Artist Statement

A Live Dance Demonstration

Just what does interactive mean? Who or what, interacts with whom? You can read the word “interactive” today used to describe almost any thing having to do with computers. Basically, it seems to mean that in using a particular program, the user has many choices to make. In this sense, there is a back-and-forth between the user and the computer. My response to this kind of interaction is a definitive yawn. People are naturally interactive. We go back-and-forth with one another every time we have a conversation. And in dance and other performing arts interactivity was traditionally part of the event. Indeed, there was surely much more interactivity in the past than there is today! Human beings have been dancing and making music for 10,000 years. During most of this time, the two were considered part of the same art form. Performers fed off of each other’s energy in a way which is seen today only in improvisation jams, but almost never on stage. Furthermore, performers were not separate from the audience. Everyone was part of the event…

Palindrome computer systems allow movement to control or generate sounds, music, text, stage lighting or projectable art. They are adaptable to an enormous number of applications, lending themselves to experimentation in genuinely new directions in the performing arts. The following information gives you a general idea of what these systems can do, both artistically and technically. We can install our equipment at your studio and teach its use in a workshop setting. For questions of any nature, we are at your service.

• Robert Wechsler, Germany