far field
far field is a collaborative work by slowdanger and Creative Technologist Anna Henson.
far field is an embodied archive and artifact of our time that explores the fragmentation of the body within digital arenas and virtual spaces. This project was developed throughout the pandemic between April 2020-Septeber 2021, through digital process periods and one in-person residency period. This work has been shown as a Virtual Gallery in Mozilla Hubs, featuring many of the videos, recordings and sound worlds developed through the early process stages of the work.
On September 18, 2021, far field manifested as a stand alone VR experience for one participant, featuring spatialized audio and original avatars. This Virtual Reality experience exhibited to a live audience at the Kennedy Center's The REACH in Washington, DC as a part of LENS.
LENS is a series of four movement-based installations each viewed through different technological means by Ben Levine in collaboration with over two dozen artists from the DMV and across the US. Featuring both live and digital performance, audience perspectives are reshaped with the use of infrared goggles (choreography by Shannon Quinn + Boris Willis), binoculars (choreography by Sadie Leigh), virtual reality headsets (slowdanger + Anna Henson), and a 360-degree projection installation (Orange Grove Dance).
LENS is made possible thanks to the support of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Projects, Events, or Festivals Grant program; Aunt Karen’s Farm; Dance Place; and Rosslyn BID + JBG Smith (View of DC).
LENS was presented in partnership with the Kennedy Center, American Dance Movement, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, National Dance Day celebrates the joy of dance and movement. National Dance Day is curated in collaboration with Kennedy Center Culture Caucus member Carol Foster and Washington, D.C.’s Dance Place.
far field cast:
Symara Johnson | | Maxi Canion
Anna Wotring | taylor knight | anna thompson
far field technological collaborators:
Anna Henson | H.D. Harris | Dimitri Diakopoulos
far field project is supported by the Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative, The Pittsburgh Foundation A W Mellon Grant, the D.C. Commissions on the Arts and Humanities, Ben Levine Extreme Lengths Productions, Dance Place and University of Nebraska Lincoln.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: This trailer documents the user experience inside the immersive virtual video installation on the Mozilla Hubs Platform. The video encapsulates a digitally-sculpted world, taking place in a virtual room with images of pixelated moving bodies on the walls. Computerized portraits of people appear, their embodied experiences transforming the image, creating a feeling of interconnectedness despite individual distance. SOUND DESCRIPTION: The video includes a sonic experience of ambient frequencies, faraway inaudible voices, and punctuating noises that feel near. It includes cast member, Symara describing the feeling of their shared zoom process, and how difficult it can be to abstract the body through other mediums in the pursuit of
multidisciplinary processes.
HISTORY: far field has been developed throughout the pandemic between April 2020 and March 2021 through digital process periods. In February 2021, a version of far field was presented as an immersive virtual gallery in Mozilla Hubs. far field virtual gallery in Hubs sources material gathered between March and December 2020 with a cohort of movement artists on zoom and through self-recorded prompts. far field virtual gallery in Hubs rendered our two dimensional selves into movement responsive video textures and 3D landscapes, accompanied by spatialized sound.
Visit the Hubs room below and check out the tech specs before you enter.
click here for optimal viewing tech specs for the far field virtual gallery in Mozilla Hubs
