**3.5 Choreography**

*Interactive Multimedia - Multimedia Production and Digital Storytelling*

were attempts to re-introduce embodied interactions into the opera.

or habitats inside a solar system.

downwards.

2.10 below).

**3.4 Music**

to some extent expressed in the lyrics.

function in interstellar vacuum and can transport people or freight between planets

For the purposes of the opera, we decided that nemos could emit some kind of particle that would provide buoyancy to someone attempting to float or glide in the air. In addition, we assumed they could sense and mimic vocal tones, and that they would emit their buoyant particles following vocal stimulation. By populating the ledge on which the stage is set with nemos, we could introduce virtual elements that could be controlled by humans. We explored several interaction modalities—as suggested in the previous sentences, vocal activation was one of these, and the one we eventually retained. But in an earlier effort, we also developed a belt that activated the nemos via a person's breathing. Both of these interaction modalities

We modified the scenario to accommodate these interactions. In the original scenario, a group of bullies were intimidating the two principal characters, Oreph and Relliana, in the opening scene, and these would eventually be pushed off the city. However, they both wore "windplanes," a kind of glider that allowed them to escape falling to the distant ground. In the early scenario modifications, we determined that if the nemos were activated enough, then the two characters would not fall at all, they would fly up. Later, however, as we simplified the story line to fit it into a sufficiently short time from (less than 30 min), we used the same idea in the final scene of the opera. Now, however, it was the transformed Relliana, with her nascent wings, that was to be supported by the audience interaction. If they successfully supported her, she flew away upwards. If they failed, she eventually fell

In addition, we posited the existence of a plant species we called "phramae," which could organize into physical forms that mimic, in a ghost-like manner, the movement of real creatures, human or otherwise. These phramae were used in the bully sequence to make a number of additional dancers than the small number of actual bullies, and they were also used in the on-line co-creation environment to provide added control to users to "create" their own dancing avatars (see Section

Developing the music for this opera posed several challenges. For reasons that are too complex to go into here, Lacasse was not as available to do as much composing as had been originally planned. The libretto, which as outlined earlier went through many different versions, incorporated relatively early on a "bully song," to be sung by a main "bully" and his/her troops as they underwent a "bully dance." Lacasse developed quickly a successful musical rendition of the bully song, drawing on both pop culture musical ideas as well as more traditional opera constructions. The result was compelling in interesting ways. The bullies in the scenario are complex individuals in the sense that they are not simply "bad guys." They promote a kind of conformism, but they are in some sense supported by the ambient culture, and their ideas are not unsympathetic. Lacasse captured these ambiguities in his musical rendition, giving them a positive energy offset by the negative sentiments

Following this initial effort, however, Lacasse was no longer available to develop the remainder of the songs or the musical introduction. Kiss, who has no claims to be a composer, drew on a process of combining public domain royalty-free samplings, some recordings she had from an earlier collaboration with violincellist Haruko Kido, and a knack for bringing disparate elements from the creative commons together into a musical rendition which while not as "characteristically

**96**

Once Serge Lacasse had produced the music for the bully song, we solicited our choreographic collaborator, Coralee McLaren, to develop a musically-responsive dance work. At that time, we were still orienting towards a physical staging, so we were looking for movement that could be performed by a small group of dancers on stage. However, we also imagined using virtual avatars in addition to actual dancers. As such, we organized a movement session with Motion Capture equipment available to us through Edwards' engagement with the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadapation et intégration sociale (CIRRIS), a research center in rehabilitation. Dr. McLaren flew from Toronto to Quebec City to carry out this work. In preparation, she created a number of movement phrases that complimented Lacasse's rhythms and melodies. Drawing on these phrases, McLaren responded physically to spontaneous feedback called out from the team, and modified/refined her movement in response to fast changing, verbal cues. This resulted in an unparalleled collaborative movement experience and invaluable methodological insight, with each "audience" member providing input that reflected his or her own sensorial expertise or movement preferences (e.g., as singer, stage designer, writer, composer, etc.). The final outcome was a dance that enhanced Lacasse's dynamically rich score, and a subsequent Motion Capture sequence of movement was digitally applied to the avatars during the virtual staging (**Figure 12**). Furthermore, as we shall discuss below, the dance sequences were included within the co-creation environment in interesting ways.
