Event #3: Toni Dove

This week I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Toni Dove. Toni Dove is considered to be one of the pioneers of Interactive Cinema. She has been working with an interactive narrative style of art since 1990 where she works to blend different cinematic tropes of studio-age film noir with contemporary narrative trends in science fiction, cybernetics, and new media. Her work reminded me a lot of Nina Sobell’s presentation. It not only worked to incorporate technology into her artistic style but also offered a feminist take on different topics. It was so interesting to learn about how Toni Dove could incorporate so many different popular genres into her art installations. 

 

Image Source: https://www.google.com/imgres

 

Throughout her projects, both performers and participants are able to interact within an unfolding narrative, using interface technologies to allow this interaction to happen. Interactive technologies, for example, include motion sensors to perform on-screen avatars. 

 

One of her projects, Lucid Possession, was particularly interesting because it involved a live cinema performance mixed and animated in real-time using motion-sensing technologies. Musicians and a DJ were able to control robotic screens, light, sound, and video to merge and create a contemporary ghost story centered around self-perception and fame across virtual and real social spaces. The performed fuse with the concept in a musical theater that unfolds from the point of view of the programmer, in this case, her Avatar, and their real and virtual community of fans. Dove animates characters onstage using video motion-sensing technology in real-time. Hai-Ting Chinn performs the lead onscreen and speaks through the avatar. Todd Reynolds composes and performs a live score with violin and sampling. Ed Bear added customized hardware controls and manages the live sound system in performance. So many different people came together in order to create and support this project that reflected the inner voices battling inside the main character amid the schizoid chorus of the real and virtual worlds. It was a beautiful project to see during pieces of during her presentation. 

Image Source: https://tonidove.com/lucid-possession/text/project-description/ 

Dove also presented the Lasso project which used technologies like digital kinetic lightwork and electro neon tubes and a microprocessor. It was interesting to see how neon tubes could spin around in circles creating different motions which were perceived as an abstract pattern piece of motion and sound. 

 

Another one of Dove’s interesting pieces was the Dress that Eats Souls. In this installment, a viewer stands in a pool of light in the middle of a dark room. A dress with a robotic bodice and huge skirt is cabled to the walls, swaying using motor-driven wheels. Different movements activate the dress to tell a story, with the dress becoming a character in itself. It was so interesting to learn about how robotics and video technologies could be used to pull viewers inside the dress, connecting us to the dress and the history of those who previously wore it. Voiceover technology was also used to piece together a poetic narrative with paranormal themes. It highlights the tension between the world as technology and the world without us, both alien spaces that allow the dress to evolve until it becomes lethal and consumes those who wear it. It was so interesting to see how horror tropes could be utilized by Dove in order to draw in the viewer into the story.  

 

Image Source: https://tonidove.com/the-dress-that-eats-souls/text/

 

It was so wonderful hearing from Toni Dove herself as she explored the thought processes behind some of her projects. I hope to be able to view one of her projects in person in the near future!

 

Works Cited

Bio. @Bustlelamp | tonidove.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://tonidove.com/bio/ Home. @Bustlelamp | tonidove.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://tonidove.com/ Project description. @Bustlelamp | tonidove.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from 

https://tonidove.com/lucid-possession/text/project-description/ 

Text. @Bustlelamp | tonidove.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from 

https://tonidove.com/the-dress-that-eats-souls/text/ 

Toni Dove. Kinorium. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from 

https://en.kinorium.com/name/1359615/ 

Toni Dove: Embodied Machines. The Ringling. (n.d.). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from 

https://www.ringling.org/events/toni-dove-embodied-machines