Singularity - A Space Adventure in Ballet and AR

What does it mean to be a person living in the Great Acceleration, as technology connects, divides and simulates us? Where are our roots, and where is our destination? How cool would it be to do ballet in space?

This project is a DataDrivenDance production. We have drafted the initial storyboarding, choreography, and worked with ballet dancers to produce some recordings in 3D of the performance using motion capture. We are currently seeking funding to produce a complete performance to share with the world.

What's it going to look like?

A "hologrammatic" augmented reality ballet that you can watch on your mobile phone or tablet, in any quiet environment with a flat surface. The performance is divided up into episodes, each one is a communication from the astronauts as they take the next giant leap on their journey.

What are the project goals?

To explore and raise awareness of the social and ethical impact of becoming a connected society. To produce classical ballet in a fresh way that entertains and awes a new audience. To explore the science of space travel, communication, and biometric data. And to disseminate our tools so that other creators may benefit.

Tech Demo

Our motion capture performance "Aurora" presented at Outline in NL in May 2024 demonstrates the viability of our technical pipeline to create smooth, three-dimensional dance performance in a digital space. In this demo, we used SlimeVR trackers to capture Alex freestyling for a few minutes. The theme was chosen spontaneously, as a direct response to the beautifully-visible aurora borealis in the Dutch skies that night.

Research

Concepts in this ballet are drawn from Dr. Smith-Nunes' doctoral research relating to bioethics, participation, social impact and more. Check out this explorable Virtual Reality presentation for some more of the history and ethos of this project.

Previous Adventures in DataDrivenDance

DataDrivenDance is a collaboration of dancers, producers, technologists and researchers. This is our fourth data driven ballet, and the first to use AR. There is a public site at DataDrivenDance.org which we are very proud of.

Our work has focused on a combination of classical ballet and modern concepts from science and popular culture. We challenge the mental habits that divide our discourse about social, historical, and technological themes. Our information wants to be shared, we teach and disseminate what we make.

Our first (non-DataDrivenDance) AR dance project took place in Wolverhampton in 2014, using iPads and a blend of live performance and augmented models and effects. (Ref: Augmenting Live Performance Dance Through Mobile Technology)