Lu Yang
Live Motion Capture Performances Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hong Kong
For the RAM Highlight 2018, Is It My Body? programme curated by Hsieh Feng-Rong, Lu Yang presented an updated live motion capture performances with dancers, music and AV set at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai with three performances between 1-4 October 2018. "Smart RikuRiku" Returns to the TOP! Dance Battle brings together elements from pop culture, Otaku culture and "smart" culture in a stimulating vibrant, holistic visual-aural-body experience. The exhibition programmed included talks and workshops with Professor Hideyuki Ando from Osaka University to discuss his work with Brain Control Jutsu and Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) which has inspired the work of Lu Yang and her on-going interest in brain stimulation, the body, Chinese medicine, mythology and Buddhism.
This work is an upgraded performance from her Electromagnetic Brainology Live performance with a touch-sensitive light up stage, multiple dancers, new characters, effects, music tracks and dance routines.
Previously, for the grand opening of the Powerlong Art Centre in Hangzhou, Lu Yang presented a new version of her Electromagnetic Brainology Live motion capture performance first presented at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. The performance was presented during the opening ceremony of the centre alongside video installations of her work in a group exhibition titled Nine Tomorrows curated by Yao Dajuin.
MetaObjects worked with the Hangzhou China Academy of Art and the virREAL Centre for Art and Technology to develop the project using the OptiTrack motion capture system. Together with Lu Yang and dancer Jin Xin, MetaObjects developed a high energy audiovisual performance with effects, backgrounds and camera movement controlled live by the artist. The choreographed movements of the dancer were mapped live to 3D avatars of Buddhist deities designed by the artist.
In addition to the performance, a video derived from the performance was presented in the exhibition alongside other video works by Lu Yang. The performance was followed by and evening of audiovisual performances with a larges scale digital art exhibition featuring VR, installation, robotic and kinetic artworks by international artists including Elena Knox and Katsumi Watanabe, Victoria Vesna, Daito Manabe and Rhizomatiks Research. The exhibition runs from 4 May until 4 August 2018. Read more about the Nine Tomorrows exhibition.
The first presentation of Lu Yang's Electromagnetic Brainology Live performance took place during the closing event of the You Me OurSelfies exhibition at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre presented by Videotage. For the performance on 22 January 2018, MetaObjects used HTC Vive trackers to capture the movements of a live hip hop dancer (Ken Chung) to animate the characters. An interface was developed to allow Lu Yang to control the background environments, trigger effects, character costumes and camera movements live. The result was a high energy performance that was later developed and enhanced in subsequent presentations in Hangzhou and Shanghai.
Performances
1,2,4 Oct 2018: "Smart RikuRiku" Returns to the TOP! Dance Battle, in Is It My Body?, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai
4 May 2018: Electromagnetic Brainology Live, in Nine Tomorrows exhibition, Powerlong Art Centre, Hangzhou
22 Jan 2018: Electromagnetic Brainology Live, in You Me OurSelfies exhibition, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, presented by Videotage
About the artist
Lu Yang is an artist who works across video, installation, animation, performance, motion capture and games. Lu Yang graduated with an MA in New Media Art from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Lu Yang’s work explores existential issues about the nature of life through references to Chinese medicine, neuroscience, popular culture and religion.
Lu Yang has presented solo exhibitions at Zabludowicz Collection, London (2022), ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (2021), Spiral, Tokyo (2018), M Woods Museum, Beijing (2017), and many others. Lu Yang was selected for the Chinese Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale and has featured new work in The Milk of Dreams exhibition at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Lu Yang won the BMW Art Journey award in 2019 and was selected as Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year in 2022.