Here’s the 30 second trailer (view final version here):
Body/Traces: 30 second trailer from Sophie Kahn on Vimeo.
Body/Traces (USA/Spain) was an EMPAC Dance Movies commission for 2008-9, supported by the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts – Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA.
Body/Traces is a digital stop-motion 3d animation composed of thousands of 3d laser scans, made with a DIY laser scanner made from LEGO.
It is designed to be shown projected in a darkened room for a small number of visitors, with the dancer at life-size and the video on a continuous loop.
Co-directors: Sophie Kahn and Lisa Parra
Choreographer: Lisa Parra
New media artist: Sophie Kahn
Dancers: Lisa Parra and Tina Vasquez
Sound: Sawako Kato
Editor: Lisa Parra
Editing assistance: Silvia Zaya Serra
Engineering assistance: David Barrett-Kahn
And here’s the behind the scenes video where you can see:
The making of Body/Traces from Sophie Kahn on Vimeo.
– Sophie calibrating the DIY lego scanner
– One very patient and long-suffering dancer Tina being scanned (with Lisa draped in black to hide from the laser)
– The laser line changing as she is scanned (the software uses this information to create the 3d model)
– The Lego scanner in operation
– The 3D model coming up on the screen
– The 3D model being rotated
– Lisa editing the footage
Videography and editing by Mick Bello at EMPAC.