Multi-image performance works by Norman Magden

I did a bit research on the topic going on in Perry and Michael's class about stage projection. And I found this artist, NOrman Magden who is focusing on projection and performance. Have a look at what he's doing first......

"Cocoon"
Live performer with portable screens; multi-image projection environment - six 16mm movie projectors, three programmed ektagraphic slide projectors and stereo sound.
clip1.MOV

"Odori To Ki (Dancer with Wood)"
Live performer with slate screen costume; multi-image projection environment - three 16mm movie projectors, three programmed ektagraphic slide projectors and stereo sound.
clip2.MOV

Here's his Artist Statement

Norman Magden Artist Statement

"My works involve the creation of multi-image performances in which live performers/dancers move in an integrated environment of projected images. The live performers interact with the projected images by carrying portable screens as an extension of their performance persona or by wearing specially designed reflective costumes, allowing their own bodies to become screens. The portable screen surfaces include variously formed white shapes that can be extended away from the body or passed over the body in continuous motion causing the images to appear three-dimensional, as they seem to come forward or recede.

Because the performance takes place without any stage lighting, the projections provide the only illumination. The performers' actions only become visible when the portable screens or the white costumes interject the projection beams. In some works, the screens and the
costumes have a black side upon which the images will not appear, adding to illusions in which there are no precise divisions between the real and the projected performance. Live performers acting as screens become a metaphor for the polemical human struggle between the beauty and terror of technology and its ever increasing presence in contemporary society.

To push the dissolution of boundaries between realities even further, the images being projected on the performers often contain a reiteration of the performance actually taking place, creating an intriguing visual confusion in which it becomes almost impossible to separate the images of the performance from the live performance. These multi-image environments are not designed to be mere stage scenery, but created as extensions of the living energy in the movement and the sounds of the actual performance."

After I browsed his website at
http://web.utk.edu/~nemagden/default.html

My overall feeling about Norman and his stage performance is very stunning. But I still don't think it is anything revolutionary. Anything that can bring back the golden day of stage performance. I personally think the soul of the performance is the actor, not the content in the projection. There is a big difference between watching a recorded performance in the theater and sitting in front of the performer is different. And that is the part which stage art is really about and should be proud of. In Norman's piece, somehow I feel the distance between the audience and the actor. That's a invisible barrior between the camera tracking and the projection. It's not as vivid or as life as the actor itself and it also make it very dark to see the actor.

Projection can definitely produce a visual satisfaction, but stage performance is not just about visual. There's still a long way for people to figure out a revolution format for the stage performance.

Posted by Jenova at February 14, 2005 5:08 PM