Chin- Yu Chao/ Taipei
After the hands- on experience of producing large- scale shows at the Shanghai World Expo, Image in Motion artistic director Yao- Chen and the producer/ general director Serina Chen produced a fantastic 3D musical “Voyage Undersea”. The 3D musical fantasy combines animation with dolls performing on stage, which is the first production for the Chen sisters, as the pair plans to enter the children’s market.
Hermit the crab replaces his shell with a traffic cone; Sea turtle does not know the dangerousness of consuming plastic bags, not to mention humans uncaringly affected the ocean with the garbage they produced, anyone could literally see mountains of garbage from an aerial view. A scuba diving enthusiast, Yao Chen discovered such uncaring act by humans that had affected the ocean deeply.
Such experience became the motivation for Serina Chen, who wanted to combine various elements such as environmental friendliness, technology, and art together to produce a brand new show.
"The idea began five years ago, we had the courage to dream, but at the time we were working on the Expo so it was temporarily paused." Chen Yao said, the show combines 3D animation, special effects and performance from puppets, you can feel the 3D effect without having to wear a pair of 3D glasses; the whole beautiful undersea kingdom is filled brilliant colors, the costumes are full of contemporary, with an elegant touch.
Chen Yao said that the purpose of combining arts with science and technology is to allow technology be decorated with art. "Instead of letting the technology to be seen as purely technological, technology is used to bring art to complete the value of art," which is what Taiwan is capable of doing "I hope more people come in to do the integration, thus technology and art can flourish."
However, despite the vision of this avant-garde production has, it hardly attract much from governmental sponsorships. Serina Chen smiled and said the committee members think "Image in Motion" is only a dance company, "In fact, we are back at the beginning to explore the possibilities of science and technology on stage, but the committee members still think we are not capable of producing drama.” Despite not getting any sponsorship, the Chen sisters still completed the project with a strong belief in “made in Taiwan”, and hoping to achieve a new milestone on Taiwan's culture and drama scene.
