Big Bob : Sculpture, dimensions and materials variable, SA vinyl, EB Flute, wood, augmented reality app, HP latex print

Big Bob is formed from veteran dancer Robert Davidson's original motion capture avatar in the MAN A series. The pose is taken from a single frame of a rolling sequence manifest as a 14 x 4 meter polygonal sculpture. Sections of the sculpture act as augmented reality markers revealing hidden performances.
Each iteration of MAN A is responsive to site, highlighting novel audience engagement with motion captured dance improvisations -  animations revealed by direct relations of subject to object.
Research aims: - Encourage audiences body involvement in the viewing process.- Achieve potential affordances for movement in and through space with nuanced relationships between screen and surface.- Disrupt space, altering shifts of perception, habits and limitations of smartphone application.
Abstract:Gibson/Martelli re-imagine ‘dazzle’ camouflage as tribal markings for invisible performers, moving within a window installation activated by a special augmented reality App.
High contrast geometric patterns of ‘dazzle camouflage’ act as a ready made triggers, as markers easily readable by computer-vision algorithms. Viewers are invited to re-calibrate their spatial and proprioceptive faculties to fully interact with the virtual liveness of motion captured dance performances. 
The performers who lent their motion captured presence to the installation are all experts in Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) which holds as its core premise that humans are endowed with a natural, animal like grace that can be tapped by the combination of technical movement principles with poetic, haiku-like imagery. It is from this principle of natural force and energy - referred to as mana in Pacific Island cultures - that MAN A takes its name.
The exhibition at Jaffe-Friede Gallery at Hopkins Centre For the Arts is part of an studio artist residency at Dartmouth College, USA. Funded by the William B Jaffe Memorial Fund and the Matthew Wysocki Memorial Fund.