Our 2022 programme is an opportunity for 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 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. 

During the residency period, the selected teams are provided 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 are facilitating the development of collaborative, digital work on the creators’ own terms, using these tools.

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. 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 

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