ADVAITA

For Advaita, Chagall turned the Xsens motion capture suit into a full-body musical instrument. Advaita is the coming together of the human and the digital. The real and the virtual. In Advaita live music, technology, visuals, and movement work together in harmony as all artistic elements are controlled by one thing: the performer’s body.

In Advaita audio and video are manifested in real-time, either directly from the movement of the body or driven by commands generated from gesture recognition. The motion capture suits enable her to control real-time avatars that dance with her on the screen. In Advaita there are no interfaces blocking the connection between performer and audience. It is the performer’s (non-) choreographed movement that connect her to both the technology and the audience. The result is a synergy of movement, music, and visual effects performance that is understood intuitively and emotionally.

UNLOCKED

‘Unlocked’ is singer/producer Chagall’s latest live music performance in which she explores her relationship with a reactive light-art installation called B.A.B.Y. (Bionic Assistant for Becoming Yourself). As Chagall controls all elements in the show in realtime through sensors in her costume, audiences witness an organic and intimate interplay of the human body, voice, light and music.

At the heart of ‘Unlocked’ are nine visceral, synth heavy pop songs written in collaboration with poet Robert Isaf during the pandemic of 2020. Chagall serenades the journey within herself and what was left when all external distractions, deadlines and plans had faded away. The confrontations and unification with the self are visualised by the exchange between Chagall and B.A.B.Y. At times the installation is a comfortable cocoon, a safe space, fully reactive to Chagall. At other moments B.A.B.Y. will take the lead and guide Chagall through places of unrest and confrontation.

While singing Chagall controls all musical and visual elements in this performance with the movements of her hands and body. For this she uses sensor-enabled gloves (MiMU), a full-body motion capture suit (Xsens) and specialised software that allow her to create the music and lighting design in realtime (not pre-recorded). Chagall’s natural movements are leading the technology, resulting in softness and human liveliness in a tech-heavy performance.

WETHER A WALL

In Whether A Wall, dance, live music and technology work together in spectacular synergy.  The soft hum of the drones, Chagall’s dreamy voice and the compelling dance ensure that you are carried away in a gripping story about the recognizable struggle between man and technology.

This struggle is depicted by a wall of drones with two dancers on either side. The wall embodies the certain threat posed by the power of technology, as an unyielding entity to which we must surrender. But at the same time, technology also has something human, something warm and can bring people together. In this sense technology can also be a window that offers a view of countless possibilities and lays the foundation for beautiful memories.

Together with the dancers, the drones play this game of duality in an interactive dance of give and take. Using her special Mi.MU Gloves, Chagall controls the music and the drones live. She shows that the drones can not only be menacing, but that they can break free from that unmoving wall. That they can even take on human forms and interact with the dancers.