“Schlemmer x Beats”: Interactive Techno Art-Club

On the occasion of the 100-year anniversary of Bauhaus, students at HdM Stuttgart were involved with a reinterpretation of the Triadic Ballet by Oskar Schlemmer. Their aim was to revive the ballet as a form of art and to create a meaningful, gamified, location-based and mixed-reality museum experience. The result was Schlemmer x Beats – an interactive techno art club in the Stuttgart State Gallery.

The unusual art experience was divided into two phases: First of all, visitors configured a triad at “triadic selection pillars”. The pillars designed with 3D plaster printing were dedicated to Oskar Schlemmer’s concept of three “acts” and “styles”: three moods and three types of costume. By rotating the pillars, visitors selected new combinations of a triadic costume. All of them bore Bauhaus names such as Oskar, Mies, Lilli, Anni or Walter.

After the configuration, the real-time online projection of the dancers in the virtual club continued. Visitors and dancers entered the room. Each triad was accorded “10 seconds of fame”: It grew, its name floated over its head and it performed special movements, for which Schlemmer’s original choreographies were extended and transferred to techno beats. They were digitised using professional dancers
wearing motion capturing suits. The movement restriction was also incorporated through the virtual costumes.

The movements of the DJs were also recorded by means of motion capturing suits and transferred to the virtual “DJ Schlemmer” dancing behind the console. The range of moods among the digital triadic dancers was reflected in suitable music respectively.