11th & 12th Nov 2000, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, CYNETart-Festival
(computer-generated choreography for six dancers, real-time video performance)

http://www.ventura-dance.com

The title "MADGOD 2.001" makes a reference to Stanley«s Kubrick«s film: "2001 - A Space Odyssey", and uses the character in the film HAL - the onboard computer- as a metaphor to depict ironically the dangers of computer technology.

MADGOD 2.001 is the first dance work of the Ventura Dance Company created with the exclusive use of computer programs. This entailed creating the dance sequences with a computer program, a stage design in constant movement with the means of video projections of computer manipulated visual material, and the use of an electronic music score created solely with the computer.

The dance sequences were created using the program Life Forms 3.5, manipulating the material through various transforming processes. The computer was therefore used as a tool to create complex movement patterns otherwise impossible to achieve without the aid of a computer, and avoiding the interface of the choreographer's body with ingrown habits, tricks and vices while at the same time creating a new movement style.

The stage design consists of real-time video projections which are transformed by the beat and melodies of the electronic music. A virtual cube whereby the walls, the dance floor and the dancers bodies are used as screens onto which images are projected. The video images were created by tenteki; an experimental design collective, which uses footage-material of film fragments, animated graphics und typography to create a world of images.

"With "Madgod 2.001" I wanted to answer the question whether it is possible to create an entire dance work with the means of computer programmes and if so, whether it is a valid means of composition and artistic challenge for the future, and in so doing meditating on the leading role of computers in our lives". (Pablo Ventura)

choreography: Pablo Ventura / dance: Silvia Camarda, Trent Grey, Clare Holland, Arlette Kunz, Gaetano Posterino, Veronika Reithmeier / music: Aphex Twin, Farmers Manual, Fetisch Park, Pan Sonic, Scanner / stage design: Pablo Ventura, Patrick Huber / costume: Arlette Kunz / video images: Tenteki, Tomas Kudrna / licht design and technic: Anje Brückner / video and audio editing: Pablo Ventura / realisation costume: Barbara Mens / technic: Patrick Huber, Walter Nöf / management: Arlette Kunz

Sponsored by presidial department of Zurich, canton Zurich - Fachstelle Kultur und Migros Kulturprozent, Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia, Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung und Migros Genossenschaftsbund Zürich Kulturprozent, Luc de Meester Graphic Design & Video Art.