Video of Kama Begata Nihilum - AR augmented dance with networked iPads

[John Toenjes]

In February of this year, we created the dance Kama Begata Nihilum, which involved a cast of seven dancers with networked iPads, as well as an AR app for the audience to extend the borders of the stage, and to augment the audience experience. We wrote custom software for the iPads, as commercial apps are usually one-dimensional and somewhat too slow for stage use, and all have one undesirable feature for display onscreen: menus! The software for the dancers allowed for interactive music making, graphics that extended across tablets, color switching, and pushing text onto them. The AR app showed extra 3D graphics behind the main stage prop/character, a giant robot-like totem with a large-screen TV in its belly that also participated in the tablets' displays.

Here, finally, is a video of that dance:  https://vimeo.com/87794341 The video shows how the audience app worked with the stage event.

And here, again, is a review of the dance. http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2014-02-16/mel...

We are working on a paper about the making of Kama Begata Nihilum, so stay tuned for that.