BIOCHARGE

A NARRATIVE AUDIOVISUAL WORK EXPLORING FREE WILL, MORTALITY, AND INDIVIDUALITY

YEAR

2016

Format

Narrative music video

Medium

Dance

Sound-reactive LED

Projection & light painting

Duration

5 min

BIOCHARGE IS A NARRATIVE MUSIC VIDEO EXPLORING FREE WILL, MORTALITY, AND THE RECOVERY OF INDIVIDUALITY WITHIN A SOCIETY THAT TREATS HUMAN LIFE AS ENERGY. THREE DANCERS INHABIT A WORLD IN WHICH LIFE IS PRODUCED, ORGANIZED, AND CONSUMED AS PART OF A LARGER SOCIAL STRUCTURE. FROM BIRTH, EACH INDIVIDUAL IS DRAWN INTO A SYSTEM THAT PLACES SURVIVAL, CONTINUITY, AND SOCIAL FUNCTION ABOVE PERSONAL PURPOSE. FEAR OF DEATH KEEPS THIS STRUCTURE IN MOTION: PEOPLE WORK, REPRODUCE, AND PRESERVE LIFE, YET GRADUALLY LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT THEY ARE LIVING FOR. BIOCHARGE ASKS WHETHER A SOCIETY DESIGNED TO PRESERVE LIFE CAN ALSO MAKE SPACE FOR THE REASONS WE CHOOSE TO LIVE. THE UNIQUE COLOR OF A LIFE THAT BECOMES VISIBLE WHEN IT IS FINALLY LIVED BY CHOICE.

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Project NOTES:

Biocharge is a narrative audiovisual work performed by three dancers wearing custom sound-reactive LED costumes. The changing illumination of each costume represents the performers’ life energy and gradually reveals their individual visual identities. The work combines choreography with real-time and post-produced visual techniques, including fog projection controlled through Max/MSP/Jitter and moving light-painting imagery. Traditionally created as long-exposure still photography, light painting is extended here into motion, allowing traces of light to become part of the choreography itself. These technologies are integrated into the narrative rather than used as decoration: light functions simultaneously as energy, identity, and a visible measure of the performers’ remaining lives.

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A music device
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