Dancing with Robots: Responsive systems, feedback loops and choreographic experimentation in the digital age

In this lecture demonstration, dance and digital media artist Scotty Hardwig will share the theory and methods behind his work with digital dance-making practices. This lecture will be centered around three of the fundamental processes he works with artistically: screendance (dance-for-camera), motion capture for live performance, and responsive performance systems (robotics). Hardwig will share excerpts of recent works and discuss the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of his work in the context of writings by digital dance scholars like Rachel Fensham, Johannes Birringer, and Douglas Rosenberg. What does it mean to perform a digitally hybridized body that blurs the line between avatareal and physical, and what are its ethical and aesthetic implications for the dance field? What does the future of dance and the body look like in the intertwined digitality of post-modernity? This lecture is open to all, followed by a question and answer session.

Scotty Hardwig is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and digital media artist originally from the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia. His work combines an anatomically articulate and athletic movement vocabulary with his specialization in performance improvisation and dance technology. Using digital techniques of dance videography/photography, projection design in Isadora, sound design in Ableton Live, motion capture, and computer programming with Processing, he works to create rich environments of visuals and sound influenced by the movements of the performing body, and his live and digital performance works have toured nationally and internationally in the Americas and Europe. He received his MFA in Dance from the University of Utah, and was most recently an Artist-in-Residence at Middlebury College, a resident artist at Bates Dance Festival, and the artistic director of the Dance Company of Middlebury. He is also a teacher of the Gyrotonic© Method, the director of the Midd MoCap Lab for digital choreography and motion capture, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Middlebury College.
www.hardwigDance.com