Meat (NSFW)

MEAT has the distinction of being one of the most first installations I've heard of based off the events of a real crime. Walking a fine line between performance piece, a reconstruction of real events and musical video, this project by Swedish actor/set designer Thomas Bo Nilsson is bound to be a rather unsettling endeavor.

The 240-hour-long performance is exploring the sexual identities of its characters, online and offline. The theater performance is initially based on the story of Luka Magnotta, Canadian adult actor and model accused of killing and dismembering another man. He was eventually caught in a Berlin Internet café in 2012, which is the setting of MEAT's initial promo video. We are offered a glimpse into a truly seedy underbelly filled with some truly deviant personalities, each with their own story to tell.

While the promo seems cut straight out of one of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming films, the actual performance will take place at the Schaubühne theater in Berlin. And with it's lengthy running time, I'm really curious as to how they will approach retelling this rather twisted series of events.

"Synchronicity" - A Taste Of Next Gen Facial Animation

Uncanny valley has been a term that's been brought up time and time again when people in the CG realm have attempted to bring believable, photorealistic characters to life in feature film and movies. Most attempts have typically walked a fine line between a character being believable or just creepy and lifeless. Quantic Dreams have probably had the most success in this realm with titles like Heavy Rain and most recently Beyond Two Souls, whereas directors like Robert Zemeckis have failed time and time again with their mocap heavy CG films that simply lacked that 'spark' which made their characters all fall into that creepy, uncanny valley.

I really think It's all about the eye movement. If there's one thing that people sometimes forget is how expressive eyes can be, constantly darting around, an open book to the mental state of a character. Synchronicity is a next gen test by Side, 3Latereal and CubicMotion using a new type of head rig for capturing performances from an actor (Lydia Leonard in this one) working on the latest in game engines. While it's a solid performance and very impressive, pay attention to how the eyes work and think about how yours shift around during a casual conversation. It might be a technological hurdle, but I feel that once somebody really dedicates some time to capturing eye movement in a performance the medium will improve dramatically in it's believability. Just my two cents.

"Fake Banksy" Sells Out

In an amazing display of ballsy opportunism and the psychological power of hype, author David Cicirelli decided to play off of Banksy's October 13th New York stunt where he attempted to sell $60 canvases worth thousands of dollars each to the public from an unassuming stand. In seven hours only three were sold, much to many avid fans' chagrin.

Cicirelli set up a stand featuring Banksy reproductions and offered them for the same price, but told customers they were buying fake pieces. And he sold out of every piece (40) in just under an hour, playing a gullible public eager to invest after the value was exposed. I can't blame them honestly, as the modus operandi of Cicirelli played out in a cryptic style perfectly similar to Banksy's.

Box

Until I see a making of, I'll be pretty damn skeptical of what I just saw. As performance piece centered around the art of projection mapping assisted by robotic arms, it's pretty damn impressive, but due to the overly perfect, nearly impossible looking synchronization of these camera angle reliant projections, I can't help but think there was some pretty heavy post involved here.

The main source of skepticism for me is when the panels actually move away from the camera but still have projected images on them, which is a little dubious and more reminiscent of those stunty viral-bait videos like Ok Go's This Too Shall Pass, which the directors claimed was shot in one take (Which was debunked). That aside, it's an absolutely gorgeous piece which stands well on it's own.

Rhizomatiks Circle - High Technology And Performance Art Collide

Created as a collab between a full on collective of up and coming Japanese performance artists including Chinza-Dopeness, Hifana, Kakinuma Kazunari, DJ Uppercut and directed by GO MATSUMOTO, Rhizomatiks Circle is an awesome display of new visual techniques being employed in Tokyo's electro hip hop scene. Copious amounts of LED's, projection mapping, motion tracking, robotics and electro stimulation are employed within this excellent video headed up by Daito Manabe, well known for his avant garde approach to musical performance.

Check out two additional awesome performances incorporating some of Daito's high tech techniques after the break, Robots X Lasers X Dancers and Projection Mapping Dance 2.

Hallowed by Chris Turner

UK-based Chris Turner, of Hungry Man Productions, created this awesome performance art show for TWENTY6 Magazine's 'H' issue. Based on Dante's Inferno, this very dark short features dancers from the English National Ballet in a variety of costumes and locations, performing very modern, almost abstract sets. I really loved the dark combination of both elegance and glamour, and the interjected feeling of something more modern and industrial. The remixed version of Plaid's 'Eye Robot.' It was all like an otherworldly masquerade ball that you're stuck at for an eternity.

Hibou Blaster - "A Very Unusual Map"

Created as an initiative to promote animation and electro music in the North of France, BBBlaster is an initiative that originally started in Norway. Combining some truly beautiful, poetic handcrafted animation with a downtempo electro style, their performance art strives to create a truly unique atmosphere for any participants. I'd absolutely love to see these guys performing live.

Check out a compilation of some of their other gorgeous VJ visuals after the break.

The High Fashion Evangelion Tribute - The Beast

There's been a strange trend of Evangelion getting the attention of high fashion designers lately, ranging from the Victoria's Secret plug suit model to this performance art piece by Chinese artist Lu Yang. The artist showcases his transformation into the infamous Beast Mode EVA-02 that shows up in Evangelion 2.0. This process was taken to the next level using traditional techniques like Chinese firecupping, simulating the pain that the biomechanical construct underwent to enter a mode which would push it to it's limits. A fascinating mix of mediums to say the least, accompanied by the score of  the New York City symphony.

Falling By Adriano Ciruli

Adriano Cirulli's beautiful piece about falling endlessly is a mesmerizing experience accomplished via digital post effects, choreography and experimental musical compositions. It's a piece that begs for personal interpretation rather than having any clear meaning, an experimental exploration of movement and abstract interactions that will puzzle, surprise and entrance you.

Unnamed Soundsculpture By Daniel Franke

The limits of the Kinect's unintended uses are explore again in this beautiful experimental piece by Daniel Franke. Using three Kinect's, Daniel recorded a dancer going through a routine before feeding the point data into a visualizer, adding sound distortion, random seeding of frames and post processing. The final performance is an uncanny visual spectacle, featuring a flowing form attempting to maintain a solid shape with every reset.

Kagemu

Kagemu is a hybrid style consisting choreographed live action and projected video interacting together as a fluid mixture. The performance was created as a collaboration between Orientarythm and Nobuyuki Hanabusa, who drew influence from traditional Japanese theater (like Kabuki), and martial arts. The folks at Kagemu have evolved their performance multiple times since their debut in 2007, refining it into a truly unique experience.