2023, Maxim Shchapov MA Experimental Game Cultures University of Applied Arts Vienna
Shown at: Angewandte Festival 2023
Keywords: Dance Game, Motion Tracking, Augmented Reality, Human Interfaces, Exhibition Games, Critical Games
Danse Macabre is a playful project centered around a morbid dance game. It presents both a frivolously satirical and critical look at human vanity and obliviousness.
In the core game, the player's physical movements control a skeletal figure on screen to score points, while background videos provide haunting context. Other parts of the project include a musical album, a digital graveyard, a physical tombstone and an augmented reality experience.
Danse Macabre is inspired in part by a medieval art genre of the same name, depicting dancing dead—a variation of Memento Mori, which reminds people that nothing is forever.
The other part draws inspiration from the Soviet culture of Roentgenizdat, the underground printing of gramophone records on medical X-Ray scans. It is speculated that this practice gave rise to the Russian saying tantsi na kostyah (rus. танцы на костях)—dancing on bones.
Today, this phrase can be interpreted as remaining in a state of cheerful ignorance while something terrible is happening.
The AR part of the project – the skeleton can be spawned to dance anywhere
The AR part of the project – the skeleton can be spawned to dance anywhere
The soundtrack album composed for the game, with the cover being directly inspired by Roentgenizdat
The soundtrack album composed for the game, with the cover being directly inspired by Roentgenizdat
Dance on an actual concrete gravestone, stomp the flowers, see the skeleton mirror your movements, while scoring points
