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The ICA presented Quartet at the Great Hall at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Farringdon. London February 15,16,17,and 18th in 2007.

Quartet Music makes moves

Informed by new scientific research in the field of physiology, this multi-media event is the culmination of several years’ collaborative research. It is an investigation into the kineasthetics of music: determining movements which produce sounds, which in turn produce new choreographies.

Movement is played across the senses of the human body. Specialists from dance, music, biomedical and computational science, 3D animation and motion control use cutting edge technology to experiment with the ephemeral nature of real-time art. Virtual, mechanical and live elements come together on stage in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, creating new choreographies from sensory data. Three leading choreographers - Lea Anderson, Russell Maliphant and Lisa Nelson - will each shape sections of the performance.

Quartet’s central figure, a virtual dancer, is an avatar of sensual information, playing between its manifestation and its puppeteers. On stage the interactions between the performers slip through different pairings, trios, and quartets, such as the musician using the speed or acceleration of her violin playing to duet with the real dancer; or a trio between the real and virtual dancers and the robot camera, exploring the choreography of cinematic space: the poetics of looking and moving. This interplay uncovers the tensions within the transfer of data.

The performance experiments with our perception and its articulation. It demonstrates communication within and between bodies in real-time by creating relationships between music, the gesture of musical performance, dance, robotics and animation.