ODI Fridays: Dance datafication – gains and losses

The idea that human perceptual systems, bodily and social knowledge can be explicated and used in interface design processes, training datasets and enhancing the experience of ‘end users’ runs across many areas including robotics, AI, surveillance and immersive VR. Artists, scientists and industrialists are all busy responding to the latest technology advances. The field of contemporary dance can be drawn into this discussion, particularly through a number of seminal projects initiated by leading choreographers, including Motion Bank. Based in Mainz, Germany, Motion Bank has worked with several dance artists, such as William Forsythe, to document, digitise and openly share ‘dance knowledge’. In this talk, examples from these projects will be shown to stimulate questions related to the ownership of such knowledge, humanising technology, safeguarding intangible heritage and a reflection on the potential loss of certain practices. About the speaker Scott deLahunta has worked on a range of projects bringing performing arts with a focus on choreography into conjunction with other disciplines and practices. He is Professor of Dance at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University and co-director Motion Bank, Mainz University of Applied Sciences.