Upgrade! Scotland: Cathie Boyd & Martin Naef :: January 30, 2008; 7.30 - 9.30 pm :: CCA, Sauchiehall St, Glasgow.

Cathie Boyd, Artistic Director of Theatre Cryptic and Martin Naef, Research Programmer will talk about their collaborative project Living Canvas, which uses real-time projection to enable a performer to “wear virtual costumes”. These can then adapt to the body, or even provide a different face. The system enables a dynamic or even improvised performance by detecting the posture and silhouette of the performer and projecting imagery precisely to the selected parts of the body. This innovative project aims to create and explore a new expressive medium by taking projection systems to a highly interactive level and providing a powerful new tool for live video artists.

This talk is FREE, but space is limited, so to make sure of a seat please email: rsvp ‘at’ mediascot.org

Cathie Boyd founded Theatre Cryptic in 1994 and is committed to interdisciplinary productions using interactive and new technologies. Theatre Cryptic’s recent production The Paper Nautilus worked with Edinburgh based LUX Biotechnology to “transfer ‘living light’ from the laboratory to the stage and successfully integrate luminous and fluorescent proteins within the set design”. In 2001 Boyd was awarded a NESTA (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) Fellowship which enabled the company’s fusion of sound and visuals to ‘ravish the senses’.

Martin Naef received his Ph.D. from the Computer Graphics Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He was responsible for the blue-c Application Programming Interface, a software toolkit for collaborative, immersive virtual reality and telepresence. With a background in computer science and graphics, his research focuses on real-time multimedia technology such as 3D graphics, 3D video, spatialized audio, and VR.