A conversastion to be had: is it the medium or the message?

As an artist using technology in my choreographic practice, I am curious about the puzzled duality present in the Sunday Nov 6th posting of Arts East.

In my years of collaborating with multi-media artists, I am often faced with the same curiosity and skepticism found in this blog posting, a reaction that is quite synonymous with the phrase “dance and technology.”

The dichotomy is of interest to me, especially when the skepticism is coming from the public, who themselves don’t even acknowledge their own level of dependency and possible addiction to technology that exists in their own lives. Whereas the curiosity may emerge from a deeper level, that subconscious guilt knowing that we are all users which gives the public permission to carry the “ok… well show me what you got” attitude.

As an artist, I don’t feel limited at all by my use of technology or feel that I have to sacrifice my vision, otherwise why would I use it? An arabesque found in the ballet vocabulary doesn’t serve my message, so I choose not to dedicate my time to this particular use of form. The body can only do so much, just as a painter only has so many colours.



I am not dependent on a computer programmer, I collaborate with multi-media artist, electronic-acoustic composers, and with sculpture and installation artists because I don’t expect to be an expert of it all. And in fact it is the true essences of collaboration that leads my art practice to be rich and full of possibility. I choose to dialogue, exchange vocabulary and question the task at hand. This exchange of intellectual thought and human-to-human contact is where the richness of my work is developed. Especially when apposed to the alternative -being in the dance studio alone creating some moves to do.

In a have-based society the medium can easily become the message, and in fact is often the case in our daily life. We post, we update, we email, we share links, the list is endless but what are we really saying?

It is true and undeniable that technology is the way of the world right now. Data bytes of the information age, is the new industrial steam.

So isn’t my job as an artist to ensure that the medium is serving the message? and isn’t this what you the audience should be asking as well?


Photo Credit: Chris Randle, Taking your Experience for Mine by Sara Coffin

your experience is now mine and my experience is yours to ponder

The international dance day message by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is quite relevant to the questions I have been researching:

"People have always danced to celebrate the crucial moments of life and our bodies carry the memory of all the possible human experiences.

We carry the world in our bodies"



I fully believe, live and understand this statement. I fear the shift in living further and further away from our body will have greater impact than we can ever actually measure. It is this measure we should not look for, but instead fight to stay in the lived and shared experience.

Happy International Dance Day, make sure you skip, jump and leap tomorrow... I know I will be.


taking your experience for mine,
opens Friday April 29th, International Dance Day
at the Scotiabank Dance Centre at 8pm. Tickets available on Ticketstonight.ca
Join Me!




Photos top to bottom by Chris Randle, Chris Randle, Andrew Hawryshkewich, Andrew Hawryshkewich

Lights Camera Action

Finding Balance

If you push something far enough, something will have to give.

Here was our day in the theatre today:

Meghan and Jacinte got their tongues tied for the beginning and their eyes crossed trying to figure out their spacing for the ending.

Sock Talk on Friday will have a punctuation.

Jacinte and I wished we had a make-up app for our impromptu squeezed in interview with Radio CBC.

Andrew ran across town with a projector on his back, trying to find the right cord.

In lieu of throwing a projector out the window, I threw myself around the studio.

When I left the theatre today, nature pulled me out of my narrow focus with a double rainbow. Thank-you Nature.

Check, Check, Check - can you get through your list?

This is the 1 week count down!! Yikes and Yahoo!!

Much like life we are sorting it all out and ready to move into the big black server box.

In this process I have been experimenting with task-base choreography, structures and scores. Pictured above are Jacinte Armstrong, Julia Carr and Meghan Goodman busy sorting out their score (Amanda Sheather is rocking it along side, just outside the frame). Each of the dancers have created a specific list of actions to get through and worlds to express them in. It is a trip to watch their minds and movements sync. The mind-body connection is the greatest machine to celebrate!

Thanks to my multimedia designer Andrew Hawryshkewich, who can run 3 laptops, 3 projectors, and a shit load of cables and find the time to take pictures to capture it all! Designer extraordinaire has invented is own choreography!

Dirty Data

"...If the Internet was a country, it would rank fifth in the amount of energy consumed, just behind Japan and Russia, according to the report...."

The longer I avert my eyes from the keys, the deeper the truth on consequence is revealed. Not only does digital over-use have social impact, that in my opinion is silently alerting our behavior and ability to connect. The opposite of the products main selling feature, but our digital debris has environmental ramifications as well.

An activity that is considered fun and games or attempts to make our lives easier is more complicated than we think.


Read the full article from CNN Tech here

Adding more data files to the pot!

I love my job and the funny little details that creep up! Even within the pressure of getting the show ready for production week I learned a new word.... well 3 actually, including the series of ramifications that go with them. Never a dull moment.

Unfortunately I can't share my new little jewel of knowledge with you, its a secret. However, you will defiantly see it in the piece, it has found its way in. Really the little data set was already built into the structure but today it surfaced to my attention!

Let's just hope it doesn't become a virus and turn into a whole other organism....

Give me your minute by minute....for a lifetime.

Obituaries are a thing of the past. Now, when we leave this earth the 50 words in the local paper seems insignificant. Strangely, our impact is now measured in the number of Google hits and digital traces we leave behind.

We all know the real reason facebook exists is that it fulfills our desire to snoop and attach meaning. How many times did you face-creep a photo album and attach your own narrative to your "friend's" life?

The first date is usually preceded by the google snoop, just to find out a bit more before going face to face.

Is our reassurance for existence shifting from accumulation of experience and memory into the number digital artifacts we can attach to our name.

me in numbers: 2,010,000 search results, 165,000 images, 103 videos and 168 tagged face book photos.



Photos here: Julia Carr and Amanda Sheather (primary focus) at 7mins in with Jacinte Armstrong in-crouching at 11mins.

Technology Melt Down

I am curious about our technology dependencies and I'll admit I have the addiction just like everyone else. I couldn't imagine operating without my blackberry and not having a procrastinating tool such as facebook. However, my addiction is also partnered with a consciousness. Where every so often I can pull myself away and start to notice the number of growing social habits that we have acquired: The good, the bad and the ugly.

My using habits, addiction level and curiosity has lead me to create: "taking your experience for mine." Now, I am not sure if this should be a celebration of the time we live in or a sign for me to pack it in and move to a farm in the country, far from a wireless signal. But after today in the studio, I am waving a white towel and it is not for the Canucks.

My dependency lead to my defeat. No signal, no wires, no image.... no piece.

Screen vs Flesh

When is the last time you really looked someone in the eye?




Now a days the predominant form of communication and inter-relating is not eye to eye but through a distal mode of operation: a shared link, a small device, through a lens, etc.

In fact being close or flesh to flesh is now bottom of the list. Why is it that interaction through another medium is the desired choice? Are you less vulnerable, a connection is easily made through this common exchange but if it fails, you can quickly swipe to something new. Impressions are kept high with instant gratification, and the shared experience. Why take the time to build a true meaningful and deep understanding with your communication partner, when you can guarantee the outcome in a second!

With all this 2-dimensional face time will we loose the ability to read the deeper signs? The norm for communication now is the big smile and jazz hands video editing, while permission or a request for emotional connection is indicated through the overlay of the "dramatic sound". There isn't much room for your own interpretation, it's already prescribed how one should react, feel, be.... and become.

Throughout your day notice how many times you look someone in the eye or feel someone's breath? Are you interacting face to face or via screen? How many times in one day do you catch yourself doing multiple modes of communication at the same time? Is your topic of shared experience real or virtual?

Photo: Chris Randle

This is how we work..

Patience is the key....
The floor is our friend....
If you wait it will speak.

photos by Yvonne Chew

Getting into the work

I am beginning again, it feels like I keep re-starting, I re-enter the studio with the same questions, create new questions and come up with old answers.... but there is something there. If only I could see it. !!??**##??!

I started this process, well in 2008. The seed was set.
I first begin to cultivate my questions when working with Project CPR, an initiative by Clare French. That was the initial seed, I carried the seedling germinating into a sprout to a choreographic mentorship with Paul Andre Fortier in the summer of 2009.

He said "I see your questions but not the answer"

I later re-asked the same set of questions in November 2010 with Julia Carr and Amanda Sheather.... now here I am again.... re-starting and re-entering. Feb 2011 with 3 months to go.


Experience?? Capture?? Attunement?? where do they all fit in the digital age?

Taking Your Experience for Mine

A new work by Sara Coffin... set to premiere April 29-30th, 2011
The Dance Centre, International Dance Day Celebrations.

Made possible through: The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award, The Dance Centre, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, The Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council.

......some thoughts for you, well really for me (I exist if I publish), and for you to enjoy.