This past weekend Donna Sternberg & Dancers presented Awe and Wonder, a one-of-a-kind performance where cutting-edge scientific ideas inspire innovative choreography.
This year’s theme AI and the Metaverse, brought together four choreographers and four scientists to create a fusion of science and dance. Researchers were paired with choreographers to create vivid expressions of complex ideas, translated into movement by artists from diverse backgrounds.
The scientific minds behind the collaboration included ICT’s David Nelson, Director, Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) and Dr. Yajie Zhao, Director, Vision and Graphics Lab (VGL), alongside w/fellow Viterbi colleagues: Dr. Aiichiro Nakano and Dr. Shrikanth Narayanan. Choreographers included hip-hop choreographer Tai White, Middle Eastern choreographer Aubre Hill, African choreographer Wilfried Souly, and contemporary choreographer Donna Sternberg.
The performance concluded with an engaging post-performance discussion where the choreographers and scientists shared their collaborative journey.
We caught up with David Nelson, Director, Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) after the event who gave us a debrief on the experience:
“When I first heard about Donna Sternberg & Dancers program pairing scientific researchers with choreographers, I was reminded of the early 20th century quote (source unknown): “Talking about music is like singing about economics.” The truth is, this seemingly incongruous union is not foreign to those of us who work at USC – ICT, where art and science meet every day,” David Nelson pointed out.
“I was interviewed and selected as one of the researchers and was paired with artistic director, Donna Sternberg herself. We had a phone call where I discussed my research in spatial computing and human computer interaction.”
As the choreographer had no prior experience with immersive technology, David Nelson encouraged her to visit an Apple store to get a demo of the Apple Vision Pro (as an aside, Nelson was interviewed by WIRED magazine when the device came out.) She did and was blown away by the possibilities.
“At first, Donna was concerned that she would be unable to incorporate the actual technology into the performance,” continued Nelson. “I told her that I had been quoted as saying, “The Metaverse is a metaphor”, and we decided that allegory and symbolism could be used to express the idea of the theme: “what is and isn’t reality.”
Nelson and Sternberg met up in-person to discuss not only the technical capabilities across the spectrum of virtuosity; from augmented to virtual to mixed reality, but also the philosophical implications of these burgeoning medium and how they might impact society at large.
“We spoke about the fact that dance and mixed-reality are each concerned with space and motion; and both strive to use the human body as a way to communicate,” said Nelson.
Donna Sternberg named the final piece “Maya” – “This is a Buddhist concept describing the power that creates the illusion that the phenomenal world is real,” David Nelson told us.
“The piece was beautiful, incorporating a screen that featured the dancers who were performing live in the venue, intimating that each dancer was in two different spaces, a sort of avatar performance happening concurrently. The piece was well received and prompted interesting questions and conversation during the post-performance panel discussion. I was happy to be a part of this artistic experiment.”
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