Beyond the Machine is a multimedia performance environment that offers young musicians, actors, and dancers the opportunity to bring their creative ideas to life with new technology. Our programs feature collaborations with creative artists from around the world who share an interest in new media and interdisciplinary work. Now in its 16th year, the festival has grown to include biannual performances of new music and multimedia art.
Beyond the Machine has received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Musical America for innovative programming. “Basetrack Live,” a multimedia work first produced on Beyond the Machine in 2012, was hailed by The New York Times as one of the “top 10 theatrical events of 2014”.
Beyond the Machine programs feature innovative performance technology that allows artists to expand the range of their instruments, control audio and visual elements with electronic tools, shape video and projection design in real time, and interact with artists and computers around the world via the Web.
Cracked Orlando
As part of Beyond the Machine 2017, the Center for Creative Technology presented Jonathan Dawe's Cracked Orlando: dramma per multimedia e fractals. The chamber opera/ballet, inspired by Baroque music, featured multiple interactive dance projections, a 3D avatar, and real-time audio and video processing, among other tools, to create a 21st-century dramatic experience.
Cracked Orlando was conducted by Ryan McAdams and directed by Edward Bilous, head of the Center for Creative Technology, with members of the Juilliard Orchestra. The creative team also included interactive media artist Phoebe Dunn. The three ballets in the work, choreographed by Rebecca Stenn, were captured and manipulated into a multi-layered projection by projection designer John Erickson and videographer Sarah Outhwaite. Edward Bilous and his team then applied motion-capture data from the movements of the dancers to further shape the ballets.
The avatar design was developed by artists and designers at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Argentina, Artistic Direction by Sebastian Verea and Animation Studios Director, Luciano Quillici.
