Choreographic Objects: traces and artifacts of physical intelligence

The focus of these workshops will be four unique interdisciplinary research projects initiated by established contemporary choreographers Wayne McGregor, Siobhan Davies, William Forsythe and Emio Greco PC (Pieter C. Scholten). These choreographers are internationally recognised for their contribution to the field of contemporary dance. In addition to live performances for an audience, the choreographers and their associated organisations have independently begun to explore the potential of interactive digital media and related technologies to document, represent, transmit and disseminate aspects of their artistic practice. The varieties of information-rich resources they have created (including on-line interactive scores, digital dance archives, choreographic software agents and real-time training simulations) will constitute the choreographic objects that this project investigates.

Choreography gains its primary cultural value from the performance of dance, which an audience experiences as a live time-based artwork. The socio-cultural value of contemporary dance is largely evaluated on the strength of this transitory event. To date, recordings of any aspect of dance creation or performance have been perceived to be of less value, due to their inherent 'lack' of a living ephemeral presence. This lends an inherent tension to any project that aims to produce valuable cultural objects, rich in choreographic or dance information, that exist outside the process of live performance.
However the choreographers are committed to the vision that the future of dance requires such cultural objects to be created in order to further the understanding and evolution of dance as an art form. Emerging from this are a new set of claims for dance and dance making: that it is 'knowledge producing', and that knowledge has value to both other choreographers, and a wider field.

What has never been systematically explored are questions such as 'what is it that dancers 'know' and how might this knowledge be captured and made a resource for researchers in other fields, as well as for further dance making?' The emergence of this current conception of dance in relation to 'knowledge' also raises new questions -- what does being recognised as 'knowledge producing' do to dance making and what kinds of ancillary object might count as knowledge for other disciplines?

In the framework of Beyond Text, we will bring these four research projects together in the same investigative context in order to engage theories of knowledge production and knowledge transfer with a group of established social science researchers who specialise in how knowledge is acquired and transmitted as a social process, how knowledge comes to be embodied in transactable forms (objects), and how others make use of and translate that value for their own projects. This will be accomplished by a series of three workshops.

TIMETABLE:
First session Making and Design: The choreographers and/ or members of their research teams will present the 'choreographic objects' they are in the process of creating and outline what information (or knowledge) these objects make available. They will be investigated using contemporary theoretical approaches in the social sciences.
Second session Translation, Transmission and Exchange: The choreographers and/ or members of their research teams will present the dissemination pathways along which these objects are intended to travel including what audiences they are intended to reach and how access is facilitated.
Third session Additions and Future Research: We will review and summarize what reflections, innovations and modifications might increase the value and richness of the choreographic resources for the interdisciplinary audience/readership for which they are intended. A public seminar at Sadlers Wells Theatre will be held to make the research to accessible immediately.