Drawn is a concert-performance in which live painting is radically augmented in real time, creating a fictional world in which the painted forms appear to come to life, rising themselves off the page and interacting with the outside world. The performance explores the musicality and immediacy of drawing by turning simple brushstrokes of ink into complex and energetic life forms.
The performance operates in a simple manner: A table on stage holds the paper, ink and brushes the performer uses to draw. A mounted camera positioned above the table captures the drawing and this seemingly "live" image from the camera is then projected for the audience to observe. However, this projected image is not entirely unadulterated - custom software works as an intermediary step between the camera and projection, performing complex analysis of the video image and augmenting the image in real-time with synthetic graphics. The result is a hybrid video signal, combining both factual and fictional pixels in order to create an artificial but entirely believable world in which hand-drawn gestures appear to have a mind of their own.
One of the primary goals, in developing the software, was the creation of a visual "instrument" that could be used in tight collaboration together with musicians. Drawn presents a duet between Lieberman, performing live, augmented drawing, and Pardon Kimura, performing analog synthesizer and effects. The central aim is an extremely nuanced relationship between animated drawing and sound, where the sketches, doodles, and gestures mix together with the sonic environment in order to create a dense and lively musical form. The result is a playful, enigmatic landscape in both image and sound.
technical diagram documenting the on-stage setup of Drawn
is available as 
Pardon Kimura (JP) is a frequency surfer, composer, producer, and electronic
musician who makes his uniquely crafted sounds playing analog modular
synthesizers, guitars and electronics. He is the dub-engineer of the
Naruyoshi Kikuchi Live Dub Quintet. Since 1999, Kimura has released
multiple albums that investigate his unique and unprecedented brand of
"pop" electro-acoustics. Kimura has also worked as a producer, helping
hand craft albums by Naruyoshi Kikuchi, Towa Tei, SPANK HAPPY, Air
Sculptures, Keison, and Hitomi Toi.
Zachary Lieberman (USA) is an artist, engineer and educator whose work explores
the creative and human uses of technology. He produces installations,
on-line works and concerts concerned with the themes of kinetic and
gestural performance, interactive imaging and speech visualization.
He was recently Artsist-in-Residence at the Futurelab, Ars Electronica,
working on a suite of immersive installations for children with
profound multiple learning disabilites as part of a NESTA education grant.
Zachary Lieberman: CV (PDF) |
thesystemis | tmema
