“Seventh Sense” is a collaboration between ULTRACOMBOS and Anarchy Dance Theatre that received the “2011 Grant for Cross-Field Project in Performing Art Group and Creative Technology” from the Council for Cultural Affairs. The “five senses” generally refer to sensory organs like the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, where they can receive external stimulation, as well as the sensory nerves distributed in parts of the the body.

Their operation is based on either you sense it or you don’t and is the channel through which organisms gather outside information. The “sixth sense” is often mentioned as awareness, intuition, extrasensory perception, or forsight ability. The “Seventh” of the “Seventh Sense” in this project does not simply attempt to define “Seventh Sense” through the combination of interactive technology and performance; instead, this project attempts to allow the audience, through the participation process, to embody various imaginations related to “outside of six senses” or “non-six senses” through the natural interaction with the dancers using real-time five-sided interactive projection in the whole area.

While the performance is being presented, the area for audience is divided into GA floor area and general viewing area. GA floor area is where the audience shares the space with the dancers in the venue. During the 30-minute performance, they can choose to sit, lie down, or stand while watching the entire performance. During the performance , there is plenty of interaction with the dancers and the environment in the venue. The general viewing area is set up at the edge of the stage, allowing the audience to enjoy the entire performance from a semi-participant perspective.

The stage consists of a square flooring (length of 8m) with three walls (8m wide by 4m tall), where the entire space has interactive projection. The system is divided into three major aspects, namely “Detection,” “Visual,” and “Sound.”

To be able to detect the entire space, four infrared cameras are installed on the ceiling, where through image-stitching a full picture is formed, so information, such as the contours, positions, and movements of all the people on stage can be obtained. This information can be used as real-time information, which can, in turn, produce the corresponding visual effects.

Visually, we attempted to maximize the relation between the composition of the picture and the behavior of the performers on stage, so we boldly adopted the approach of fully-calculated visual, without any pre-processed material. The content is produced entirely from real-time movements.

In addition, we also experimented with the possibilities of many calculated visuals, such as using the perspective approach to break the sense of space from the existing walls or adding random parameters (Perlin Noise) within the continuity of time and space to stack even more details of change, etc.

Just as for the visuals, we had the same expectations for sound and hoped that all the sounds correspond with every change on the stage. However, if there is a strong relation between music and behavior, then there is a huge restriction on atmospheric progression and harmony. Therefore, we took a compromised approach on the sound by separating the music and the sound effects. A pre-processed music arrangement is used for the music, while the sound effects are tied with the behavior of the performer. In addition, we installed the speakers in the four corners of the audience area. The sound field will change according to the position of the performer as he/she moves on stage.

2014, 06/13-15 HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, Dance X Multimedia Series
2014, 01/10 United Arab Emirates, performance at the opening ceremony of the 6th Islamic Arts Festival
2013, 09/08 Cardiff, U.K., performance at the opening ceremony of the World Stage Design WSD2013 Annual Summit
2013, 01/11-12 performance at the Japan Society in New York, U.S.A.
2012, 10/19-20 performance at the Centro Parraga in Spain
2012, 09/21-22 performance at the TodayArts Festival in the Netherlands