This project began as a response to COVID-19 where Yuguang Zhang and I started questioning what it means for live performances to be online; what do we gain or lose?
GAIN: mass-scale connection,
PROS: everyone is equal (no stage, no boundary) , lots of possibility for digital interaction (camera, mic, keyboard, mouse) How do we leverage on these?
LOSS: intimacy, presence, sense of space, spontaneity
CONS: delay, frame drops, resolution loss (everything is more coarse) How to we compensate for these?
CUT (1/3) showcased at Choreographic Interventions, ITP Spring Show 2020 and Movement Research
An interactive sketch for live performance where two camera feeds are CUT and switch-able by each participant. Sketch: https://cut-cut-cut.glitch.me/.
MASS (2/3) showcased at BOND Festival and CultureHub Downtown Variety
A scaled up version of CUT. Two live audience, who have never seen the performance before, are asked to join Yuguang and I. The brief is simple, “We ask you to pay very close attention to us and to each other, and try to connect with us. No words, no sounds, only through movement”
DISPLACED (3/3) showcased at the Center at West Park
As the lock-down eases up, we had the opportunity to integrate the physical environment – allowing us to experiment with the dynamic between physical space and digital space (output layout).
Full recording (session 1, session 2, session 3, session 4)
- Scene 1 – Study of scale (5 performers in physical space, 2 online audience)
- Scene 2 – Study of time and space
- Scene 3 – Study of physical and digital space

MORE EXPERIMENTS!
Walking Club
Socially distanced, instructions driven.
Club page: https://github.com/hellonun/walking-club/wiki/Walking-Club
Shared drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lnt3Bhq0x-yWoNiBZtWKISdQrA29H1Ey?usp=sharing
Camera placements and physical layouts
ITP Camp Workshop
We hosted a workshop at ITP Camp (Summer 2020) to explore more on the question with others as well as to prototype on the ideas.
Outline: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13Lp0tGdoNPH2GEzmhaKD_CD6UP-zQt6Dml3yBERuyao/edit?usp=sharing
Living document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ci3qa0isnmXcXu68bi4j_qJCrANCq8Ck1b0aPv_5V3Y/edit?usp=sharing
Modes of interactions (algorithmic)
Live Cam (+mockups)
More
Sketches
- delay effects – https://editor.p5js.org/onlinelive/sketches/1G0A320yK
- playback speed effects – https://editor.p5js.org/onlinelive/sketches/WhN_UTl-C
- microphone effects – https://editor.p5js.org/onlinelive/sketches/cgJYFJISL