Vox Lumen ready to shine at White Night Melbourne

Crowds at Federation Square during this weekend's White Night Melbourne will have the chance to influence and interact with a large-scale art installation, thanks to the cutting-edge work of Deakin University's Motion.Lab and Centre for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR).

The Vox Lumen: People into Light event will fuse live performance and new technologies to light up Melbourne's iconic meeting place for 12 hours when White Night Melbourne kicks off at 7pm on Saturday.

Vox Lumen will transform Federation Square into an interactive world using abstract digital projections, dancer-driven live motion capture, and interactive content that will track the movement of the crowds during the night.

Deakin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander said Deakin was proud to be a part of White Night Melbourne, now in its third year.

"The fusion of live performance and new technologies to create an interactive world will be a sight to behold for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to flock to the city centre for White Night Melbourne," Professor den Hollander said.

"Deakin is committed to building strong international links and partnerships through our faculty of arts and education, and what better way to take our creative arts to the world than by performing on centre stage at Australia's most celebrated cultural event."

Vox Lumen project manager Peter Divers said the movement of people engaged with the performance would influence the graphics on the screen.

"People will see live motion capture in action and be able to watch as their own movements change the course of the performance," Mr Divers said.

"Using motion tracking technology and self-generating live motion feeds, Vox Lumen will demonstrate the potential of performance and new technologies to construct imaginative architectures with a stunning performance of imagery and lights."

For more information on White Night Melbourne visit http://whitenightmelbourne.com.au/

About Deakin Motion.Lab

The Deakin Motion.Lab is a movement, art and technology research centre based at Deakin University's Burwood Campus.

With up to 20 artists, researchers and technical staff, the lab undertakes applied, practice-led artistic research into the emerging relationships between moving bodies and digital systems made possible by new technologies.

Its work extends across art practices such as dance, theatre, animation, digital and transmedia art, and across technologies such as motion capture, robotics, haptics and augmented and virtual reality.

The Deakin Motion.Lab was established in 2006 through a partnership between Deakin University, Multimedia Victoria and Act3 Animation.

About Centre for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR)

CISR's mission is to conduct innovative Intelligent Systems research to benefit society through the creation of knowledge and technology that address problems faced by industry, government and the community.

CISR's approach to knowledge creation, through intensive multi-disciplinary collaboration, promises insights that better match the complex nature of the challenges we face.

CISR combines fundamental and applied research to provide a unique problem solving capability.

CISR is home to more than 60 researchers.