director Jimmy Miklavcic, will wrangle more than twenty video streams
from all
six sites, mix and process them for the local <st1:State><st1:place>Utah</st1:place></st1:State>
audience and then stream the processed videos back onto the Internet
for
audiences at the other five sites. Local audiences at all sites will
experience
the local performance with the infusion of live multimedia and video
events.
<br>
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<br>
Additional technical support is provide by Paul Mercer and
Bill Brody (Alaska), Dwight McKay and Mike Bass (Purdue), Sam Liston
(Utah),
Chris Rosenthal and Gideon Goldman (Illinois), Robert Wachtel (Montana)
and
David McNabb (Maryland).
<br>
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<br>
Another Language, in collaboration with all the participating
artists and technologists, is forging a new performance form not yet
experienced here in <st1:State><st1:place>Utah</st1:place></st1:State>.
<i style="">InterPlay: Loose Minds in a Box</i> is the
most innovative merging of Internet technology with the performing arts
to date.
The form brings together artists from unique backgrounds and
geographical
locations that would normally never occur under traditional
collaborative
processes. The power of the Internet and video conference technology
enables
and empowers this consortium of artists to expand their ideas of
artistic
creativity. The performance can be viewed on the Access Grid at the new
ArtGrid
virtual venue in the Theater (<a
href="https://bazaar01.chpc.utah.edu/Venues/default">https://bazaar01.chpc.utah.edu/Venues/default</a>)
and through QuickTime at <a
href="http://www.anotherlanguage.org/interplay">http://www.anotherlanguage.org/interplay</a>.
<br>
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<br>
<i style="">Loose Minds in a Box</i>
is supported in part by the University of Utah Center for High
Performance
Computing, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Arctic Region
Supercomputing Center,
University of Montana, the University of Illinois, Chicago, Purdue
University,
the University of Maryland, the Zoo, Arts and Parks Program, the Utah
Arts
Council and the Salt Lake City Arts Council and contributing members of
Another
Language.
<br>
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<br>
-- <br>
Jimmy Miklavcic<br>
Multimedia Specialist<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jhm@chpc.utah.edu">jhm@chpc.utah.edu</a><br>
<br>
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH<br>
CTR FOR HIGH PERFORM COMPUTING<br>
155 SOUTH 1452 EAST RM 405<br>
SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84112-0190<br>
<br>
Office: 801.585.9335<br>
Fax: 801.585.5366<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~jhm">http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~jhm</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.anotherlanguage.org">http://www.anotherlanguage.org</a><br>
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