About John Crawford
John Crawford is a media artist, interactive performance
director, technology developer and interaction designer. Intersecting
software with digital media and theatrical performance, he uses
computers and video to create painterly animations and motion graphics
closely integrated with dance. His projects explore embodied
interaction, combining processed video and digital animation with motion
capture, real-time motion tracking, image processing and telematic
performance. He originated the "Active Space" concept in 1994 to
describe his interactive performance systems that produce visuals and
music in response to movement.
He originated the Active Space concept in 1994 to
describe his interactive performance systems that produce visuals and
music in response to movement. The Active Space uses computer-based
sensing of location, speed, duration and other movement characteristics
to influence real-time creation of interactive visual and musical
material, typically within a performance or installation
environment.
His work has been performed and exhibited across North America and in
Asia, Europe and South America. Currently he is directing Threads and Trajectories, a dance film and dance/media
performance with Beijing Modern Dance Company and is the creator of Dance-IT, an interactive media/dance installation
originally commissioned by San Francisco Ballet, now being extended to
other sites.
Recent work includes a new version of Donald McKayle's Angelitos Negros, reinterpreted for the screen, a
hip-hop dance/media performance Something to Do with Love, with Rennie
Harris, the telematic dance/media performances Songs at a Distance and Ootoo, and the Urban Fabric series of
interactive dance/media performances in Beijing, Paris and Prague. His
dance film Ascension was selected
for the Dance for Camera festival at Lincoln
Center, New York. His media and projection designs were featured in
recent productions of Masque of the Red Death, Invisible Cities, Looking Back and NightDriving. His Active Space system was featured
in Dancing in the Active Space, a
four-month interactive installation at the California of Museum of
Photography. His dance film Flight was featured in a
performance by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Costa Mesa, CA. He
contributed digital imagery to Voyages of Aeneas, a music
theatre work that toured Europe for several years. His media
installation Degrees of Erasure was featured
in the Norman Klein retrospective at the Beall Center for Art and
Technology in Irvine, CA. His other work includes dance films,
media/projection design and interactive performance systems for
performances and installations.
He is Assistant Professor of Dance and Media arts at University of California, Irvine,
where he directs the annual UCI Dance Film Festival and teaches dance filmmaking, motion capture animation, media
design and digital arts history and practice
at University of California, Irvine. He held an appointment as Visiting
Professor at Beijing Dance Academy, was a Digital Fellow at Dance
Theater Workshop in New York, has taught workshops and master classes at
many universities and has been a featured speaker at numerous events and
conferences.
He founded a software development company specializing in digital
media tools, and his credits as a software developer include projects
for Microsoft, Adobe and many other companies. He has consulted and
taught professional development seminars on user experience and
interface design for over twenty years. His software career included a
range of positions in engineering and management, specializing in
computer graphics and user interface research and development.
As a theatre director and actor in the 1970's, he studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood
Playhouse Theatre School in New York and founded the experimental
theatre group Explorations Workshops.
|
