Dance Technology and CirculationS of the Social v2.0

April 21-23, 2011, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SLIPPAGE:Performance|Culture|Technology
MIT Program in Comparative Media Studies
MIT Music and Theater Arts
present
Dance Technology and Circulations of the Social, Version 2.0
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
April 21-23, 2011

What is dance technology?  What are its international implications and applications?  How are artists, researchers, audiences, and game players engaged in experimentations in motion capture, digital film production, or live performance that place dance and other stylized forms of movement at the center of inquiry?  And how do technologies of dance circulate changing concepts of the social?

Part of the MIT 150th Festival of Art, Science, and Technology, this symposium will address these questions with a wide range of presentations by an international cohort of researchers. In presentations and demonstrations, concepts of social media, emergent technology, embodiment and dance will be explored over two-and-a-half days April 21 – 23, 2011.  All events will be held at the MIT Media Lab, 6th Floor, 25 Carleton Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, and are free and open to the public. Events begin with a reception Thursday evening April 21, and presentations on Friday and Saturday from 9am until 6pm.

Convened by MIT Professor of Music and Theater Arts Thomas F. DeFrantz and Harmony Bench, Assistant Professor of Dance at the Ohio State University, the event intends to jump-start a conversation about dance and technology long overdue in the United States. According to DeFrantz,   “Dance technology is a recognized area of inquiry in many parts of the world.  Here in the United States, we have had little opportunity to explore intersections of mediated and live performance, and their relationship to concepts of social exchange. This event will offer an opportunity to consider gestural computing in platforms such as the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect, alongside developments in dance archiving and film-making, YouTube video dances, and interdisciplinary performance. The symposium will stress points of race, gender, and sexuality as part of a broader consideration of how ‘the social’ operates in and around dance technology.”

The event gathers participants from the United States, the UK, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, each offering a broad range of approaches and articulations of dance technology.  LISTING OF PARTICIPANTS Schedule of events