Removed PUPP documentation (10.27.2017)

Rough and ready documentation of the five-channel version of "Removed," a respin of the original project created for screening on Peter Sparling's Pop-Up Projection Pavilion. Shown as part of the Third Century Screens exhibition at the University of Michigan Alumni Center, October 28-28, 2017.

Removed (2016) explores processes of progressive translation, abstraction and distortion. Musical improvisation is captured as choreographic experience, then encoded into digital animation. The performances are transformed by their conversion into visual media: sound is removed and movement is abstracted from human anatomy into nonrepresentational geometry. Removed creates a dialogue between the intuitive and the formalized, and invites questions about the nature of translation and the absences it conceals.

The work originates in a series of solo electric guitar improvisations by the artist. These musical performances were recorded as movement in three-dimensional space, using motion capture equipment. The resulting kinetic data became the basis for a digital animation. The visuals dissolve the performer’s anatomical structure into clusters of simple geometric forms, while reproducing the timing and qualities of the original movement.

Thanks to the University of Michigan Digital Media Commons for their support of this project, and especially to Steffen Heise of the UM3D Lab for his expertise in motion capture.