• Nord_Playground1
  • watch the video on vimeo

    Playground, 2016
    A site-specific installation commissioned for LightWorks IV by the UCSB Public Arts Research Lab and the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, funded by the California Arts Council.
    A public playground swing set is transformed into a computer-controlled video-driven light box - an experimental environment enabling a series of collaborative performance works. Video footage is converted into multi-point LED lighting that fractures the figure and merges performance and electronic media into a hybrid form.
    Eleven performances were developed for ‘Playground,’ in collaboration with aerialists, musicians, dancers, and a-cappella singers. The video includes documentation from several of the works.
    14 x 9 x 5 feet - computer-controlled LEDs, sound system, video footage, vinyl, swing set, construction materials


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  • Nord_Playground_2a
  • view from interior and exterior of aerialists performing


  • Nord_Playground_3
  • still from aerialists' performance
    Video footage of migrating birds drives the spotlighting that fractures the figures-in-motion.

  • Nord_Playground_3-5
  • exterior and interior views of installation during setup and rehearsal


  • Nord_Playground_4a
  • still from 'Star Mangled Banner' performance
    An off-key rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ sung at a Trump rally is transposed and played on viola, modulated by video-driven LEDs that use the musical notes as an algorithm to warp the American flag.


  • Nord_Playground_5a
  • still from dance performance
    dancers' forms are modulated by dynamic LED lighting extracted from video sources

  • Nord_Playground_8a
  • still from a-cappella performance
    An all female a-cappella group performs a set of five songs within the 'Playground' installation, including ‘Fire.'


  • Nord_Playground_7
  • still from 'Sculthorpe Requiem' performance
    The six movements of the ‘Sculthorpe Requiem’ are played on cello, modulated by interplanetary video footage from NASA converted to LED lighting.

    collaborators:
    Ninette Paloma and the Santa Barbara Centre for Aerial Dance
    Moira Saxena, Samantha Gerraty, and the UCSB Dance Department
    Santa Barbara Soundwaves
    Now Hear Ensemble: Anthony Garcia, Adriane Hill, Jonathan Morgan
    Kathryn Carlson

    photos: Alec Hartnett, Eliot Oppenheimer, Danial Nord, Spencer Bruttig
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