Technology

The Iliad Project’s primary technological focus is audience interaction and implication through the dynamic customization of media. Pragmatically, this means real-time image capture, generation, retrieval, and compositing based on information gathered from the city of the event as well as from participants’ actions online and in the gallery/performances.

Where necessary, it will also incorporate dynamic control of the production environment based on performer action, as developed for our recent production of Macbett. We have identified a set of core technologies that will be used to create the experience of our Iliad, blending the boundaries of online experience, gallery, and performance:

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) sensing,
A relational database system storing audience information,
Text processing that modifies the script in "real-time",
High-density multi-channel image capture,
Real-time image processing and manipulation,
Multi-channel video on demand services.

These will be used creatively to unify all three aspects of the experience: online, gallery, and performance.

All components, as well as standard production lighting, sound, projection, and other sensing technologies, will be interconnected using a new scripting language and control system, kolo, which is being developed as part of the research process. The shift in paradigm for theatrical performance is that the director and designers can choose to set up explicit systems of relationships between the physical world (as it can be measured by technology) and digitally controlled media. The control system and associated scripting language are based on our experience in developing media-rich interactive installation and performance works like Macbett. They are designed to provide a consistent way for non-programmers to script interactive relationships across media boundaries, allowing databases to affect stage lighting, sensors to control video playback, participant proximity or identification to vary projected text, and so on.

The scripting language of kolo is based on previous work by our lead developer, Eitan Mendelowitz, and incorporates a collection of features drawn from and extending existing control systems for interactive environments. It will allow the creation and modification of real-time relationships between inputs (e.g. sensors, databases, and the internet) and outputs (e.g. lighting, sound, video, and servos) for live performance and installation settings. Kolo is currently being implemented in Java, with the scripting language created in SISC, a Java-based version of the well-known Scheme programming language. For more information, please contact Eitan.