Virtual Collection as the Time-Shift Appreciation: The Experimental Practice-Led Research of Automated Marionette Hsiao Ho-Wen Project

Abstract

Today’s digital technology makes performing arts something more than their earlier incarnations that could only evoke ephemeral feelings of presence. Virtual archive has empowered spectators to determine their preferred duration, perspective, and scene of the work they’re viewing. Virtual technology has also gradually transformed the admiration of works that had been performed into participatory somatic experiences. Immersing themselves in a world detached from realities, spectators comprehend theater pieces not so much by conscious perception as through a world constructed from image-actor, stage installation, and immersive technology. This practice-based research takes example from Automated Marionette Project: Hsiao Ho-Wen dedicated to applying contemporary digital technology to the methodological construction and R&D of non-material archiving technique concerning performers’ body movement. Breaking away from previous practice of single-perspective recording, this project provided a sweep panorama of the performer’s whole body, insofar as to give the spectators a 3D stereo view of the performer’s body movement.