Interactive Condition

Interactive Condition

In modern performance, technological means are the sine qua non of the creation and the expression of the play-act-drama. Interactivity in its bare-bones version entails the communication among the performer, the musicians and the public. Breakthroughs in technology led to the establishment of a new relation – between man and personal computer. This opened new grounds for change in performance art.

Medea Electronique suggests a convolution of different art forms, such as theatre, dance, sonic art, video and music under an interactive condition, providing the communicative means that will give the artist/ creator with the possibility to express all man’s experience. The spectator for his part exposed in this rich breadth of stimuli experiences a particular and “extended” experience.

In brief, the aim behind the designing of the interactive systems for the present application is the recognition of human body movement and its conversion to digital data, using a personal computer. These data are used for the controlling of the sound and visual result as the play develops.

Taking under consideration the need for the presentation of the play in different types of venues, two different interactive systems have been developed, focusing on the performer’s actions and audience’s movement respectively.

1. Interaction between performer and computer: In plays taking place in theatres and other venues where people are seated, the interactive system analyses the performers motion, providing him with the ability to add to his expression arsenal new means, on top of movement and speech.
2. Interaction between audience and computer: In cases where the venue does not have seats – foyers, lounges, open-air festivals – the sensors capture the action/reaction of the public, thus influencing the visual environment and lighting conditions of the show. The interaction between the audience and the computer increases the former ’s participation and thus its holistic experience; this way the outcome of the act is - to an extent - modified.


Design of the Lights Control System

In our aim to create a dynamic environment, the fixed and mobile sources of lighting function as the unifying element for the sense of sight. Briefly put, they express the sentimental alternations of the performers in each scene and unify the multiple sources of visual material (projections) in the space. Further, with the combined use of interactive systems they express at times the action performer and when the spectators, depending on the system and the space of presentation of work.

The controlling parameters of the lights system come from three data inputs, which are blended together depending on the circumstances.

1) manual settings stored in memory presets
2) data from the performer’s movement recognition
3) data from the audience’s movement recognition


The system used for controlling audio, video and lights is based on a multimedia platform designed and developed by Panagiotis Tsagkarakis and Iannis Zannos (Head of the “Audio – Visual” department, Ionian University). It was firstly presented in the “Programming Interactive Installations” workshop (“Info-System” exhibition, Hellexpo, Thessaloniki 2006).