Master of Fine Arts

thesisThe questions posed in this research involve the massive effects of the cyberrevolution on the human experience of embodiment and identity formation. Our technologies have begun to merge with the human body in new and unforeseen ways, from the development of smartphones, to new advances in Internet technologies, to the motion capture gaming systems of KINECT infrared cameras. This revolution has affected fields as wide-ranging as dance, gender studies, digital technologies, media studies, music, the visual arts, economics, and socio-anthropology. The hybridity of digital self and corporeality is permeating all aspects of life, from the growing use of projections in music and dance performances to the many permutations of human identity online on sites like Facebook or Twitter. For this research, I have focused on the effect of digitally interactive performance media in the field of dance, and how the performing human body-mind is impacted by virtual spaces and digital performance practice. With a focus on my own work (from digitally integrated live performances like the words we missed to screendance films like we walk blood earth) and the creative work of other dance artists, I've tried to investigate this constantly shifting dialogue between the human body and our digital counterparts. In my creative research with dancers, I've become aware that the ripples of what might be called "active digital translation" are being felt across disciplines and impacting human race, the spiraling, outward momentum of technological innovation. I've posed the questions: can the integration of digital technologies in the practice and performance of dance result in a different kind of embodiment and identity formation, one that meshes the physical and the virtual into an aesthetically, politically, and kinesthetically new sensation? What are the implications of this for the dance field, for performers of the physical arts, and for our corporal bodies within society? I have found that this newfound potential for identity formation, virtuosic transformation, and digital embodiment in the cyber age has put forth many exciting and challenging prospects for the human body