I n t e r a k t i o n s - L a b o r

 

Sónia Rodrigues

(Portugal)

I completed a Masters in Dance on Screen with Distinction in July 2004. My previous experience as a professional artist includes video exhibitions in New York, London, Belgium and all over Germany and Portugal where I showed video performance installations for multiple video projections and television monitors. I have experience in devising, managing and budgeting my own productions, and have worked as Project Manager for others in the past. Having started my artistic education as a Dance practitioner, I moved onto choreographing my own Dance pieces in Portugal. I then completed a B.A Hons (2.1) at Chelsea College of Art in Sculpture and Multimedia (1999) in order to explore and combine live performance with multimedia and video. Since then, I have been working professionally as a multimedia video artist as well as teaching workshops on technological interactivity in performance in a Dance School in Portugal, trained Music and theatre teachers to work with multi-disciplinarity and collaboratively, taught Final Cut Pro to the Post Graduate Students at London Contemporary Dance School, Dance on Screen Course and developed my own interactive system (LFPF) to enable dancers to interact with live film in an innovative way. I am currently a doctoral Research Student at Universidade Católica do Porto, in the Doctoral Program in Science and Art Technology, and a Visiting Researcher at Brunel University.

Finding a creative language for performers to interact live with video has been my main passion and frame of work. Some examples are: January 2008 - Video Artist for Miriam Faura’s Dance Piece “De lado a lado” at The PLACE, The Robin Howard Theatre in London, in September 2007 I was the Video Artist for FRIDA Dance Performance by Race and Rhythm Company in The Frida Kahlo Theatre, Los Angeles, USA, in July 2007 (and every year for the past 5 years) Dance Performance with Video Interactive aspect – in collaboration with members of Edge (LCDS), the community workshop students and Neuza Rodrigues Dance School devising a Performance at Casa das Artes, Famalicao, Portugal, and in April 2006 I was the Multimedia and Video Director of Multimedia Bilingual Performance “Tango Finale”, +logo, at the Oval House theatre in London, UK, just to name a few.

LFPF (Live Film Performance Facilitator) tests and provides a new approach to the relationship between live performance and film when combined in live performance situations. It enables the use of improvisation as performance language, giving birth to a constructive dialogue between video technology and live performance. ‘LFPF’ is a structured environment for exploration of movement through film concepts with the input given by drawings, or other live feeds. It enables a live film to develop in front of the audience. It enables the performer to inhabit a truly responsive environment that changes depending on his reaction. It is a two-way dialogue between performer and spatial context powered by a second performer inputting drawings or live video. It has a set of rules of action for the dancer and the video artist that allows them both to improvise. These rules are previously determined by both dancer an video artist establishing an action-reaction chain. It can be described as a controlled indeterminacy method. Another strong point was the simplicity with which the technology was laid bare allowing the audience to be included in the process of the piece.

Quite recently, in November 2008 I completed a Diploma course in Transpersonal Psychotherapy, at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education in London, as I am fascinated by the human behaviour and condition. I believe this informs and enriches my work at a more emotional and cognitive level and gives access to subconscious patterns, as well as reinforcing and informing thinking concepts/types we deal with as conscious.

Lately my passion for creative interactions between human being and machine has been broadened by looking at creative tools for personal development. My biggest strength is to be able to oversee and coordinate lots of different disciplines into one project. My expertise is in the areas of Fine Arts, Video, Dance, Theatre, Music, Psychotherapy, Education, and I have been working with all those elements above in what I call multidisciplinary projects. I believe the creative process and research in the area of human/machine to be one of the most interesting areas I have ever encountered. My belief is that machines should enhance human behaviour and not constrict it. Creatively that has been an incredible challenge to keep.

website: http://soniarodrigues.tumblr.com/