LIVE-STREAMING DANCE IN 3D

Choreographer Brian Brooks’ Viewpoint Project uses groundbreaking, patented technology and software that streams 3D video in real-time. While performing, a dancer’s image can be seen simultaneously through a mobile device in another location, magically overlaying the dancer into the viewer’s surroundings.
This technique of Augmented Reality anchors the dancer in place, allowing the viewer to move freely around the image, watching from any angle and perspective imagined. This digital window allows audiences to see dance as never before – up close, underneath, above – with dancers positioned in impossible places – your coffee table, a shelf in your refrigerator, the palm of your hand.
The technology pioneers at FormaVision have partnered with Choreographer Brian Brooks since 2019 to invent software that captures the complex, quixotic dancer in three dimensions, immediately compressing huge amounts of data and instantly streaming it over wi-fi, available to anyone in the world with internet access.
Brooks travels with a compact, mobile studio, featuring infrared cameras that quickly circle a dancer, turning any dance space, gallery, or classroom into a production studio.  In certain instances, audiences are invited to the film site itself, able to place the streaming image directly next to the actual dancer, witnessing duets between live dancers and their avatars. The position and scale of the moving image can be constantly adjusted, allowing for the dance partner to be miniature or as tall as the actual building.

choose your own perspective

watching dance with augmented reality

video by Jamie Kraus, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow

 

viewpoint allows audiences to choose their own perspective when watching live performance. Using breakthrough technology, dancers are filmed in one location while their 3D image is live-streamed anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Viewers can move the performer into any position and change their own vantage point at will.

Choreographer Brian Brooks uses custom-designed software and a portable film studio to immediately turn live action into Volumetirc Video - creating a 3D video that can be seen through the lens of a Smart Phone from any direction or angle. Viewers select the placement of the streaming image itself, as well as their own position around it.

moving in real and imagined spaces

 
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In-Person

Audiences in the same location as the performer are able to simultaneously watch the live performance along with the virtual streaming version. Viewers are encouraged to place the 3D image next to the live dancer, revealing duets between real and virtual figures.

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Remote

Remote viewers, connected to the internet, are able to watch from anywhere in the world - placing the virtual dancer within their own environments when looking through the lens of their smart phones. Screen Recordings can be shared in our online gallery, showing the many locations and experiences of participants.

The Team

Choreographer Brian Brooks collaborates with the Seattle-based tech company Omnivor Media to bring live dance performance into your home as a streaming 3D video.

Brooks began his research into immersive technologies during his Mellon Foundation Creative Artist Fellowship at Seattle’s University of Washington and the Meany Center for the Performing Arts.

Conceived in 2019, the first phase of the project was commissioned by the Meany Center, under the direction of Michele Witt, where it premiered in January 2020. The second phase of the project, which uses a mobile studio of equipment to enable live-streaming events, was launched in July 2021 at the historic Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival under the direction of Pam Tatge.

Peter Martel, Computer Programmer and IT Specialist, works in partnership with Brian to operate the software and manage events in real-time.

The Tech

Augmented Reality is the term for layering digital media on top of your actual surroundings.

Volumetric Video is the process of filming from 360 degrees around the subject, creating a video in 3D rather than from a single point-of-view.

Telepresence Technology is a new form of media that allows the viewer to control the point-of-view of a live-action performance, creating the sense that the performer is actually present in the viewer’s location.

Access

viewpoint takes place in partnership with theaters, museums, schools and organizations throughout the year, during specifically timed and ticketed streaming events. Partnering organizations host the filmed performance, while audiences from anywhere across the globe can watch the live stream through their phones.

Viewers can subscribe to the new viewpoint app, simplifying the process and providing access to multiple events.