Meet Discotrope: The Secret Nightlife of Solar Cells - live audiovisual performance. http://discotrope.org
For shorter excerpts, please visit our video page: http://discotrope.org/?page_id=47 Ever wondered what solar cells do at night? Introducing Discotrope: The Secret Nightlife of Solar Cells - an audiovisual performance by Amy Alexander and Annina Rüst, with algorithmic sound design by Cristyn Magnus. Discotrope performances invoke both alternative energy and the curious history of dance in cinema – from backlots to backyards – from Thomas Edison to YouTube.
So what does that mean? We project films and videos of people"dancing at cameras" onto a disco ball where we have replaced some of the mirrors with solar cells. The solar cells reflect the videos back onto walls and surfaces. The light from the projection causes the solar cells to produce current and consequently, they power the motor that rotates the ball.
Know someplace that might enjoy some nocturnally solar-powered semi-zoetropically live audiovisual performance? Discotrope events can range from seated concerts and gallery performances to public space dance parties. You can contact us at: http://discotrope.org/?page_id=68
Can a crazy, lo-tech gadget be a serious visual performance instrument - and possibly represent the future of the future? We’re just about daft enough to think so. We wrote a little essay about that and some other things. It's called, "The Future is Dead. Long Live the Future." You can find it at: http://discotrope.org/?p=764
Amy Alexander is a new media, audiovisual and performance artist who has also worked in film, video, music and information technology. Her current and recent work approaches digital media art from a performing arts perspective, often sitting at the intersection of art and popular culture. Amy’s projects have been presented on the Internet, in clubs and on the street as well as in festivals and museums. She is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. In summer and fall 2012, she'll be Artist-in-Residence at iotaCenter in Los Angeles.
Amy – who has also worked under the names Cue P. Doll and VJ Übergeek – was a dinos^H^H^H pioneer in the development of software-based net art, beginning in 1996 with the Webby-nominated Multi-Cultural Recycler, a project that spoofed both net celebrity and faux multi-culturalism on the web. In addition to her art projects, she was also a co-founder and moderator of the Runme.org software art repository and has been active in software art curation.
Amy’s projects have been exhibited at venues ranging from The Whitney Museum, Prix Ars Electronica, Transmediale, SIGGRAPH, and the New Museum to club performances at Sonar (Barcelona), First Avenue (Minneapolis) and Melkweg (Amsterdam). She has performed on the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Zürich, and Aberdeen, Scotland. Her work has been discussed in publications including Wired, The New York Times, Slashdot, Ecrans, Leonardo, The Boston Globe and the Washingon Post.
Amy’s work has been influenced by her background in musical performance, and she’s recently expanded her performance endeavors by studying and performing standup comedy. Besides continuing her VJ performances, she’s recently published texts on audiovisual performance history. In collaboration with Annina Rüst she’s currently performing Discotrope, an audiovisual performance involving solar energy and various histories of dance in cinema. She’s also doing research toward combining her visual performance work with her background as a percussionist in the not-too-distant future.
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