In this new form of stage art, a singer and actor perform live within a three-dimensional image that transforms in real time. New technologies and media have always revolutionized artistic forms of expression. Within that context, artistic director George COATES has collaborated with NASA Ames Research Center, Apple Computer, and Intel to study new forms of expression that bring together stage arts and computers. COATES formed an organization called SMARTS (Science Meets the Arts Society), bringing in engineers from the Silicon Valley and constructing the latest systems, in order to explore ways to liberate the computer from its box and use it on the grand scale of the stage.
At its world premier at IC’94, “NOWHERE NOW HERE” incorporated a system called “Livemax 4D.” During the performance, computer graphics and film images were manipulated in accordance with the movements of the actors. The actors on the stage would suddenly appear and disappear, pass through walls and buildings, or change into virtual actors. Thus the audience, equipped with 3D glasses, saw a world unfold before their very eyes that previously could only be encountered in sci-fi movies.
While virtual reality and multimedia have often been discussed as a transformation of the information environment at the level of the individual, this performance marked the first attempt to develop such technologies as the shared experience of stage art.
“NOWHERE NOW HERE” is a fantasy of the virtual world based on the theme of a child’s imagination. A little girl learns a magic spell from a bird, which enables her to change her own appearance, age and surroundings at will. The little girl sings the magic song, manipulates and plays with plants, and takes off on a journey into a wondrous electronic forest.