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Welcome to the July discussion on –empyre- soft-skinned space:
Moderated by Sue Hawksley (UK/AUS) and Simon Biggs (AUS/UK) with invited
discussants Susan Kozel (SE), Johannes Birringer (UK), Samantha Gorman (USA),
Sophia Lycouris (UK), Tamara Ashley (UK), Garth Paine (USA), Hellen Sky (AUS),
Daniel Tercio (PT), Sally Jane Norman (NZ/FR) and Sarah Whatley (UK).
The month's discussion engages themes and issues concerning 'virtual
embodiment'. This theme is open to interpretation - suggesting concepts and
practices that are situated in the physical, the computational, the
imaginative, the metaphysical or all of these spaces, depending on context.
Facebook's recent acquisition of Oculus, developers of the consumer level Rift
virtual reality headset, promises to make a new virtual experiential space
widely available. This raises questions concerning the impact of the virtual
when it converges with popular social media. As shared VR experiences becomes
pervasive how might social conventions shift and the underpinning notions of
selfhood and collective evolve? What might a collective virtual experience
contribute to notions of extended or distributed mind, agency or identity? Does
virtual embodiment depend on, augment or replace bodily practices? What will
the quotidian affects be?
This months guests engage this theme through practice and theory, from diverse
disciplines including the creative and performing arts, philosophy, social
sciences, cultural theory and computer science.
Biographies:
Susan Kozel works at the convergence between dance and a wide range of digital
technologies. She combines movement practices such as improvisation and
somatics with academic writing in philosophy and phenomenology. Currently she
is a Professor at the School of Art and Culture of Malmö University and a
researcher with the Medea Collaborative Media Initiative (http://medea.mah.se).
She maintains an active artistic practice that directly informs her writing on
topics from affect to ubiquitous technologies to electronic music. She teaches
for the Interaction Design programme at Malmö University, is Project Leader of
the interdisciplinary research project Living Archives
(http://livignarchives.mah.se) and is on the advisory board of the Swedish
National School for Artistic Research.
Johannes Birringer is a choreographer/media artist and co-director of DAP-Lab
at Brunel University where he is a Professor of Performance Technologies in the
School of Arts. DAP-lab (www.brunel.ac.uk/dap) focuses on research in
performance, interactive systems and wearable design. He has created numerous
dance-theatre works, video installations and digital projects in collaboration
with artists in Europe, the Americas, China and Japan. In 2003 he founded
Interaktionslabor in a former coal mine in Germany, initiating long-term
research into interactive systems and real time processes
(http://interaktionslabor.de). His digital oratorio "Corpo, Carne e Espírito"
premiered in Brasil at the FIT Theatre Festival in 2008; the interactive
dancework "Suna no Onna" was featured at festivals in London and the Lab’s
mixed-reality installation "UKIYO" went on European tour in 2010. The dance
opera "for the time being [Victory over the Sun]" premered at Sadler's Wells in
2014. He's currently developing various post-productions from the writing of
"Performance, Technology & Science," published in early 2009, for a new
Meta-Academy (online) seminar project.
Samantha Gorman is a writer, scholar and artist who composes for text, cinema
and digital media. Her current work includes the App novella Pry. In Pry, the
reader tugs apart lines of the narrative in order to grasp the protagonist's
thoughts: http://prynovella.com. Samantha holds an MFA from Brown University in
Digital Language Arts. She has taught courses in Digitally Mediated Performance
and Digital Literature at the Rhode Island School of Design. Samantha currently
lives in L.A. where she is a Ph.D. candidate in the interdivisional Media Arts
+ Practice (iMAP) program at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Sophia Lycouris is an artist working with movement/dance, choreography,
improvisation and performance for over than twenty years, who gradually
developed a dialogue with new technologies. Her most recent work, City Glimpses
(2013), is a multi-sited improvisational piece exploring relationships between
physical and virtual performance sites (www.recalesce.net). Sophia is also an
academic researcher interested in interdisciplinary methodologies, including
approaches informed by creative practice. She is currently Reader in
Interdisciplinary Choreography at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Garth Paine is the Associate Director of the School of Arts Media and
Engineering and Digital Culture program at Arizona State University where he is
also Professor of Digital Sound and Interactive Media. He is particularly
fascinated with sound as an exhibitable object. This passion has led to several
interactive responsive environments where the inhabitant generates the sonic
landscape through their presence and behaviour. It has also led to several
music scores for dance works, generated through realtime video tracking and/or
bio-sensing of the dancers. His work has been shown throughout Australia,
Europe, Japan, USA, South America, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dr Paine is
internationally regarded as an innovator in the field of interactivity in
experimental music and media arts. His URL is http://www.activatedspace.com
Hellen Sky is an Australian digital choreographer/performer/director/writer.
Her projects bridge dance, performance and installation at times extended
through new technologies and data generated by the moving body as a fluid
interface between micro-movements, media, virtual-electronic and physical
architectures, words and objects. As co-founder of new media performance
company Company in Space (1992-2004) and as Hellen Sky and Collaborators she
has presented work across Australia and internationally.
Tamara Ashley is the Artistic Director of dancedigital. To this role she
brings a strong background in conceptual thinking and experimental performance
practice in dance improvisation, somatics, live arts and new media. Through
the organisation, she supports and nurtures artists working with dance and new
technologies, seeks to develop conversations with practitioners across
disciplines and engages in research to develop thinking, tools and products for
the dance sector. As a researcher, Tamara has focused upon the application of
qualitative research paradigms to creative and practical research. Tamara has
undertaken studies that explore dance improvisation and somatics in
environmental and digital performance, with publications in the Choreographic
Practices Journal; Theatre, Dance and Performance and Training; Contact
Quarterly and has published book chapters on choreography, site-sensitive
performance and improvisation. A committed educator, she lectures on practice
as research in the PhD programme at the University of Limerick and is a Senior
Lecturer in Dance at the University of Bedfordshire.
Daniel Tércio holds a BA in Philosophy and another in Fine Arts, a MA in Art
History and a PhD in Dance. He is currently an assistant Professor at
University of Lisbon, teaching courses in Dance History, Aesthetics, Movement
and Visual Arts and New Technologies applied to the stage, within graduate and
postgraduate programmes. He is a member of the Board of Directors at INET-MD
Instituto de Etnomusicologia - Centro de Estudos de Música e Dança where he
coordinates the research group on Dance Studies. As main researcher, he took
responsibility for delivery of Technologically Expanded Dance, a project
supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Science. His interests are wide,
ranging from aesthetics, through dance history, cultural studies and
iconography to digital technologies and experimental video. Daniel Tércio has
authored several studies on dance and art. He has also written two science
fiction novels and short stories issued by Portuguese and Brazilians
publishers. His dance reviews appear regularly in the Portuguese press, since
2004.
Sally Jane Norman is Professor of Performance Technologies at the University of
Sussex, UK. Her work on embodiment, gesture, and technologies, grounded in
dance and martial arts, has involved historical research (avant-garde
approaches to theatrical embodiment, Université de Paris III/ CNRS), and
creative experimentation at the Institut International de la Marionette,
Charleville-Mézières; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe;
Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Amsterdam (as artistic co-director and
co-organiser of the 1998 Touch festival). Co-founding jury member of Telefonica
Foundation’s Vida Art and Artificial Life competition, she has published
extensively on expressive gesture and its technological extensions. Sally Jane
currently supervises a cohort of interdisciplinary PhD students, teaches on the
MA Sound Environments course and is preparing a monograph on live art and
technology.
Sarah Whatley is Professor of Dance and Director of the Centre for Dance
Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University. Her research interests include dance
and new technologies, dance analysis, somatic dance practice and pedagogy and
inclusive dance practices. Her current AHRC-funded project is ‘InVisible
Difference; Dance, Disability and Law. She is also leading a major EU-funded
project (EuropeanaSpace), which is exploring the creative reuse of digital
cultural content and is part of the team leading the EU-funded RICHES project
that is exploring the impact of digital technologies on dance and
performance-based cultural heritage. She led the AHRC-funded Siobhan Davies
digital archive project, RePlay, and has published widely on Davies’ work and
archival practices in dance and performance. She is Academic Advisor: Digital
Environment for The Routledge Performance Archive. She is also Editor of the
Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of
several other Journals.
The month's discussion is moderated by Sue Hawksley and Simon Biggs
Sue Hawksley is an independent dance artist and artistic director of articulate
animal. This interdisciplinary performance company undertakes collaborative
projects focused upon movement, identity, territory and presence, which have
been presented internationally. Sue has performed with Rambert Dance Company,
Mantis, Scottish Ballet and Philippe Genty among others, as well as working on
many freelance projects as performer, choreographer or educator. Sue holds a
practice-led PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art,
awarded in 2012. Her research critically examines concepts of embodiment
through choreographic and somatic practices, philosophy, and mediation. Sue has
extensive experience as a dance educator, and most recently was Senior Lecturer
in Dance and course co-ordinator for the MA Dance Performance & Choreography at
the University of Bedfordshire. Sue also practices as a massage and bodywork
therapist.
Simon Biggs is a media artist, writer and curator with interests in digital
poetics, interactive environments, interdisciplinary research and co-creation.
His work has been widely presented internationally, including Tate, Pompidou,
Academy de Kunste, Maxxi, Macau Arts Museum, Walker Art Center and the Art
Gallery of New South Wales. He has spoken at numerous conferences and
universities, including ISEA, ePoetry, SLSA, ELO, and Cambridge, Brown,
Cornell, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, Paris8, Sorbonne, Bergen Universities.
Publications include Remediating the Social (ed, 2012), Autopoeisis (with James
Leach, 2004), Great Wall of China (1999), Halo (1998), Magnet (1997), Book of
Shadows (1996). He is Professor of Art, University of South Australia.
http://www.littlepig.org.uk
Simon Biggs
si...@littlepig.org.uk | @_simonbiggs_
http://www.littlepig.org.uk | http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
simon.bi...@unisa.edu.au | Professor of Art, University of South Australia
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?name=simon.biggs
s.bi...@ed.ac.uk | Honorary Professor, Edinburgh College of Art, University
of Edinburgh
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
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empyre forum
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