Fragments from 161 registered raw photographs made during one dancer session and one archival composite share an evolving room. The arrangement changes deterministically with your river and time. Visitors who prefer reduced motion arrive on a held frame.

Danse Macabre

161 registered raw photographs · 1 archival composite

Canonical project surface · status reviewed 1 September 2026

Danse Macabre

The live artwork, film record, readings, and evidence now share this one public address.

  • Live artworkAvailable now
  • Finite filmIn progress
  • Last reviewed1 September 2026

Artwork · implemented

A finite photographic record, opened into time

Danse Macabre is a seeded, browser-based photographic artwork by Anthony J. Padavano. It turns one dancer session from 20 June 2017 and a hand-cut composite from 25 July 2017 into an unbounded, reproducible room of moving image and sound.

Source corpus
161 registered raw photographs + 1 archival composite
Living form
A deterministic river computed from seed + absolute time, not a video loop
Public home
This address—the artwork and its project record are one surface
Earlier title
The Thing Without a Name, retained as repository and application lineage

Finite film · in progress

Target passage: (05:51 displayed)

The target score uses two Léo Delibes waltzes at native tempo and ends with a four-second black signature. Application copy is prepared; a final approved render is not evidenced.

–

Cycle all 161 raw originals at the music’s cadence.

–

Hold the 2017 edited composite with subtle movement.

onward

Continue the score-led development.

Current truth: this revised opening has been requested but is not yet encoded or rendered. The current choreography contract still uses the earlier opening.

Delivery ledger

What exists, and what does not yet

Implemented

  • Seed + time generative engine
  • 161 registered photographs + 1 archival composite
  • Hold, river sharing, score, conductor, and optional local Presence controls
  • Score, MIDI, choreography, capture, provenance, and verification contracts

Prepared

  • ScreenDance application copy, synopsis, biography, technical note, and rights declaration
  • Mac and Linux finishing rails
  • General, technical, humanities, presenter, evaluator, and evidence editions

Pending

  • Encode and render the revised first minute
  • Final render, full watch, and artist approval
  • Password-protected downloadable Vimeo upload and test
  • Exact-film rights/music warranty and Submittable filing receipt

Proposed

  • Physical installation remains a reference design and simulator
  • No venue, hardware, calibration, recovery, or restore receipt exists

Reader editions

One work, five ways in

General

What the work is, how a visitor enters a river, and why a reproducible state is not a loop.

Technical

The pure frame = f(seed, absolute_time) engine, projective-texture renderer, local interaction boundary, and fail-closed release system.

Humanities

A media-archaeological argument about the photograph as image and coordinate system, and about simultaneity after the picture plane.

Presenter

What a browser artwork, finite screendance, or proposed room requires—and which form can responsibly be announced now.

Evaluator

Inspectable work, attribution, migration lineage, contribution boundaries, and claims the repository does not support.

Evidence + rights

Claims stay attached to receipts

Artist’s current attestation: performer permission was granted when the photographs were made; pictured posters are incidental objects in the photographed environment. Music sources are documented. Formal exact-film, publicity, rendered-mix, upload, and submission warranties remain pending until their receipts exist.

No final-render receipt, Vimeo upload receipt, download test, or Submittable confirmation is currently recorded. The physical installation remains a proposal.

Canonical source Full reader editions Evidence ledger