A series of performed experiments in corporeal and virtual travel.
In this ever evolving world of technology we can virtually visit any place on the planet, connect with friends and family on-line, view images of sites visited through Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. What is lost and what can be gained through our virtual travel experiences?
I began experimenting with Wanderlust in 2012 while traveling through Canada and Northern Ireland. I began by filming myself dancing in my travel landscape with a GoPro camera. I shared my videos on the cloud with a musician in Austin who Skyped in to perform with me at the Millennium Forum in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. During the performance, I wore the GoPro camera on my head to capture the experience, which felt nauseating after the long journey. |
Wanderlust 2012 from Chell Parkins on Vimeo. |
A few months later I travelled to AZALA and then ZAWP, two espacios de creación in the Basque region of Spain, to complete an artist residency where I experimented further with these ideas. Again, I used the GoPro camera to create site specific dance videos but this time I altered those videos in live performance utilizing the Microsoft Kinect, Delicode and Isadora. The motion sensor in the Kinect sensed my live dancing and then altered the dance videos that played on a giant screen behind me in the performance space.
This site is a repository for the materials I have been creating through these explorations.
This site is a repository for the materials I have been creating through these explorations.
MamuskaLondonDerry from Chell Parkins on Vimeo. |
Millenum ForumMy first very performed experiment took place in Derry/London Derry, Northern Ireland as a part of the 2012 Dance Research Forum Ireland. I spent a week in the countryside in Canada experimenting with the GoPro camera before traveling to Northern Ireland for the conference. The voyage to Northern Ireland began with a very bumpy drive in an RV through the woods to a small uninhabited train station in Gananoque. I travelled by RV, train, plane, bus and taxi for 26 hours before arriving at the theatre. I walked through the audience to the dressing room, got Taylor on the Skype, changed my dress and performed before having a moment to rest from the long journey.
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AZALA
By the time I travelled to AZALA in Spain, I had grasped how to use the GoPro and was grappling with the Microsoft Kinect, Isadora and Delicate to alter live projections. Taylor set up my computer with the proper software and met with me once before the trip to explain how to use the programs. I travelled to Spain with two Mac computers, two iPads, a GoPro camera and the Kinect. AZALA is in an isolated town in the mountains and provided a breath of fresh air from my new job where I was teaching in a Title 1 public high school. This is a rehearsal video from my time at AZALA.
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Rehearsal video from Chell Parkins on Vimeo. |
Wanderlust at AZALA from Chell Parkins on Vimeo. |
ZAWPMy AZALA friends then sent me off to complete my residency in an industrial peninsula in Bilbao. Javi Maestre had reached out to me through my Kickstarter page. He was a transmedia artist and interested in the software programs I was experimenting with. He was kind enough to visit me at AZALA and then again at ZAWP where he conducted this wonderful interview. |