Current Status of Indian Classical Dance Virtual Prototype Project

Current Status of Indian Classical Dance Virtual Prototype Project Faridah Noor Mohd Noor1*,Selvanathan Narainasamy1, Suhaimi Napis2, Harun Jantrik2 and Azmir Saifudin Mutalib3. 1University of Malaya, 2Universiti Putra Malaysia, 3Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia. *Deputy Director, Centre for Civilizational Dialogue, University of Malaya faridahn@um.edu.my, faridahn@gmail.com

Outline • Introduction • Virtual Indian Dance Project • The Prototype: Progress report • Future Direction and Collaboration

Introduction • Malaysia • Multi-cultural and multi-religious country • Melting pot of various ethnic groups comprised of Malays, Chinese, Indians and indigenous people. • Rich cultural heritage • Cross-culture due to assimilation- “New Culture” eg. Baba/Nyonya, Portugese Descendents • Colourful history and bright future

Introduction • Culture involves at least three components: • What people think, • What they do, and • What material products they produce Source: John H. Bodley, Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System, 1994.

Introduction • What is exactly the definition of Digital Culture or E-Culture? AMarriage between Culture and Technology • Using computers to manage cultural information

Introduction • What is the Purpose and Objective of Digital Culture / E-Culture? To “immortalise” and preserve culture for the future generation • With digital repository, archival work of these priceless historical gems can be immortalised for generations to come • Creation of Cyber Heritage

Virtual Indian Dance Project • Reports on the progress that has been made since the last APAN Meeting held in Taipei, August 2005.

How the Project was Initiated • Traditional dances are part of each ethnic cultural heritage • The present generation owes it to the future generation to keep a record with a purpose to preserve and hand down to them how these dances can be performed

Virtual Indian Dance Project • A collaborative research project to capture the motions of a Traditional Indian Dance • 1. University of Malaya, 2. Universiti Putra Malaysia, 3. Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia. • Mr. Ganesan, Malaysia

Bharatnatyam • One of the type of classical Indian dance • Originated from the southern part of India: Tamilnadu • “Subtle and sophisticated dance Provides spiritual satisfaction to performer and aesthestic experience to the audience (Saroja V., 1996:2)

“Bharatnatyam” • An acronymn consisting of: Bhava  Expression Raga  Melody Tala  Rhythm Natyam  Dance

Choice of Dance Type for Project • Movements, gestures (hands, facial expressions, eye and eyebrows movements, etc are highly symbolic and means something • Classical and very rich in history • Well-documented

The Prototype • Marks the beginning of a continuous chain of collaborative research between the Arts and IT disciplines, in Malaysia at least

The Prototype: Progress report • Made some progress with the prototype • Original data from Motion Capture was reused to make new animated character • Converted into Virtual Reality Data for visualization using CAVE with stereoscopic googles • Eventually, we want to integrate real 3D scanned image of the dancer himself with full costumes • Video clips and images

The Prototype: Progress report Capturing the Motion Capture Datasets

The Prototype: Progress report Captured Datasets used to animate a skeleton

The Prototype: Progress report Captured Datasets re-used to animate a character

The Prototype: Progress report Captured Datasets re-used to animate a character with moving background

The Prototype: Progress report • The prototype has been converted to 3D virtual reality datasets for viewing on CAVE at Virtual Reality Centre of Multimedia Development Corporation • Some images at the VR Centre, MDC during the test-run

The Prototype: Progress report Control Console

The Prototype: Progress report Showing the video clip

The Prototype: Progress report Showing the video clip to audience wearing googles

The Prototype: Progress report Showing the video clip to audience

Future Direction and Collaborations • Other projects in the pipeline: • Mah Meri Masks • Jahut carvings/statues • Museum of Asian Arts, University of Malaya

BES BIDAN UM84.3 (MIDWIFE)

BES BAJANG UM84.7

Masks of Mah Meri

Mah Meri Masks in 3D

Concluding Remarks • Collaboration between the “Culture partners” and “ICT partners” • An understanding of what each partner is able to do

THANK YOU TERIMA KASIH

Current Status of Indian Classical Dance Virtual Prototype Project