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SESSIONS Non-Technical Presentations, Panels & Workshops The Artificial Suite Project / Abstract Jacqueline Gay & Georgette Gorchoff As each of three movies (exported from Credo's Life Forms) progresses, a Labanotation strip scrolls downward (to the left of, and) in synch with the movie. Only a single performer is notated in the scrolling column. To view the entire score, the user may select "View Notation Page." One of these pages is four feet wide but scrolls sideward as well as vertically. (One of the notation strips is over eight feet long.) The Artificial Suite software was created with MetaCard, a cross-platform software development tool that will run on Macintosh, Windows, or various Unix platforms. A CD containing the software may be displayed in either a PC or a Power Macintosh. Movies may be played at normal speed as the notation strip scrolls synchronously. Alternately, the user, allowing precise repositioning of either the animation or the notation, may manually control the movies and notation strips. Synchronization between the two is always maintained to allow more detailed study of both the notation and the performance. Composed of three dances for notation novices, the Artificial Suite is a collaborative project. The original music was composed digitally by Jacqueline Landman Gay, and then choreographed, notated and animated by Georgette Weisz Amowitz Gorchoff. Jacqueline Gay created the program’s design, coding and graphics. When a movie is played, the program compares the position of the current movie frame to the total number of frames and calculates a percentage representing the current frame position. It then sets the position of the notation strip to the same percentage. There is some math that does percent-to-pixel calculations, which determine the pixel count from the bottom up rather than the top down. These calculations are done repeatedly several times per second to keep the two displays synchronized. There is a similar, but reversed, routine to calculate which movie frame should be displayed based on the percentage of the current position of the notation strip. When the user scrolls the notation strip, the movie display is updated, and vice versa. All the controls are available on the screen as large, clickable buttons. Program operation was designed to be easy and intuitive, even to novice users. Full program documentation is included as an incorporated Help screen. Georgette Weisz Amowitz-Gorchoff graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a BA in music and studied professional dance at Juilliard. She taught dance and Labanotation at colleges in Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and privately. She has directed major dance works from their scores, notated her own choreography, and to introduce Labanotation, has developed software for Windows as well as Macintosh systems. Jacqueline Landman Gay was a classical pianist for half her life, until the discovery of computers enticed her to switch keyboards. She founded HyperActive Software in 1987 and has since become an internationally recognized expert in the field of Rapid Application Development. HyperActive Software produces Macintosh and Windows software for a wide variety of in-house and commercial applications, and has worked closely with both Apple Computer and America Online.
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