Kate Sicchio, Kofi Oduro (Illestpreacha), David Ogborn
This workshop will introduce LocoMotion, a web-based live coding language for choreography and movement that our team has been developing since 2021. With LocoMotion, one can activate and move 3D models and motion capture data, via live coding, with brief programming notations inspired by dance vocabulary and notation. LocoMotion creates algorithmic choreographies of motion captured data for screen based performances and can be used for world building, speculative storytelling or avataring. Workshop participants will learn the basic syntax for writing simple programs for choreographing avatars, using environments, moving cameras within the scene, adding lighting effects, and using 3D primitive shapes to build. They will then be able to use LocoMotion as an Exolang in the Estuary environment to create a networked performance. Choreographic devices for group interaction will be explored as well as storytelling around a live coding language. We will discuss imagining a specific, speculative storytelling world around the live coding language. This is part of our an ongoing research and discussions about the political meanings and ethical responsibilities that might attend such a computational tool: by creating a live coding tool AND creating (non-prescriptive) stories connected to it, we are able to move beyond thinking about the tool as a supposedly neutral instrument that could be used for good or ill, to actively using it to create stories that engage, in some way, with social justice, imagined futures, and concrete values. The LocoMotion live coding language was originally developed as part of a research project lead by David Ogborn and Kate Sicchio, funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF, Exploration stream) of Canada. Research assistants contributing to the project, at both McMaster University and Virginia Commonwealth University were: Shaden Ahmed, Ashmeet Dhaliwal, Fatima Ghaderi, Milica Hinic, Misha Joao, Esther Kim, Raahil Mahetaji, Saiara Mashiat, Karthyayani Ramesh, and Vic Wojciechowska.