Making an Interactive Dance Piece

TLDR

The study documents the creation of the choreographic piece SKIN, co‑created with a choreographer, dancers, a musician, and a developer, and outlines research questions explored through audience and team interviews. The piece employs interactive technology that maps dancers’ internal movement to stage sound and video, developed through iterative research‑through‑practice cycles of choreography and interaction design, and includes interviews to examine the lived experience and emergent dance‑media relationships. The authors argue that an anti‑solutionist stance, embracing the messiness of artistic practice, can foster greater openness in HCI and enable artists to contribute valuable knowledge.

Abstract

I describe the research and creation journey of a choreographic dance piece called SKIN that I made with another choreographer, 3 dancers, 1 musician and 1 developer. The performance integrates interactive technologies mapping inner movement to sound and video on stage. We followed a research though practice method that includes iterative cycles of choreographic practice and interaction design. This generated a set of research questions that I address through experience explicitation interviews of both audience and creative team members. The interviews allow me to investigate the lived experience of making and attending the performance and the emergent relationships between dance, media and interaction as well as the tensions and negotiations that emerged from integrating technology in art. I discuss my approach as anti-solutionist and argue for more openness in HCI to allow artists to contribute to knowledge by embracing the messiness of their practice.