BODYCODER: the inter/section - inter/action - of body/technology - interplay between the analogue and the digital - image and sonority - the live in-process in performance... The technologies, publications, performances, concerts and events are the product of an on-going long term collaboration between Julie and Mark Bokowiec.
Julie Wilson-Bokowiec and MARK BOKOWIEC began working together in a recording studio setting in 1988. A year later they started to explore and experiment with a range of hardware solutions for live interaction in performance. They teamed up with Dawsons Music, Roland and Rank Strand (lighting) to help create and beta test a range of new technologies including Strand's new midi lighting desks. In 1994 they premiered The Navigator: a large-scale full length theatrical work that featured a range of interactive sound and image technologies that together created a 'sensitized' performance space. The Navigator also included a number of interactive instruments. A year later they embarked on a significant program of work that would transplant stage technologies (developed for The Navigator) onto the body of the performer. This resulted in the first generation of the BODYCODER SYSTEM. At the beginning of the VJ revolution, Mark and Julie were invited to Beta test Steinberg's (Archaos) new VJ software <Xpose> in conjunction with the Bodycoder System. In 1995 they presented the first performance with the new system in an evening of new works: THE ANATOMY CLASS.
Julie Wilson-Bokowiec and MARK BOKOWIEC began working together in a recording studio setting in 1988. A year later they started to explore and experiment with a range of hardware solutions for live interaction in performance. They teamed up with Dawsons Music, Roland and Rank Strand (lighting) to help create and beta test a range of new technologies including Strand's new midi lighting desks. In 1994 they premiered The Navigator: a large-scale full length theatrical work that featured a range of interactive sound and image technologies that together created a 'sensitized' performance space. The Navigator also included a number of interactive instruments. A year later they embarked on a significant program of work that would transplant stage technologies (developed for The Navigator) onto the body of the performer. This resulted in the first generation of the BODYCODER SYSTEM. At the beginning of the VJ revolution, Mark and Julie were invited to Beta test Steinberg's (Archaos) new VJ software <Xpose> in conjunction with the Bodycoder System. In 1995 they presented the first performance with the new system in an evening of new works: THE ANATOMY CLASS.
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Since 1995 Mark and Julie have created a large and significant body of interactive digital performance works with the Bodycoder System, including Zeitgeist & Lifting Bodies, Cyborg Dreaming, Spiral Fiction, The Vox Circuit Trilogy (2007) and most recently V’Oct(Ritual) (2011). These and other works have been performed in London, Montreal, Quebec, PEI Nova Scotia, Banff Alberta, Budapest, Oslo, and venues in Italy and Greece. They have received commissions from the Science Museum London, the Traffo Theatre Budapest and the Hungarian Computer Music Association and Wakefield City Art Galleries among others. They were Artists-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts and STEIM Amsterdam, and their work has been supported by the Arts Council of England and The British Council.
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"I just watched the Vimeo of V'Oct and it really is quite beautiful! I love the way it unfolds... dreamlike...like clouds slowly passing by...then out to space...it's got that shaman's trance feel to it, shades of Ligeti and Arvo Part, with a delicate ethereal quality. Julie Wison-Bokowiec looks superb, sounds amazing, I love the subtle gestures and evocative vocalization, you really feel it! It's amazing how she sounds ancient and modern at the same time, evoking the primitive whilst signalling the cosmos. I like the vari-speed/pitch shift type thing you use towards the end and the low deep-core voicing" (Julius Vasylenko - Saxophonist) |
The Bodycoder has always been considered a SYSTEM rather than an instrument. The system comprises of hardware, software (on and off the body) interfaces, image and sound diffusion, but also the presence of flesh and blood: the tangible and sensual relationship and long term collaboration between two artists - always in relationship to time and the spaces in which they work. In performance, the work is responsive and sensitive to the presence of an audience for whom the work is enacted and who being part of the performance environment are therefore enmeshed within the relationship/dialogue/interaction. Our work with the Bodycoder System is both a response to, a relationship with, and a becoming within a techno-physical environment. We consider our work to be CYBERNETIC in the broadest sense of the term. Our work reflects and manifests the operation of being within our particular techno-ecological environment.
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Scribe
Ascribe Inscribed by - Subject-Object-Other Technology-tech-knowledge Difference-diffuse-diffused Associated-Disassociated DIS - locate - trans - Transient Subtle Flow Grain ~ Grit Sense Irritate - Resistance Tactility-(EN)meshed-enhanced Harnessed Amazed Random Oracle 
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Below, three performances of V'Oct(Ritual). By sharing multiple recordings of the work we hope you will be able to further appreciate its subtle/live/complexities and detect the skills & perceptions employed - that is its utility + expressivity + vocality + sensuality + control + spacialisation + KINAESONICS etc...
From the archive:
Publications:
Wilson-Bokowiec, J. 2012. Future voices of digital opera: re-imagining the diva. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Special Issue: Digital Opera. Vol 8 (1): 79-92. Intellect Books. UK
Wilson-Bokowiec, J. 2010. Physicality: the technik of the physical in interactive digital performance. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Vol 4 (1): 61-75. Intellect Books. UK
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M. 2009. Sense & Sensation: the act of mediation and its effects. Intermedialities (Histore et theorie des arts, des letters et des techniques) Vol 12: 124 – 144. Montreal: CRI University of Montreal.
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M,. 2006. Kineasonics: The Intertwining Relationship of Body and Sound. Contemporary Music Review. Special Issue: Bodily Instruments and Instrumental Bodies. 25 (1+2): 47-58. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M,. 2003. Spiral Fiction. Organised Sound. Special Issue: Interactive Performance. 8(3): 279-287. In association with the International Computer Music Association. Cambridge University Press.
Wilson-Bokowiec, J,. & Bromwich, M., 2000. Lifting Bodies: interactive dance – finding new methodologies in the motifs prompted by new technology – a critique and progress report with particular reference to the Bodycoder System. Organised Sound 5(1): Cambridge University Press.
Wilson-Bokowiec, J. 2012. Future voices of digital opera: re-imagining the diva. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Special Issue: Digital Opera. Vol 8 (1): 79-92. Intellect Books. UK
Wilson-Bokowiec, J. 2010. Physicality: the technik of the physical in interactive digital performance. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Vol 4 (1): 61-75. Intellect Books. UK
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M. 2009. Sense & Sensation: the act of mediation and its effects. Intermedialities (Histore et theorie des arts, des letters et des techniques) Vol 12: 124 – 144. Montreal: CRI University of Montreal.
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M,. 2006. Kineasonics: The Intertwining Relationship of Body and Sound. Contemporary Music Review. Special Issue: Bodily Instruments and Instrumental Bodies. 25 (1+2): 47-58. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
Wilson-Bokowiec, J., & Bokowiec, M,. 2003. Spiral Fiction. Organised Sound. Special Issue: Interactive Performance. 8(3): 279-287. In association with the International Computer Music Association. Cambridge University Press.
Wilson-Bokowiec, J,. & Bromwich, M., 2000. Lifting Bodies: interactive dance – finding new methodologies in the motifs prompted by new technology – a critique and progress report with particular reference to the Bodycoder System. Organised Sound 5(1): Cambridge University Press.
