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Corpus Corvus is a mixed reality performance artwork that utilizes stereoscopic projection, motion capture animation, an integrated physical/media choreographic vocabulary, and electroacoustic composition to explore the Pacific Northwest Native American myth of the raven as god and thief who steals the sun and creates the universe. Formally, the piece explores the relationship between movement of a physical body and stereoscopic animation in a physical/digital three-dimensional image field. The animation is generated from motion capture data and kinesthetic media composition processes based on physical choreography. Through precise temporal alignment and stereoscopic theatrical effect, the projected animation is perceived to surround the performing body in physical space. This physical-virtual dance is completed by a sound score based upon ravens’ vocalizations abstracted through human imitation and technological processing.
The title Corpus Corvus refers to the body of the raven. The piece traverses the environment of the Corpus Corvus through dilations into ten corporeal dimensions: formation, throat, wing, eye, claw, belly, brain, heart, spine, dissolution. Each of these segments articulates a densely integrated three-dimensional kinesthetic-audio-visual composition.
The totality of the performance/technology infrastructure is conceived as an extension of the human nervous system, an expansion of the spine – the epicenter of sensation. The sensate body of the Corpus Corvus loops from the wholly kinesthetic spine of the performer-as-animal through its extended digital peripheries. This pulsation is the lifeforce of the Corpus Corvus, and reaches toward an integrated continuum of sensate embodiment that extends from the animalic to the immaterial.
Corpus Corvus is performed by a solo dancer. The performance space consists of a 9' diameter circular scrim with stereoscopic projection, theatrical lighting, and stereo sound. The artwork premiered in Seattle, Washington, USA, on February 5, 2011.
Corpus Corvus was developed as a doctoral dissertation at DXARTS, the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. The piece was created by physical/media artist Heather Raikes in collaboration with composer Richard Johnson Logan-Greene, sculptor James Ryan, lighting designer Peter Bracilano, and dancer/choreographers Eric Geiger and Julie Funk. Manifestation of the artwork encompassed an array of collaborative research infrastructures, including DXARTS, the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering, the Performative Computing Lab in the Center for Research in Computing & the Arts (CRCA) at the University of California San Diego, the University of Washington Dance Program, and the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of California San Diego.