Workshop and Performance: Celestial Bodies. An embodied Orrery/Corps célestes. Le planétaire incarné

From 6 to 8 December 2016, Eric Joris and CREW will install a ‘motion-capture studio’ in the “Garden of Sciences” to explore and develop new layers to the immersive performance Celestial Bodies. An embodied Orrery/Corps célestes. Le planétaire incarné . A public presentation will be held in the afternoon on the 8th of December, providing a possibility to explore and gain a better understanding of the universe we live in through interaction and embodiment.

This performance is organised by Kurt Vanhoutte and Nele Wynants from the Research Team Antwerp, Sébastien Soubiran (Université Strasbourg/ Jardin des Sciences) and Charlotte Bigg (Centre Koyré Paris) from the research network Spectacular Astronomy: The history, present state and future of astronomical spectacles (19th – 21tst century). Spectacular Astronomy aims to put the honour back into astronomy and planetariums by combining both academic research, cultural mediation and new technologies. In the workshop at Strasbourg, Artistic, theatrical experiments, informed presentations and discussions between researchers, professionals of the STIC, artists and associations are part of the research forms that will result in a new mode of learning, an ‘implicit transfer of knowledge’, to be mobilized in this event.

Kurt Vanhoutte and Charlotte Bigg (2014) published an article about the concept of the workshop: On the border between performance, science and the digital: The embodied orrery In International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (10) 2, 255-260. The article is available Open Access via the above link.

Image: “In der Potsdamer Sternwarte”. Slide from the Set Die Sternenwelt und ihre Wunder (Courtesy: EYE Filminstute Netherlands), taken from Lucerna – The Magic Lantern Webresource