LifeForms

Note to self: check out LifeForms, the software that Merce Cunningham uses to demonstrate movement, since he is terribly arthritic and can no longer do those things himself. Hmm - accessibility to movement. What different ways would an immobile person think about moving, from an 'average' moving individual. What capacities could be lost by going from mobile to immoble. How would this be different from someone who was never able to walk, for example? What would the choreography of a whole-life-wheelchair-dependent person look like? How large is that barrier?

Relating to LifeForms, I came up with the idea a few weeks ago of some sort of automatic choreography generator. Sounds tacky. And would it discount dance as an art; would it become a manufactured product? I heard someone in the Dance Department talking about how a couple years ago, the Performing Arts Technology majors were given access to LifeForms and choreographed a piece within that program. I like that an application like that bridges the gap from people who are not trained dancers to choreographer. Anway, the choreography generator would allow the user to input checkpoints, either by sculpting a digital figure, or perhaps by matching the shape of an object (*new idea*). Different options would be specified (overall, for a given sequence, or just for the one transition) relating to the "weighted feeling" of the body (which could in fact change the gravity of the virtual environment), how much the limbs are extended, how the transition would be grounded or lifted, etc. The calculated transition between the two points does not have to be the shortest distance.