Dancing With Icicles (2025)
An exploration of intuitive movement: what else can we create when we allow ourselves to move and feel without restraint?
The Concept
This work began with a very simple concept: dancing to my own tune (quite literally). Being new to TouchDesigner at the time of making this work, I knew I wanted to have a go at integrating two elements into one work: audio input, and visual input. The idea of dancing to a song - specifically, my own 2019 composition Icicles - flowed quite naturally from this. To add to the mysterious, emotional nature of the song, I decided my dance would be purely intuitive, i.e. from the heart, unchoreographed.
The Process
I set up a fairly simple network in TouchDesigner whereby live video input - captured by my computer’s webcam - would be livestreamed and projected onto a geometric grid. I chose to build this grid from large triangles - not only because they visually evoked the image of icicles, but also to deliberately create a fractured, indistinct image. I then connected the triangles’ rotations on several axes to different frequency bands in the music, ensuring that their movements would change continuously as the piece progressed.
I intentionally kept the triangles large to create a very abstract image. Firstly, I didn’t want the triangles touching or overlapping with each other as they moved; and secondly, I wanted the image to be unfocused and difficult to make out - I felt the lack of clear detail added more intrigue and mystery, leaving more up to the viewer’s imagination.
Finally came the question of what image to project onto this grid, and I choose to freestyle a dance. This dance would be gentle and flowing in style partly to match the nature of the music, and partly as I was performing it on a very small patch of floorspace in front of my desk where my computer was and couldn’t move very far. I had a mental image of appearing on the grid as a mysterious silhouette, radiating blue light. This effect was created by placing my colour-changing on my bed behind me, where it could cast a vibrant shadow. The blue colour scheme was inspired by the synaesthetic visions that Icicles has always evoked for me.
To maximise the intensity of the lighting and visuals, this phase of the project was completed at about 2 o’clock in the morning to ensure zero interference from outside light.
To create the final work, I “performed” it in front of the camera. Each performance was totally improvised, and thus unique from the one before it. After the fourth take, I felt that I had landed on a performance that did the music justice.
The Tech
Created entirely in TouchDesigner, using live video input via webcam. Featuring audio-reactive visuals.
Music composed in Ableton Live 11 Suite. Edited in Reaper to fit the length of the brief.
Background lighting produced by strategic placement of an IKEA Fado lamp.
