Spaces of sensation: The immersive installation and corporal literacy

This paper investigates the primacy of the corporal in understanding immersive environments. Writing from the perspective of an installation artist who takes this conceit as one of the founding principles of her work, which is predicated on developing immersive installations that are designed to be understood primarily through the somatic perceptual systems (e.g. www.sensedigital.co.uk/SG1.htm). the aim of the paper is to explore the notion that such installations can serve to enhance, or heighten corporal literacy. The installation iSensuous Geographies, created with Alistair MacDonald in 2003, is used to exemplify this practice. In this paper the terms ‘literacy’ and ‘literate’ are used in an extended sense, frequently transposing their original meanings (which pertain to the written word) into meanings which refer to those understandings we glean through our senses. Just as in the visual arts the term visually literate is used to refer to the ability to make fine discriminations in the detail, texture and structures of visual phenomena, and in music the term aurally literate refers to a highly refined ability to identify the detail, texture and structure of sound, the term corporal literacy is used to refer to the ability to discriminate equally subtle details of the structurings and textures of corporal sensation that emanate from the somatic perceptual system during interaction with the environment

Identity in Flux: A Theoretical and Choreographic Enquiry into the Identity of The Open Dance Work

This thesis presents a work of practical scholarship which re-examines issues of identity in the context of the open dance work. The debate takes the form of a symbiotic philosophical and choreographic enquiry into the identity of the open dance work. The philosophical enquiry examines the adequacy to the open work of theories of identity derived from two distinctive strands of philosophical theory, the first from the analytic tradition, the second from contemporary French philosophy. The choreographic processes which led to the creation of two open dance works constituted a central strand of the debate. Each work interrogates the adequacy of these theories of identity to the artistic theories which underpin open dance works. The first work, Intimate Memories, problematised theories of identity which were developed by analytic philosophers in the 1970s and 80s, and subsequently adopted by dance theorists, through an examination of their applicability to the open dance work. This strand of choreographic research revealed that, although these theories allowed open dance works to be individuated, they did not fully account for the particularities of the processual character of the open dance work. This interim conclusion led to an examination of the pertinence of Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology of the event to questions concerning identity raised by the open dance work. The second dance work, Halo in Performance, which was developed in the context of a collaborative engagement between choreographic and interactive digital arts practices, is an embodiment of Deleuze and Guattari’s process-oriented ontology of the event. This work indicates that theories of identity and/or individuation which are grounded in an ontology of flux are a more appropriate model to apply to the open dance work than those grounded in an ontology of substance

Diagramming movement between the cartographic and the choreographic: research report

"Diagramming Movement between the Cartographic and the Choreographic" was an experimental interdisciplinary research project, which in part was concerned with exploring a collaborative research methodology that had a heterarchical structure. Undertaken with geographer Dr Derek McCormack, from Oxford Univerrsity, PhD students and independent artists the project was strand of a larger research project, "Society of Molecules" run by the Senselab, a Research Centre with a global reach that was initiated by Dr Erin Manning of Concordia University, Montreal, and involved researchers from all over the world. "Society of Molecules" employed a global distributive participatory research model, which we echoed at a smaller scale in our UK 'molecule'. Each international molecule was invited to initiate aesthetico-political interventions. The theme that guided our research was the diagramming of movement between the cartographic and the choreographic, using Deleuzian-induced understandings of the cartographic, and introducing the notions of affect that emerged in Deleuze and Guattari's work. The research involved practice-based experimentations/interventions alongside readings of the work of geographers, philosophers and other theorists whose work addressed issues consonant with our concerns, conceptual traces of which could be detected in the practical results of the research experiment. The above are all described and reflected upon in this research report

Virtually Sensuous (Geographies): Towards a Strategy for Archiving Multi-user Experiential and Participatory Installations

This paper explores potential strategies for the audio-visual documentation of a multi-user choreographic digital installation entitled Sensuous Geographies using VR technologies. The installation was interactive, fully immersive and participatory, with the general public initiating the details of the installation’s sonic and visual worlds. At the time of the making of Sensuous Geographies, the means of documenting participatory installations in action was limited to video documentation and photographs, which represent a third-person perspective. This article suggests that new forms of technology provide an opportunity to archive interactive choreographic installations in such a way that the choreographic forms and embodied experience they generate can be re-presented in audiovisual form to historians and audiences of the future. This article expands on a conference presentation of the same title given at the DocPerform2 Symposium, City University. London in November 2017

Understanding the independent dancer: roles, development and success

Little research has been published about the varied role of the independent dancer. The aim of this study was to provide insight into the work independent dancers undertake and how their careers change over time. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 independent dancers. Content analysis revealed that the dancers had multifaceted careers that relied on both formal and informal activities, and varied according to three distinct stages (early, middle, late). The experiences reported by the dancers indicated that the realities of the independent dancer's role are not sufficiently recognised or supported within the industry

Embodying theory

In this paper I examine the way in which choreographic works can both embody and have a direct effect on theorising. My PhD research comprised a double-edged enquiry into philosophical issues of identity and individuation in relation to dance works, more specifically into 'open' dance works, integrating practical and philosophical thinking. I claim that the works I am presenting in my PhD portfolio embody the theoretical enquiry, and that there is a symbiotic relationship between theory and practice, with the philosophical notion of 'thinking in the work'' contrasted it to thinking about the work. I demonstrate that, during the course of my choreographic research, not only did my dance 'thinking', that is the thinking that takes place in and through my choreographic practice, undergo radical change but also that the changes in my practice demanded that I make a substantial epistemological shift in my philosophical thinking

Towards an understanding of liminal imagery in the digital domain

Many digital choreographers favour liminal imagery that aims to convey kinaesthetic sensation. I suggest here that this is not by chance. In the mid-nineties neuroscientists identified a collection of neurons named ‘mirror’ neurons. They discovered that the same neurons are activated when we watch and when we engage in an action. They suggest that it is through the ‘resonance behaviour’ of these neurons that we become attuned to the significances embodied in others’ actions and attain kinaesthetic empathy. In this paper I suggest that it is through such ‘resonance behaviour’ that the sensuous effects of liminal digital imagery might be generated

Understanding in our bodies: nonrepresentational imagery and dance

This paper discusses some of the means through which non-representational imagery in dance, and in particular in digital choreography, can be understood by audiences. I argue that, although movement that has representational content might have a meaning that can be translated into words, more nuanced interpretations of the movement are understood through an embodied understanding of their more detailed subtleties. I further argue that non-representational movement, which does not pretend to represent anything, can communicate other types of understanding as one engages in the act of viewing the movement of dancers, and more particularly. digital imagery that uses human movement as its source

Fugitive moments: Artist's report of research project undertaken as part of the Wellcome Trust People's Award (2004-2006)

This report outlines from the perspective of the artistic research processes an Arts/Science collaborative research project. The research explored the potential of generative/ALife systems that would create imagery that echoed the internal flows of dance-like movement, their potential as an operational system for visually-based interactive digital installations with a choreographic sensibility, and the use of viewers' physiological responses to the resulting kinetic imagery as an interactive interface to modulate that imagery. Undertaken over a period of 18 months with Dr Beau Lotto and four of his PhD students, Daniel Hulme, Richard Clarke, David Malkin and Erwan le Martelot at Lottolab – then a research lab at the University of London specialising in the study of perception, now a public research space (see www.lottolab.org) – the cross-disciplinary research researched the impact of visual imagery on viewers' physiology, the development of ALife systems that responded to physiological responses and the creation of an interactive installation that articulated the results of the research

On choreographic space

In the context of the increasing use of new spaces for choreography and new modalities of choreographic practice, such as the generation of choreographic installation spaces and screendance, this paper proposes that theorists such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Brian Massumi, Manuel deLanda and Susanne Langer, Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift and Paul Rodaway offer a rich resource for a discussion of choreographic space. In this paper the notion of choreographic space is predicated on the conception of space as a dynamic, relational concept, and suggests that choreographic space is constituted as intensive space, a transient spatiotemporal network of forces, vectors and tensions, processual rather than stable and, crucially, experiential. It further proposes that extensive and intensive space are by no means oppositional forms of experiencing space, rather they are co-present in any experience of choreographic space whether that experience is of participant, performer or audience. The paper thus argues that choreographic space is an in/extensive space, one that interlaces the dynamic textures of qualitative space and the stable features of material space within a process of reconfiguration of the latter’s affective contours