The House Music Project, an interactive performance installation,
was conceived by faculty of MIT and the University of Texas, Dallas. The
UTD: Performance Innovations/MIT: Slippage collaboration engages new media
to explore the memory of technological shifts that pushed black music into
the electronic age. This project seeks to historicize House Music through
its mediated archive. A mixed media archive of house music documentation,
breakbeats, photographs, and prepared video are triggered by actions of
the dancers in the space, designed by MIT graduate Eto Oro. A project-specific
computer engine, overseen by MIT graduate James Tolbert, searches the media
loaded into the archive to generate spontaneous sonic, visual, and tactile
responses to movement that dancers make. Motion capture elements created
at the UT Dallas laboratory will add a science fiction dancing avatar to
the environment, pushing the funk into the future. The Project allows users
to experience the sensation of djing as they dance; their gestures re-member
House Music.
DeFrantz intends for performances of the House Music Project to demonstrate
the possibilities of the environment, where black music meets itself through
its dances and projects motion into light and sound.
There will be a technology demo of the project, free and open to the public, on Friday March 17 at 2pm with project designers Eto Oro, James Tolbert , and visiting artist Venus Opal Reesemoderated by Associate Professor Thomas DeFrantz.