Temperature-space trace

Film and photography capture live performance in a specific way as the eye sees it. Infrared thermography, typical used for building performance inspections or medical examinations, captures temperature traces on surfaces, with extreme accuracy to degree celcius. Thermography allows one to visualize and examine what is there and is felt, but what is not seen from the naked eye .

IR FlexCam Thermal Imager

The FLUKE Ti45FT thermal imager can takes temperature data in form of photographs and motion picture. The temperature data is put into a software which then can read each point on the picture as a certain temperature, and be further analysised. The thermal imager reads temperature traces on surfaces, the radiant infrared, so any air-born temperature traces like breath can be observed with prosthesis. With a veil or mask over the face the temperature from the breath will heat these surfaces, and the radiant heat emitted from these surfaces will be detected by the thermal imager.

PROJECT

I am going to film a soloist dance rehearsal with a thermal imager, and two other video cameras from front stage view and from plan view.

REFERENCE POINTS

The dancer will wear circle markers on each major bone joint, and on the chest and belly-button. These body points of reference will serve for my analysis of the film.

PROSTHETIC

The dancer will wear a mouth and nose cover, suitable for them.

I wish to have a prop in the dance to explore the temperature space-trace relationship between body and object.

NATURE

I will record the performance and the non-performance. This translates to structured dance as dynamic movement vs. non-structured habitation (everyday life) as dynamic movement.

LIGHTING

The lighting will be set so it is advantageous for the thermal imager to accurately read the temperature traces of the scenes. I do not wish to create a set-lighting to dramatize the performance although the narrative context of the dance is very important in my research. As I am filming the dance rehearsal, the lighting will be true to rehearsal nature.

SITE DOCUMENTATION

I will take thermal images and photographs of the interior and exterior site.

FILM RECORDINGS

I will record the film using a high def video cam, and a medium def video cam. I am going to see if I can take video with the thermal imager, but it may be that I can only take still images in stop frames. The fluke 45 can zoom 2x 4x and 8x. The scenes of the thermal images will be zoomed-in, in an improvisational manor. I will be performing also with this thing because it is still subjective which images I take, and what I think is the most important in my data gathering. But I will be taking as much stop-frame as possible, just as I would from a video camera.

DANCER/MUSIC/CHOREOGRAPHY

I will interview the dancers about the narrative of the dance, and the choreographer's philosophy and history.