from Esther's website
Where Is Tokyo? is built into Studio 5 (Sullivant Hall, OSU Department of Dance) and reconstructs spatially a brief scene from Late Spring [1949 film by Ozu Yasujiro] in which two characters look out over the rock garden at the Ryoan temple in Kyoto.The reconstruction focuses on the nature of the porch as a framing device for experiencing the tranquility of the rock garden. Thus the set incorporates the porch and its function of describing a spectator’s perspective.
Additionally, the set up recreates the reference image and puts the audience inside that recreation. Each run of the show therefore will admit only 2 spectators, who will be seated on the porch as designated by the reference image.
The porch architecturally defines an entry point into the performance space, helping to make the viewers feel that they are both inside the performance spectacle and able to watch from outside of the action.
A screen on the front of the porch will frame which portion of the performing space the spectators can see, in an effort to mimic the frame of a movie screen.
The audience will look onto a space of 2D design and 3D action, with a virtual set projected through the live set onto two screens at the far end of the room. The virtual set extends the design of the actual set into a building with several distinct spaces.
Animations of movement through the building are designed to “dance” with the live performer, contributing equally to the choreography for the work as a whole.
the audio
In order to accommodate the visual conception of the piece, the audio inhabited
both the real 3D of the set space and the virtual 3D of the animation. For
the animation I created a soundscape that moved in stereo to follow the camera
through that virtual space. For the set space I composed music that was played
through a portable CD player, separating it from the speakers for the soundscape.
