I am the Child of…

Toasterlab’s Involvement

Toasterlab created a bespoke web-based mobile interface to interact with the augmented reality and live streaming content elements of this production from Kaeja d’Dance.

Overview of Discipline, Context, Intention

I am the Child of… accentuates and embodies personal experiences, bringing them forward in dance. This multi-media production features physical investigations of childhood memories, resulting in stories of resilience that are unflinchingly honest. I am the Child of… is ever-changing, with structured moments interlaced with a responsive immediacy of movement, creating an unpredictable experience within every performance. Allen Kaeja collaborates with Bruce Barton and Vertical City to create different perspectives and perceptions for the audience using augmented reality technology and multiple camera angles integrated with live performers. This is a show where mobile devices are welcome and part of the viewing experience!

Experience

At key moments in this performance, audience members are encouraged to load a web-based mobile interface on their own mobile device or to look on to the screens of one of nine audience plants. This interface includes a video switcher, providing the opportunity to select one of three live feeds from cameras controlled by the performers on-stage. A fourth quadrant of the switcher links to a WebAR project which adds additional performers via augmented reality. Additional scenes combine the AR and live feed to play with scale and reality.

Performance Runs

I am the Child of premiered at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre in Toronto. It ran from November 11-13, 2022.

Relevant Organizations and People

Kaeja d’Dance is driven by a commitment to innovation in the performing arts through the expression of dance and gesture. We explore identity, personal stories and the complexity of the human experience by integrating the interconnected mediums of live performance, dance film, and community engagement. Kaeja provides platforms for and fosters the creation of new Canadian professional dance works which are featured locally and internationally that inspire connections between professional artists and the broader community. https://www.kaeja.org/k31

Harbourfront Centre is an international centre for contemporary arts, culture and ideas, and a registered, charitable not-for-profit cultural organization operating a 10-acre campus on Toronto’s central waterfront. Harbourfront Centre provides year-round programming 52 weeks a year, seven days a week, supporting a wide range of artists and communities. We inspire audiences and visitors with a breadth of bold, ambitious and engaging experiences. We champion contemporary Canadian artists throughout their careers, presenting them alongside international artists and fostering national and international artistic exchange between disciplines and cultures.

Vertical City Performance is an award-winning interdisciplinary performance hub lead by Co-Directors Bruce Barton and Pil Hansen, consisting of an evolving group of artists exploring the relationship between traditional theatrical performance and guided audience interaction. Drawing on a spectrum of approaches, including installation, spatial engineering, aerial movement, soundscape design, and intermediality, Vertical City works on a wide scale of proportions, from large architectural landscapes through immersive and/or participatory 1-2-1 encounters. All Vertical City projects perform a desire for intimacy – within the performance context and between the performance and its audience.

Creative Team
Concept, Choreographic Proposals and Co-Direction
Allen Kaeja

Dramaturgy, Textual Arrangement and Co-Direction
Bruce Barton

Created with and Performed by

  • Michael Caldwell
  • Rodney Diverlus
  • Aria Evans
  • Nickeshia Garrick
  • Karen Kaeja
  • Ethan Kim*
  • Geanderson Mello
  • Mio Sakamoto*

Augmented Reality and Digital Design
Allen Kaeja and Ian Garrett

Composer
Edgardo Moreno

Lighting Design
Simon Rossiter

Costume Design
Cara Johnson

Production Coordinator & Stage Management
Taylor Young

Augmented Reality and Digital Content
Toasterlab (Ian Garrett, Justine Garrett, Andrew Sempre, with support of Raechel Kula)

Assistant Lighting Designer
Theo Belc

Assistant Stage Manager
Hunter Kennedy-Rullo

Green Screen Videographer
Allen Kaeja

Video Trailer
Olya Glotka

Photography
Kevin Jones, Zhenya Cerneacov

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