What does it mean artistically and politically for dance to take advantage of the boundary between physical and digital space?

In the MIT.nano Immersion Lab, Dr. Akinleye has been tracking movement in space without capturing the dancer's body shape. This creates an artwork of ‘pure movement’ without many of the social and political constructs that seeing the body that is producing the movement would impose on the meaning of the movement.

This work also allows the AR audience member to step into the movement, be present in and contribute to the choreography. Her research explores collaborative place-making and new ways of artistic and political togetherness through the digital and the dance space.

ABOUT DR. ADESOLA AKINLEYE
Dr. Adesola Akinleye is a choreographer and artist-scholar. She is an assistant professor in the dance division at Texas Woman’s University and co-directs the DancingStrong Movement Lab. She has been an affiliate researcher and visiting artist in the MIT Arts Culture and Technology (ACT) Program, and a Theatrum Mundi Fellow. She began her career as a dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (USA) later working in U.K. companies such as Green Candle and Carol Straker Dance Company.

She has created works ranging from live performance that is often site-specific and involves a cross-section of the community to dance films, installations, and texts. Her practice is characterized by an interest in voicing people’s lived experiences in places through creative moving portraiture. Her most recent monograph, Dance, Architecture and Engineering: Dance in Dialogue, is part of the Society for Dance Research In Conversation series.

ABOUT IMMERSED
IMMERSED is a monthly seminar in which we explore the possibilities enabled by immersive technology and interactive experiences. Technologies such as motion capture, virtual and augmented reality, photogrammetry, and related computational advances bestow the power to gather, process, and interact with data from multiple modalities, providing unique insights and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations.

IMMERSED examines how immersive technology is shaping innovations across the sciences and the arts through a mix of lectures, demonstrations, and tutorials. IMMERSED is sponsored by the MIT.nano Immersion Lab, which provides space, tools, and a platform to connect scientists, engineers, artists, performers, and others through creative projects that bridge multiple disciplines.