Workshop: Biomedia & Networked Performance
This multi-modal workshop consists of a 4-part co-creation process, culminating in a short performance, which enables participants, both dancers and non-dancers, to connect personal experiences to collective narrative of trauma by transforming embedded scripts, historical patterns and systemic oppression into live drawings and music generated from the participants’ muscles, heartbeat, blood flow, temperature and motion data. Movement prompts enhance somatic awareness, create new sensory-motor routines and establish a shared gesture vocabulary from which to generate choreography, which is mapped to a database of images through a machine learning algorithm. Story circles create content for the database of images and storied objects, which consist of custom electronics inside 3D printed objects that hold fragments of memories triggered through touch. Participants will contribute to an ongoing collective experience, expand their own gesture vocabulary through kinesthetic engagement, and gain knowledge of open-source software and hardware used to create biomedia for networked performance.
The sound design is by Kevin Patton, an interactive artist and designer based in Washington, DC, whose primary mode of making is through creating interactive systems. He is active in the fields of multimedia theatre, experimental music, collaborative design, and interactive art. Kevin is an assistant professor of Interaction Design at the Corcoran School of the Arts at the George Washington University.
Pre-registration required – sign-up link to come.
