e-Dance project

(Written at Gate A9, Detroit airport on 9 October 2007.)

So, what has e-Social Science got to do with e-Dance (apart from sharing that ubiquitous ‘e’)? I gave a talk on Sunday morning in a workshop on visual methods (I don’t usually work on a Sunday, but after a 19 hour journey, I wasn’t too sure what day it was …). I presented a paper on Access Grid, Memetic, CREW and e-Dance. As usual when talking about this subject, there was a lot of interest in the potential of visual representations of recordings and some discussion of possible uses. The main focus of this was CREW rather than e-Dance, but it’s all part of the family!

In general, I enjoyed the parallel sessions in the conference a lot more than the keynotes, most of which seemed to concern themselves with posing broad and superficiously profound questions on how e-social science opens new opportunities for research without being able to posit exactly what these opportunities may actually be. An honourable exception to this was Carole Goble’s talk about the selfish nature of most researchers which works against collaboration and how it is therefore necessary to provide benefits for all when working with colleagues across disciplines. Whilst we were all half-cut when we heard this (it was an after-dinner keynote), it is nevertheless a good point to bear in mind as we explore how e-Science can support the choreographic process and we technologists get to grips with the particular needs of dance research.

An article that discusses the evolving relationship to technology in the practice-led research of Ersatz Dance will be published later this year in the International Journal of Performing Arts & Digital Media.

ERSATZ DANCING: NEGOTIATING THE LIVE AND MEDIATED IN DIGITAL PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

Helen Bailey

Abstract: This paper will focus on the practice-led research of dance-theatre company, Ersatz Dance and how the Company has negotiated and defined the relationship between live and mediated performance in their work. It will track the evolving relationship the Company has with a range of technologies. It will focus on the impact of recent research using virtual research environments (VREs). It will consider the ways in which VREs can provide a new context for practice-led research in dance. It will focus on the role VREs have played in defining new methodological approaches to composition and the contribution to the ongoing debates concerning ‘presence’, ‘liveness’ and ‘virtual embodiment’ in performance.

Preprint: bailey_ijpadm2007.pdf

e-Dance is highlighted today in the JISC briefing Research in the arts and humanities: an overview of JISC activities.  

“e-Science in the arts and humanitiesSuch investigations are not only opening up new avenues in arts and humanities research, but are also testing and extending the present range of e-science technologies. An example is the development of the Access Grid, a form of advanced video conferencing for distributed collaborations in performing arts and motion capture (see box left).   

Dancing with virtual partners

A ground-breaking project on dance choreography is being funded by the joint AHRC/EPSRC/JISC Arts and Humanities e-Science Initiative. Led by the University of Bedfordshire, using Access Grid technology, Relocating Choreographic Process will develop a suite of software tools to enable choreographers to annotate dance video recordings, plan collaborative pieces using networked virtual spaces over the internet, and weave material from recordings into live performances. This will give the Access Grid, originally developed for advanced video conferencing purposes, a powerful and exciting new role as a medium for collaborative artistic performance and related research.”

A presentation introducing the e-Dance project was given today by Helen Bailey at DRHA2007 Dartington College of Arts, Devon on 9 September 2007.   Slides:  drha2007_slides.pdf

Welcome to the website for e-Dance, a project to deliver e-Science multimedia collaboration and annotation tools to choreographers rehearsing and performing over the Access Grid. This project was funded under the joint AHRC+EPSRC+JISC e-Science Initiative, based on the proposal entitled:

“Relocating Choreographic Process: The impact of Grid technologies and collaborative memory on the documentation of practice-led research in dance.”