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
