Closer

A commission of the Australian Centre of the Moving Image, ‘Closer’ is an interactive dance installation created and produced by renowned contemporary dance company Chunky Move.

A constantly changing audiovisual environment with a single large projection of a solo dancer, Closer plays with the relationship between the audience and the interactive structures created by artists Gideon Obarzanek (Choreography), Peter Hennessey (Interactive and Visual Design), and Darrin Verhagin (Audio Landscape).

Closer combines real time video processing with sensor pads that respond to audience members using their bodies to modify the moves of the on-screen dancer.

The choreography is endlessly modified by the actions of the audience, and the audience’s actions are in turn shaped and defined by the installation, which calls upon them to touch, throw or press their bodies against the upholstered, torso-size sensor pads mounted on the walls in the installation space.

Closer redefines the installation space as a choreographic instrument, which is played by its audience to create new works every time. The work can also be described as an investigative tool, allowing the audience to explore, in more a more detail, the structure and topography of the movement and the body of the dancer. The work literally brings the audience closer to the work in every sense -closer to its creation, closer to the subtle details of its movement and closer to the body of its dancer.

As the audience engages with the work, they become increasingly aware of the reflective relationship they share with the dancer. Their interaction, via large physical actions or movements, is very different from the usual ‘mouse and keyboard’ interface that commonly defines multimedia installations. As they activate the large wall pads, their bodies are pushed into a kind of physicality that is especially unusual in a traditional gallery context. They literally impact on the work.

The choreography in Closer is itself based on impacts. A lone dancer bounces her body against a wall and, as the audience’s input increases, this gentle rebounding is transformed into something far more intense and extraordinary.

Closer, the audience’s experience of dance, usually felt from the passive distance of theatre seats, is active and intimate. The minute complexities of the body - the ripple and flex of skin and muscles, hair, pores and subtle expression - form part of the choreographic palette of Closer. This is micro-choreography. This is Closer.