THIS looks like it is going to be one of the hits of this year’s MIFs.
They're taking advantage of kit that is more advanced than current Hollywood software
As explained by the witty, unpretentious Ed Atkins, he wants to explore themes of identity and self using cutting-edge tech and the ‘emotional core’ at the heart of an avatar. It is a durational work, one that will end with a 104 minute film (that will return in February next year), that visitors will see being created and augmented as the festival progresses.
The setting is the top floor of Manchester Art Gallery. There are three rooms. The first is a large white space, with a white raised square in the centre and scaffolded towers at each corner. The walls are adorned with ‘dead stage flats’. These pictures are illustrations of hands holding rather disturbing and obscure objects, occasionally embellished by small plastic boards punched out with laser-cut, similarly disconcerting text. There is a chair and a large flat screen on the raised space. There are a number of technicians on one side, and through a large hole in the far wall you can see the tops of the heads of some of their colleagues. They are in the second room, the ‘rendering room’, where all of the performance capture is processed. The third room has a large screen, which is where all of the ‘performances’ end up.
The image on the screen is an avatar. It is a hyperreal creation. A man’s head and arms talking at you, hesitant, performing the text – ‘a long prose-poem sort of thing’ that Atkins has written and that the performers will record page by page.
Each invited performer (around 100 over the course of the festival) is connected to MIF, including the star names, participants and admin staff. They will first don a jacket, sleeves and gloves which contain ‘gyroscopic inertial sensors’ which map movement – it is fascinating watching the green stick figure on a screen start moving, becoming more and more fluid. Ed will then sit them in the chair and direct facial expressions. A camera starts ‘layering up’ the performer’s face and neck. It is engrossing watching the screens as the person’s features become increasingly ‘logged’ in 3D. They will then be asked to recite some of the text.
In three hours the captured features and expressions and voice are ‘mapped’ onto the avatar, making it a MIF-centric compound figure. This avatar will also age. It will grow stubble and bags under the eyes and look increasingly tired as it ‘performs’ 24 hours a day. It will probably look like the near-inexhaustible MIF director Alex Poots by the end.
The technicians are all from Studio Distract, based in Ancoats. Steven Hanton and his team are taking advantage of kit that is more advanced than current Hollywood software, and some servers loaned by CISCO that would have cost upwards of half a million quid. The constant buzzing you hear are the fans.
Watching the avatar change and develop over the next couple of weeks, as the human elements augment the creation, is going to be a fascinating process. Well worth a trip to the gallery. This one's free too...
Ed Atkins - Performance Capture is at the Manchester Art Gallery until Sun 19 July, 10am to 5pm
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