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Dance Technology; what is it?

Ok, I'm a relative outsider, an extremely passive performance artist and am wondering about the use here of the merger 'dance' and 'technology'.

What is its prevalent use here; dance as technology, technology as dance, technology for dance, technology enhanced dance, dance around technology perhaps, ... ? All? Why does it matter, is it important? This group? Is dance without technology überhaupt possible? Is a tech deprived stage to be found anywhere these days?

From your own perspective can you describe what this is about? Your personal definition? If possible no more than one paragraph. Also am not looking for intellectual prowess/muscle flexing or ego riding, just some thoughts/answers, leave the rest for the next coffee table round. ;)

Tags: dance, definition, technology, testing, the, waters

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Permalink Reply by Lazarus on June 7, 2008 at 4:44pm

Hallo Marlon Barrios Solano,
I read your text.
What do you mean with:
"... to help to understand composition in real time with very simple cues or trying to investigate the Improvisational model of Bill Forsythe with eye tracking systems in the audience members averaging the geometries that are "created" and fidn the correlation with the compositional intentions of the dancers."

Whether the audience understands the geometrie of dance or it transform in "head" more a story or a subject
... you can say this?
Thanks for answer, Heide L.

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Permalink Reply by marlon barrios solano on June 8, 2008 at 10:54am

Hello Heide,
withing the context of that post, I just wanted to play with a broader idea of research in the dance-tech field, or just dance science.
Taking into consideration that several choreographers and creators have generative models for their creative processes, it might be interesting research projects to investigate with FMRI and eye tracking, (or whatever technology is becoming available in this ideal dance lab) if the "theory" of the creator is supported using quantitative methodologies.
I think that of course the hypothesis have to be developed in a way that plays a role in a theorical model of perception and motion.
These are ideas that I play with and of course the complexity of the processes involved add a lot of experimental design challenges.
I think that they are all "dynamic" stories in the head of the humans that participate in the social event of moving/watching. The question is how the operate organizing perception and action in real-time and the same time the are made conscious as "stories" ins coupling with the process. An important question is also how these stories ( as generative techniques) imply an agency in the mover (Forsythe's improv tech) and they only serve as movement generator and we know that movement of a huma body have many dimensions and the perceiver is of course making meaning (while perceiving all of them).
Anyway, I hope that this helps...it is just an idea about the relevance of dance for the understanding of the complexity of humanness.
So, dance studies must embrace it relationship with science and then dance and technology is a part of a broader field.
be well,
Marlon

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Permalink Reply by Laura Mello on December 30, 2007 at 10:14am

Hello Arthur
I find the theme pretty "prägnant". Made me ask myself what is technology. Ok, human beings striving another life, better or easyer/more complex or worse, I wouldn't dare to judge it now, but anyway, striving changes upon processes
One may directly think about machines and data and that's also right, but if we think on system design, an artistical concept as a system conception, then I must answer yes to your question, tech deprived stage is yet to be found.
One interesting point for me in this theme of dance/music and technology is the change on the ways people work together. Roles and working processes are changing, composers are working as software programmers for dancers, not only delivering a complete piece to be played/executed, but taking part on the whole rehearsal process.
On the other side, also dancers and choreographers are confronted with other issues, other interfaces between the body and the environment.
And that's only the beginning....

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Permalink Reply by Julie N. Cruse on March 18, 2008 at 3:51am

i had a revelation last night on this. my friends and i were hanging out and i was explaining to them what it is i do. one of them is a writer, and he had all kinds of questions for me, appropriately. but, it led to this conclusion of what dance-tech is. so i believe that we can start with multimedia dance and break it down from there.

so with alwin nikolais, we had lighting, props, costumes, and sound all coming together to make a new form. multimedia dance. and this was about the motion here - the equivalence of motion and composition in non-human forms with human articulation.

why was that use of technology different from the use of other technologies that all the sudden there is this new term for it? the conceptual intent of their uses.

a better question for this forum is - what are the conceptual intents common to dance-tech, versus dance and technology, or as mp gough suggests dance and performance technologies?

I'll add one - the hope or desire of forming a new performance mode for the dancers - so that the creation is in the forms themselves and in the composition with those forms. thus, my very first response to the question.

others??

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Permalink Reply by Raphael Xavier on September 2, 2008 at 1:50am

as a dancer (breaker) looking for new ways to move and expanding the vocabulary, i feel like new technology plays a part in experimental performance for those who may be bored with traditional ways of dance. At the same time there is technology that has conventional ways of use but with dance it turns into new forms. That is my brief statement. It can get deeper.