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
Outline
IntroductionVirtual Indian Dance ProjectThe Prototype: Progress reportFuture Direction and Collaboration
Introduction
MalaysiaMulti-cultural and multi-religious countryMelting 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?
A Marriage between Culture and Technology
Using computers to manage cultural information
IntroductionWhat 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 ProjectA 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 danceOriginated 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
Control Console
The Prototype: Progress report
Control Console
The Prototype: Progress report
Showing the video clip
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 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