Engines of Performance, 2013

Toca Loca’s Halo Ballet at InterAccess, 2013

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
InterAccess | 10pm

How do we encode ‘liveness’ into our interactions with digital space?  Featuring live/ digital performances by Toronto’s Toca Loca and New York City’s Foci + Loci, Engines of Performance situates machinima (and game engines) as tools for live performance.

Toca Loca’s Halo Ballet features a score composed by Aaron Gervais, and choreography by Julia Alpin, Halo Ballet is a live machinima performance in which 3 performers control their Halo Avatars (see: Spartans) in a choreographed dance in time to the score. Halo Ballet situates the first person shooter as a tool for live multi-person virtual performances, with 3 ‘dancers’ and a fourth member of the team acting as a ‘camera’ person in order to capture the events live.  While Halo Ballet has been featured in Festivals and showcases around the country, this is the first time the performance is being held alongside other game based artworks.

New York’s foci + loci (Chris Burke and Tamara Yadao) use video game engines as a means of creating live audio/ visual compositions. By using map editors of popular video games, foci + loci create immersive electro-acoustic spaces with virtual instruments and timed audiovisual events.  By manipulating these spaces live, they create live improvisational audio/ visual performances.

Performers:
Toca Loca
Foci+Loci