Dog Days

Theater, Wiimotes and iPods Collide in Chicago Performance

Adam Trowbridge presents Dog Days
an Experimental Theater Performance
at University of Illinois Chicago, Art and Architecture Building, 929 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, IL
March 18 & March 19, 8PM

Adam Trowbridge, MFA Electronic Visualization candidate, will present "Dog Days", an experimental theater performance incorporating live theater, iPod-shuffled dialogue and Ninetendo Wiimote-controled video projection at the University of Illinois Chicago's Art and Architecture building on March 18 and March 19 at 8 PM.

Dog Days is set on the edges of human intersection: where communication breaks down. Performers interact by way of a limited set of phrases, stuttered dialogue and indecipherable utterances. Dialogue randomized by iPod shuffles is repeated by performers as they synch their movements to the interruptions. A Wiimote from the Wii gaming system captures data from the actor's movements and relays it to a projected video control system. The performance questions whether communication beyond transfer of existing information is possible. At the same time, the need to speak is the driving force behind the piece. It also investigates systems of control and the relation of live, human-based theater to mass media.

The performance is a collaboration between UIC's Electronic Visualization graduate program and the Department of Performing Arts. Trowbridge has been working with Clinical Assistant Professor Sharon Göpfert's "Movement for Stage III" students to develop Dog Days. These theater students will be featured in the performance. Of the collaboration, Trowbridge said "I had to email Sharon a couple times last year to get her to talk to me. Finally I sent my working script and she invited me to her class. It's been an ongoing dialogue since then. As part of Chicago's Plasticene theater group, she has a fantastic background in movement and experimental theater. The piece has become an intense intersection of technology, interactivity and movement-based theater."

Adam Trowbridge is an artist focused on research that fractures the intersection of sensation and cognition. Materially, his recent work has been in the form of theater, performance, computer-driven installation and video. He is attending the University of Illinois at Chicago as an MFA student in Electronic Visualization. He holds a BFA in painting and sculpture from the University of Central Florida, where he studied under sculptor Jóhann Eyfells. His work has been featured nationally and internationally including Anthology Film Archives, NYC; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Pleasure Dome, Toronto, Ontario; MicroCineFest, Baltimore, MD; and Square Eyes Festival, The Netherlands. http://www.atrowbri.com

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) is an interdisciplinary graduate research laboratory that combines art and computer science, specializing in advanced visualization and networking technologies. The laboratory is a joint effort of UIC's College of Engineering and The School of Art & Design representing the oldest formal collaboration between engineering and art in the country, offering graduate degrees in electronic visualization (MFA, MS, PhD). http://www.evl.uic.edu

Contact:
Adam Trowbridge
[email protected]