1. Cunningham first worked with Life-Forms in 1990 for the creation of Trackers. His interest in and use of video dates back to 1974, followed by projects with Charles Atlas, Elliot Kaplan, and other filmmakers.

2. Cf. Negroponte, Nicholas, The Architecture Machine: Toward a More Human Environment (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1970), p. 101.Google Scholar For an excellent critical overview of the evolution of interactive art within the context of the visual and media arts, see Dinkla, Söke, Pioniere Interaktiver Kunst (Ostfildern: Cantz Verlag, 1997).Google Scholar

3. The phrase “nervous environment” is derived from the term sound artist David Rokeby uses for his interactive software “Very Nervous System” (VNS), first created in 1982. VNS uses video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers, and a sound system to create a space in which the movements of one's body create sound and/or music. In his writing Rokeby has pointed out that VNS is not a “control system” but an interactive system, by which he means that neither partner in the system (installation and moving person) is in control. “Interactive” and “reactive” are not the same thing, according to Rokeby: “The changing states of the installation are a result of the collaboration of these two elements. The work only exists in this state of mutual influence. This relationship is broken when the interactor attempts to take control, and the results are unsatisfying.” Quoted from “Lecture for ‘Info Art’, Kwangju Biennale,” 1996, http://www.interlog.com/~drokeby/install.html. For a very illuminating discussion on lighting and choreographic rehearsal process, see Driver, Senta, “William Forsythe and Jennifer Tipton: A Conversation about Lighting,” Choreography and Dance 5.3 (2000): 41–78.Google Scholar

4. Cf. Lumley, Ted, “Inclusionality: an immersive philosophy of environmental relationships,” paper presented at the “Subtle Technologies” Conference, Toronto, May 20, 2001.Google Scholar Quoted with permission.

5. For an extensive documentation and critical discussion of his interactive art project, see Lozano-Hemmer, Rafael, ed., Alzado Vectorial/Vectorial Elevantion: Relational Architecture No. 4 (Mexico City: Conaculta, 2000).Google Scholar

6. Kuzmanovic, Maja and Tonnesen, David, “T-Garden,” Presentation at “Subtle Technologies” Conference, Toronto, Canada, May 2001.Google Scholar Quoted with permission. For more information on the project, visit http://fo.am/ and http://www.subtletechnologies.com/2001/index.html.

7. The “T-Garden” project derives some of its conceptual terminology from theater, understood as spatial practice and social drama (Victor Turner), cultural anthropology, virtual architecture and current research in hybrid spaces, and the world of 3-D game design. It cannot be used as an example of interactive digital art designed for the general “user” in clearcut distinction to interactive dance and interactive music performed by trained professionals. The sliding between performer and recipient needs to be carefully theorized, especially as an increasing number of choreographers, composers, visual artists, and programmers collaborate on the design of interactive installations for audience-play. In the summer of 2002, together with thirty other artists, I participated in such a design project (“Real-Time and Presence: Composition of Virtual Environments”) at the Trans-Medien Akademie in Hellerau-Dresden (Germany), and with the exception of the French musicians Bertrand Merlier and Jean-Marc Duchenne, all other teams created environments for audience-interaction (http://www.t-m-a.de). The theoretical debate on interactivity meanwhile is still in its infancy. Cf. Hünnekens, Annette, Der bewegte Betrachter: Theorien der Interaktiven Medienkunst (Köln: Wienand, 1997)Google Scholar; Gendolla, Peter, Schmitz, Norbert M., Schneider, Irmela und Spangenberg, Peter M., eds., Formen inter-aktiver Medienkunst (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2001)Google Scholar; Ascott, Roy, ed., Reframing Consciousness: Art, Mind, and Technology (Portland OR: Intellect, 1999)Google Scholar; Menicacci, Armando and Quinz, Emanuele, eds., La scena digitale: nuovi media per la danza (Bolzano, Italy: Marsilio, 2001).Google Scholar An emerging bibliography is at http://www.n0tam02.no/icma/interactivesystems/dance.html.

8. The Choreographic Center at Essen, Germany, convened the “Cross Fair” colloquium in November 2000, bringing together numerous media artists, designers, and choreographers to debate the implications of the “Intelligent Stage.” Paul Kaiser (Riverbed) showed the “Ghostcatching” installation, Steina Vasulka, Michael Saup, and Louis-Philippe Demers addressed technologies as independent, intelligent systems, and Jeffrey Shaw (ZKM) presented an overview of the innovative interactive installations created at the ZKM. Shaw spoke of immersive and interactive interface environments and referred to Nottingham University's Mixed Reality Lab where experiments with “MASSIVE,” a multiuser distributed virtual-reality system, helped the British ensemble Blast Theory to develop their new project, Desert Rain. The project was completed during their residency at the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Choreographers like William Forsythe went to the ZKM to create CD-ROM projects (“Improvisation Technologies”) that require extensive digital video studio and computer processing facilities. With interface design by Volker Kuchel-meister and Christian Ziegler, “Improvisation Technologies” features a hypertextual content of more than sixty video chapters showing lecture-demonstrations in which Forsythe demonstrates the essential principles of his improvisation techniques. A solo by Forsythe and other dance sequences performed by Frankfurt Ballet members can be called up as further illustrations. As Ziegler pointed out at Cross Fair, the “intelligent stage” need not be understood as a physical location; it could as well refer to the specific nature of an interface design or platform on a CD-ROM or the Internet. For Ziegler, the CD-ROM is a “knowledge-reference system.”

9. For a fascinating discussion of the use of “disfocus” in the complex rehearsal operations practiced in William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet, see Casperson, Dana, “It Starts From Any Point: Bill and the Frank furt Ballet,” Choreography and Dance 5.3 (2000): 27ff.Google Scholar In his pathbreaking new book, Lev Manovic examines digital composition from within the history of the cinematic and postcinematic. Cf. The Language of New Media (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2001).

10. Cf. Lisa Marie Naugle, “Distributed Choreography,” Performing Arts Journal 71 (2002): 56–62. PAJ 70 and 71 presented special issues on dance and digital media, edited by Johannes Birringer.

11. See also the documentation/theorization of the telepresence experiments conducted by ADaPT (Asssociation of Dance and Performance Telematics): http://www.dance.ohio-state.edu/workshops/ips-theory.html. Cf. Birringer, Johannes, Bromberg, Ellen, Jackson, Naomi, Mitchell, John, Naugle, Lisa, and Rosenberg, Doug, “Connected Dance: Distributed Performance across Time Zones,” Transmigratory Moves/Dance in Global Circulation, Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings, New York University, October 2001, pp. 51–77.Google Scholar See also Loveless, Richard and Goodman, Lizbeth, “Live and Media Performance: The Next Frontier,” Performance Research 4.2 (1999): 74–75.Google Scholar

12. The group Interface (Bahn, True-man, Hahn) presented these two performances in a collaborative concert, “Moving Voices,” at the end of an international workshop on dance and interactive technology at OSU, June 30, 2001. For more information on their work visit the Web sites: http://www.arts.rpi.edu/crb/inter-face/interface.htm and http://www.tufts.edu/~fhahn/PIKAPIKA.html.

13. Coniglio, a musician and software programmer known internationally for his work with Troika Ranch, a New York City–based company he directs with choreographer Dawn Stoppiello, wrote two interactive programs, Interactor and Isadora, which map data input to control a variety of media outputs (e.g. sonic, video, lighting and robotic). Troika Ranch conducts regular Live Interactive workshops to give participants the opportunity to explore the use of interactive computer technology in performance (http://www.troikatronix.com/).

14. For a more detailed discussion of the Fair, Cross event, see my “The Intelligent Stage,” Performance Research 6.2 (2001): 116–122.Google Scholar

15. Cf. Dils, Ann, “The Ghost in the Machine,” Performing Arts Journal 70 (2002): 94–104.Google Scholar

16. Sharir, Yacov, “Dancing with the Virtual Dervish: Virtual Bodies,” In Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, ed. Moser, Mary Ann with MacLeod, Douglas (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), pp. 281–85.Google Scholar Virtual-reality works do not travel easily because of the complex hardware/software set-up. Sharir was able to perform in a new version of “Virtual Dervish” recreated by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, on October 14, 2002. During the run of the exhibition, visitors experienced the work (one by one) by wearing a head-mounted set/display and an electronic glove designed to assist them in the navigational process.

17. This passage, and some of the subsequent observations, are indebted to conversations and an unpublished manuscript, “Invisibility/Corporeality,” which Scott de-Lahunta presented in my Environments Lab during his residency at the Interactive Performance Series, April 2001, Ohio State University. DeLahunta suggested that “writing is arguably not the best descriptive metaphor for software programming—building is preferred as often coding requires increasingly the reuse or reassem-blage of previously written code.” Quoted with permission of the author. See also de-Lahunta's analysis of Blast Theory's building of a mixed-reality environment in their installation Desert Rain (“Virtual Reality and Performance,” PAJjo (2002): 105–14).

18. For a useful and straightforward breakdown, see Christopher Dobrian's web site “Video motion tracking for musical input”: http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian. See also Winkler, Todd, “Motion-Sensing Music: Artistic and Technical Challenges in Two Works for Dance,” Proceedings of the 1998 International Computer Music Conference, http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Music/faculty/winkler/.Google Scholar