Pablo surname: Ventura
Zurich.

Project: Heliopolis

Heliopolis builds a fictitious urban utopia within a Performance-Installation. A light sculpture hovers over Heliopolis like an obelisk, a relic from thousands of years of urban city cultures lighting the temples of consumption. It's citizens are continuously scanned as transparent actors leaving a trail of their presence as they interact with the city and its sounds. A reflection on humanity in the context of global metropoles of today and tomorrow such as Shanghai, or Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" or Los Angeles in 2019 (as depicted by Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner"). On stage a video screen presents the chronological journey of a person throughout a day in the city of Shanghai, whilst five dancers re-enact a parallel plot interpreting the "Replicants" of the film "Blade Runner". As in the film, their movement patterns increasingly breaking down as they struggle for an extension of their existences. An interplay between a complex choreography and a dynamic audiovisual escenography is presented simultaneously, polyphon and even dissonant for the audience to find a poli-logical order of the audiovisual impressions presented. The soundtrack of Heliopolis was created through the combined use of camera motion tracking and gesture recognition software. Four "Hot Spots" and sensors continuously tracked dancers movements to generate layer upon layer of city sounds in combination with Blade Runner's film soundtrack, and the electronic music composition for Heliopolis. (Software: Chris Ziegler / Music: Electroscape). Videos recorded in Shanghai were at times distorted through the use of software and are projected back unto the stage (Software: Daniel Bisig). The dance sequences were generated through the aid of a custom made software for movement generation and interpreted by the dancers, providing credibility to the android characters of the film that the dancers portray.

tag: videodance

Jennifer Drotz Ruhn
Sollentuna. Sweden
www.drotzruhn.com

Project: Tofino

Tofino, an experimental stop motion dance film, is the result of a collaborative project between Swedish choreographer Jennifer Drotz Ruhn and Scottish artists: photographer Brian Vass and composer Stuart Docherty.

After studying and working in Scotland for several years, Jennifer Drotz Ruhn shares her base between Stockholm and the Scottish East Coast. A constant exploration and curiosity for the art form has led her to become an open minded, eager choreographer always aiming to find the genuine, human moments which dance has the privilege of being able to capture.

She first came in contact with Brian Vass in the Autumn of 2013 when they did a photoshoot together and Vass initiated the Tofino project shortly after. As a photographer and videographer, he works primarily with dancers, aerialists, and musicians and is inspired by the challenge and adventure of translating people's passions into photographs and films.

Stuart Docherty is a Scottish contemporary composer, songwriter and critically acclaimed guitarist. After working closely with several choreographers, continuously experimenting and never limiting himself to one genre alone, he has found a great interest in composing for such a visually stimulating art form as dance.

Tofino has been screened in multiple countries and awarded Best Short Film and Dance Film of Excellence.

tag: videodance