Event 3: Toni Dove

 The third event I attended this quarter was “Motion as a Sentience and the Pygmalion Complex” featuring Toni Dove, an artist that is breaking the veiling in interactive and immersive art. II found her method of work to be highly innovative in her use of motion sensing and machine learning technology to break the fourth wall in her experimental theatre productions. In course of the event we were shown some of her flagship work from the Bermant Collection of media and kinetic arts.

Screenshot of "Motion Connection" 

I personally was in awe of ‘The Dress That Eats Souls’, an interactive cinema / robotics installation where the dress is a projection screen with a cinemascope above. The dress mimics the movement of the person in front of it and talks to them, giving a mix of your own perception and a point of view from inside it to understand the history. The message of this project is progress which I imagine is very evident if seen in person.

 

Screenshot of "The Dress That Eats Souls"

Another fabulous project “Lucid Possession” used LED costumes and robotic screens to tell a very relevant new age story, specific to the impact of social media and virtual interaction on our persona, and how we all lead some kind of dual life because of it. The new metrics of life we measure ourselves by such as likes, reshares and comments are a worrying detachment from  what it has meant to be a human being. The height of the technology in this installation is the highlight for me, as it uses vocal analysis and motion sensing to almost perfectly replicate a subject.

 

Screenshot of "Lucid Possessions"

Sources;

 

“Color, Light, Motion: About David Bermant.” David Bermant Foundation, 8 Jan. 2021, https://davidbermantfoundation.org/about/#bermant.

 

Dove, Toni. “Lucid Posession.” Bustlelamp, 2016, https://tonidove.com/category/lucid-possession/

 

Dove, Toni. “The Dress That Eats Souls: A Robot in Progress.” Bustlelamp, May 2016, https://tonidove.com/the-dress-that-eats-souls-a-robot-in-progress/

 

Image Sources;

 

Dove, Toni. "The Dress That Eats Souls." 2018. The Ringling Museum.

 

Dove, Toni. "Lucid Possession." 2018. The Ringling Museum.

 

Screenshot from Toni Dove, Color, Light, Motion “Petit Homme”