Test Tone 2 
11 August 2011
12:30
Venue: Owens Foyer, Level 2, Aotea Centre
Cost: Free
Test Tone 2 is an interactive art work for dance, sound and video building on the installation Test Tone created by Clinton Watkins for the Digital Art Live Series. Employing both unique custom made analog video technologies and sophisticated computer programming, Test Tone is based on the premise of technological feedback and improvisation.
Twelve performers, third year Dance Studies students from The University of Auckland, generate sequences of sonically affected, broadcast test tone colours through their physical movements in response to the installation performance. For the dancers, the interactive potential of Clinton Watkins work provides an extended stage and a digital scenography.
Fleeting moments of connection dissolve into bright blocks of colour, stilled movements are bound in sonic waves, the grid-like structure of planes of colours forms an emphatic driver for movements that push and press into the space of interaction and surrounding foyer. Audience experience the work from within the comfort of the Owens Foyer.
Clinton Watkins
Auckland artist, musician and Elam lecturer Clinton Watkins has worked with combinations of sonic and visual material for the past fifteen years, recently completing his doctorate in Fine Arts. Known primarily for his moving image works which dwell on often overlooked visual phenomena, such as the giant cargo ships that quietly drift in and out of the Auckland harbour daily. In this instance Watkins translates sonic frequencies into minimal colour fields through customised audio/visual hardware.
Dr Carol Brown
Choreographer and Senior Lecturer in Dance, Dr Carol Brown has been working internationally on projects that merge the real-time of performance with the augmented spaces of the digital since 2003. Together with Mette Ramsgard-Thomsen (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, Royal Academy Copenhagen) and Chiron Mottram (Centre of Virtual Environments UCL London) she created The Changing Room (2003) and SeaUnSea (2005). Both of these works were presented at Dance Umbrella and toured throughout Europe.
