dancework

Blowup

2008. Interactive performance and installation artwork by visual artist Simon Biggs and choreographer Sue Hawksley. Software development by Josh Nimoy

R & D supported by a New Media Scotland Alt-w award and a choreographic residency at Dance Base, Edinburgh.

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Performance at Shetland Arts, Bonhoga Gallery. Photo credit: Keith Morrison. Dancers: Sue Hawksley & Freya Jeffs.

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Performance at Alt-W, CCA Glasgow. Photo credit: Mark Daniels. Dancers: Sue Hawksley & Cat Casbon.

► VIDEO DOCUMENTATION: performance at CCA Glasgow, 2008.

Blowup is an interactive installation environment for public interaction and choreographed performance. The movement of performers/viewers is acquired and articulated in real time employing software custom written by Simon Biggs with Josh Nimoy. The tracked movement data is used to manipulate, fragment, distort and composite the live video material, which is projected co-located with the performers/viewers, in accordance with aspects of their movement. Stillness causes the images to blow up.
Blowup's title references Antonioni's film of the same name, and the work also draws on the final scene of another of his films, Zabriskie Point.

Blowup was exhibited at Alt-w: New Directions in Scottish Digital Culture - CCA Glasgow, 2008. Opening performance by Cat Casbon and Sue Hawksley.
Restaged and exhibited as a double-sreen projection - Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland Arts, 2011. Opening performance by Freya Jeffs and Sue Hawksley.

✐ WRITING

Ravetto-Biagioli, K. (2019) Digital Uncanny. Oxford University Press: New York, NY.
- a book by Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli in which she discusses Blowup.