Deadline – 18th February 2022
Submission via online form

This is an international open call to dancers, dance companies, and creative technologists to remotely take part in a six-month creative ‘virtual’ residency programme in 2022 - based at Goldsmiths, University of London. We will offer a connector programme using a modest bursary structure, to bring together dance groups and digital creatives from diverse international backgrounds for a prolonged period of remote collaborative digital dance work. 

We will provide residency projects with a motion capture system (2 x Perception Neuron v3 suits worth $5000- that they can keep), creative asset starter toolkits ( for Unity and Unreal), and a creation/development budget of £4500 (£750 per month, or around $6000). Through workshops, training and mentorship, we will facilitate the development of collaborative, digital work on the creators’ own terms, using these tools.

‘Goldsmiths Mocap Streamer' is a software tool that was developed with AHRC funding to address the issues surrounding the isolation and physical distancing of the Covid19 restrictions, by first connecting dancers remotely through a framework for motion-capture data streaming, and then seeing what kinds of emotional, aesthetic, and affective connections could be made within virtual spaces. However, we knew that beyond the immediate concerns of the pandemic, this tool had much broader applicability, possibly offering itself as a critical turning point in a 50-year history of the aesthetic and technological evolution of ‘telematic’ performance practice, and also opening the field of international collaboration in terms of accessibility and affordability. 

Having evidenced the functionality of our Mocap Streamer framework in both technical and aesthetic terms, we now wish to roll it out to a truly international and diverse network of dance companies and creative technologists as a next logical step in our research process. 

We aim to open doors for a wide-range of dance groups who may not have extensively engaged with motion capture or digital dance previously to freely experiment in the forms of aesthetic expression and meaningful communication that we have shown are possible. By matchmaking dancers with digital creatives we will facilitate them to generate new aesthetic approaches to dance work, so that they can develop new audiences and new revenue streams. At the same time we will offer a credible and exciting use-case for international mocap streaming-based collaboration. 

This project is funded through the AHRC highlight fund responding to the ‘UN International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development 2021’ and as such aims to build a network of diverse international dance companies who might not normally have access or capability to develop and share digital work; ideally incorporating young, disabled, queer, and/or indigenous dance groups. The broader goal is to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, foster innovation,  provide opportunities, benefits and empowerment for all, and respect for all human rights. 

We will pursue a practice-led research methodology through a programme of training, mentoring, and support. We pursue a deeper understanding of the kinds of dance work that can be productively and economically achieved within an international network. 

Research objectives

1. Can we create an international network of dance groups who are able to collaborate remotely towards shared choreographic practice in virtual spaces? 

2. Can remotely connected creative work practices facilitate a form of meaningful and poetic dance communication across geographical, cultural, generational, and economic boundaries? 

3. Can digital collaborative networks permit meaningful knowledge and cultural exchange without direct physical co-presence, and what are the limitations of this? 

4. Is there a sustainable green economic model for international collaborative dance practice in virtual spaces - without flying whole companies across the world? 

5. Can motion captured dance have greater historical or educational value for cross-cultural knowledge-sharing than the existing forms of video-recording?

6. Can our motion capture streaming framework, in combination with new machine learning processes, make collaborations more affordable, accessible, and inclusive of those normally ‘left behind'’ in digital performance practice? 

Timeline 

Application clinics: 31st January 9pm & 1st February 10am 2022 (GMT)

Deadline for applications: 18th February 2022, 11.59 pm GMT

Selection notification: 4th March 2022

Residency period:  April 2022 to end September 2022

April 2022

• matchmaking event to connect dance companies with digital artists and creative technologists

• 04/04 to 08/04 (online) - five-day training type event in use of mocap suits, and of starter kit of digital avatar assets and virtual scenes (to be used in games engines Unreal and Unity)

• For the following 11 weeks project teams will work on their own schedule to produce work independently (with technical and creative support and mentorship throughout).

July 2022

• a knowledge-sharing, peer review, and matchmaking event

• residency projects will present their independent work

• enter into collaborative relationships other projects, to produce shared work

• For the following 11 weeks project teams will work collaboratively toward a short performance (with technical and creative support and mentorship throughout).

October 2022

• A hybrid in-person and online international showcase performance and symposium event hosted by Goldsmiths

• residency teams will share work in immersive, AR or VR formats, and discuss their creative process

Terms & Conditions 

1. The IP of all work created will remain the property of the creators, though permission must be given for the sharing and exhibition of any work created while we also reserve the right to use agreed images and video in publications/publicity. 

2. Funds must be used for the payment of digital creatives and dance practitioners engaging in project work, or for other direct project-associated costs – they cannot be used for company expenses or director salaries. Invoices must be provided for all incurred costs.

3. Attendance at training events, workshops and public-facing events is mandatory. Participants must be willing to present their own work and engage in discussion about it, or must nominate someone suitable to do this for them.