Critical Study of Computing research involving dance

Literature review—ACM digital Library

This research project is a systematic mapping study (SMS) of computing research involving the dance field with a particular focus on research involving dancers. It utilizes the SMS procedure to provide an analysis of published computing research involving dance. The purpose of the study is to present the first comprehensive overview of computing research involving dancers in support of defining key gaps and trends within existing research. As such, the research serves to augment existing research engaging and studying dance activity within computing research by identifying possible areas for additional, targeted research and reporting recommendations for how that research may be conducted. The SMS publication corpus was extracted from the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library and includes 135 papers returned in a database query using the general keyword search term “dancer.” All papers were read and processed using a data extraction form created to analyze how dancers are involved in computing research. Corresponding corpus analysis provides an overview of emergent trends found within the data, and the paper’s discussion offers suggestions for continued research and more targeted study.

opening remarks @ SloMoCo 2021

Publications:

Jessica Rajko. “ACM DL Corpus Dataset: A Systematic Mapping Study on Computing Research Involving Dance” Harvard Dataverse, V1. 2021. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RPURHV

Jessica Rajko. “Techno-Neoliberalism’s Body: Dance(r) Labour in Computing Research and Race as Always Already Additive” Proceedings of the Politics of the Machine Berlin 2021 Rogue Research Conference in the Decolonizing the Machine Track. British Computer Society. 2022. (Forthcoming June 2022)

Jessica Rajko. “Geocultural Precarities in Canonizing Computing Research Involving Dance.” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Movement Computing. ACM Press. 2022. (Forthcoming June 2022)

Presentations:

2021. “(In)Visible Labor: Understanding Roles and Responsibilities in Dance and Computing.” Modes of Capture Symposium 2021 | Decolonising structures, thinking and embodiment, hosted by the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick, Liz Roche Company & Dublin Dance Festival

2021. “(In)Visible Labor: Understanding Roles and Responsibilities in Dance and Computing.” Opening remarks for SloMoCo, the International Conference on Movement and Computing’s extended 2021 conference

2021. “(In)Visible Labor: Understanding Roles and Responsibilities in Dance and Computing.” Invited speaker for the Arizona State University, School of Arts, Media, and Engineering’s Digital Culture Speaker Series; presentation

2019. “Knowledge (Mis)Interpretations: Dance in Computational Research,” Preformed Paper Panel, Dance Studies Association Conference, Evanston, IL

2018. “Haunted Databases: searching for dancers in the HCI archives,” Dance Studies Association Conference, Valetta, Malta

The Provocations Project

https://provocations.online/

The Provocations Project involves a series of open calls for provocations meant to spur dialogue regarding differences that have come to matter within and between cultures of research in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Once launched, these calls remain open indefinitely, inviting contributions on a rolling basis to iteratively (re)configure the contours of emergent discourse. All provocations are posted online, and everyone who submits a provocation is invited to join in conversation with other provocateurs through our online community, as well as curated video conversations and roundtable discussions.

Spanning its multiple iterations since 2018, the Provocations Project aims to hold space for generative exchange around novel and systemic conditions that affect cross-disciplinary and collaborative practices. The project is not specific to any one discipline, topic, or community, and yet each question posed as part of the project becomes situated through its resonance in a particular context.

presentations:

Co-Creator: “Provocations @ SloMoCo” SloMoCo—The International Conference on Movement and Computing’s durational conference, Online (2021)

Co-Creator and Panel Facilitator: “What Aspects of Your Practice/Research Are Invisible to Your Collaborators?” 6th International Conference on Movement and Computing, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (2019)

• Panel Review—https://www.bstjournal.com/article/id/6903/
  Kelly Rae Bowker. “6th International Conference on Motion and Computing." Body, Space & Technology 19.1, 2020.

Selected Panelist Participant: “What Escapes Computation in Interactive Performance?” 5th International Conference on Movement and Computing, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy (2018)

Dance and computing studies

https://www.dancecomputingstudies.org/

Dance Computing Studies (DCS) is an emerging field and international community of artists/scholars concerned with the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of movement analysis and representation across disciplines. DCS was founded by Jessica Rajko, Teoma Naccarato, and John MacCallum in 2020.

For more information about DCS and related projects: https://www.dancecomputingstudies.org/

Haptic aesthetics & ethics

Haptic aesthetics and ethics is an ongoing area of research and critical inquiry. I have been working in the area of haptic media design since 2014, beginning with tactile data representations and then more recently (2022) transitioning my inquiry to also include haptic media design for live performance.

haptic media design for live performance

I am currently exploring how haptic design offers a new relational connections between dance performers and audiences through shared, felt experiences of vibration. My designs use audio signals to drive vibrotactile interfaces that can vary in size and strength. For example, I used Buttkicker LFEs to vibrate 3 tons of soil in Devil’s Shoestring. I used small, quarter-sized Tectonic Audio Lab exciters to vibrate cardboard boxes and transform them into audio speakers for Momento Mori.

In each work, I collaborate with dance artists to explore haptic media’s potential to augment choreographic concepts, amplify kinesthetic sensation, and heighten relational empathy between dancers and audiences. Thus far, I’ve worked with BAIRA / MVMNT PHLSOPHY (Contemporary Dance Theatre), Brother(hood) Dance! (Afro-Contemporary Dance), and members of Dirty Glove Bvck (Krump) to explore haptics in relation to their prospective movement philosophies.

As I move deeper into this research, I’m beginning to explore multichannel setups where I can move audio across an array of tactile transducers, giving the sense of movement across space, bodies, and collectives of people.

related projects

• Devil’s Shoestring

• Momento Mori

Tactile Data

I am particularly interested in designing interactive tactile interfaces for touching numerical data about people. This work folds into my critical practice of caring for data about people as a means of caring for people themselves. You can find more here…

related Projects

• Vibrant Lives

• Me, My Quantified Self, and I

Publications

2020. Designing Palpable Data Representations. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Springer.

2019. ’Bodying’ Digital Humanities: Considering Our Bodies in Practice. In C. Crompton, R. Lane & R. Siemens (Ed.) Doing More Digital Humanities: Open Approaches to Creation, Growth, and Development. London: Routledge.

2017. with Hayes, L. (2017) Towards an Aesthetics of Touch. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Movement Computing. ACM Press.

2017. with Wernimont, J., & Rajko, S. (2017) The Living Net: A Haptic Experience of Personal Data. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press.

2016. with Krzyzaniak, M., Wernimont, J., Standley, E., & Rajko, S. (2016) Touching Data Through Personal Devices: Engaging Somatic Practice and Haptic Design in Felt Experiences of Personal Data. Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Movement and Computing. ACM Press.

Presentations

2021. Adventures in Haptic Design II (links to full panel recording) Uncommon Senses III, Montreal, Quebec; a 2-part panel curated by David Parisi, and including Lauren Hayes, Mark Paterson, Dave Birnbaum, and Kerstin Leder Mackley

2018. “Towards an Aesthetics of Touch,” International Sociological Association’s World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Ontario

2018. “Touching Data: Palpability, Ethics, and Embodied Agency in Consumer Wearables and Big Data Archives,” Invited lecture/demonstration at Harvard’s ArtTechPsych IV hosted by the Digital Futures Consortium, invited by Cole Crawford, Cambridge, MA

2018. “Catching Metadata in the Living Net: A Review of ‘Vibrant Lives,’” Invited guest lecture at University of Pennsylvania’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities, invited by Stewart Varner, Pennsylvania, PA

2018. “Touching Big Data,” Invited guest lecture and wearable tech workshop at Davidson College, invited by Alison Bory, Davidson, NC

2017. “Touching Data: What Does Big Data Feel Like?” Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry, UK

2017. “Toward an Aesthetics of Touch” with Lauren Hayes, 4th International Symposium on Movement & Computing, London, UK

2017. “Not My Data,” Invited guest lecture and wearable tech workshop at New Mexico University’s ART Lab, invited by Amanda Hamp (dance) and Lee Montgomery (visual art), Albuquerque, NM

palpable wearable computing

rapid prototyping Wearable Technology band

The Rapid Prototyping Wearable Technology Band is a handcrafted, custom band that works with several different sensors and feedback outputs for rapid wearable prototyping. The image above is of the most recent version. I use this in courses related to wearable technology design so that students 1. don't have to spend their own money purchasing several hardware electronic components, 2. can spend more time with movement-based, bodily exploration rather than technological design. I've used this band in two classes:

• Palpability and Wearable Computing, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC

• Palpability and Wearable Computing: AME 598 Special Topics course, Arizona State University

Step-by-step instructions for building the band can be found on my Instructables page. 

Chapter publication detailing the project and its curricular use:
Rajko, Jessica J. "Embodied Learning: Somatically Informed Instructional Design." Perspectives on Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL). Springer, Cham, 2019. 187-211.

 Reimagining Dance/Tech Education:

cultivating pedagogies toward interrogating Techno-Neoliberalism

Virtual Dance Collaboratory

The Virtual Dance Collaboratory (VDC) is a a student-lead collective launched in Fall 2020 to educate and train dancers in new media design skills in the wake of COVID-19. VDC was co-designed by myself and Alesyn McCall as a provocation toward ethical approaches to digital media training that prioritizes student well-being, student-led leadership, and collective learning. Throughout the 20/21 and 21/22 academic years, VDC became a home for students interested particularly in screendance and projected media for live performance. The philosophies and digital media elements developed over the course of VDC’s existence have since been integrated across the dance curriculum and live particularly in the legacy student-led company, Dance Workshop.

RELATED PUBLICATION

Rajko, J., McCall, A., Sigler, L., Williams, E. “Reimagining Dance/Technology Training in an Era of Techno-Neoliberalism: Collective Models for New Media Design Education in Dance.” Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training Journal: Special Issue on Performance Training and Well-Being. (2022)

VIRTUAL CONCERT ARCHIVES

• The Never Ending Narrative, Winter 2021: https://vimeo.com/showcase/never-ending-narrative

• Dynamic Perspectives, Fall 2020: https://vimeo.com/showcase/dynamicperspectives

FEMINIST UNBOXING

WHAT IS FEMINIST UNBOXING?

Feminist unboxing is a facilitatory structure for introducing a new technology into a creative process, research project, and/or collaborative working group. The purpose of this process is to slow down and take the time to document your personal experiences receiving, unboxing, setting up, and finally using a new tech device or software platform for the first time. This included looking at the product website before opening the item and reading the privacy statement before creating an account. These activities do a few things:

1. Unveils possible risks incurred when engaging with the technology so that we may build awareness and have a chance to voice objections to its use.

2. Cultivates a preliminary critical analysis of the item, its designers, and the communication strategies used to entice potential users.

3. Provides a method for introducing new technologies into a group setting and fosters dialogue about any issues and concerns.

4. Cultivates generative tension between artists and technology before and during the creative process.

5. Situates a technology within one’s own lived experience and amplifies the role of the technology and its designers in limiting the choices afforded by the software or hardware in question.

WHERE DOES FEMINIST UNBOXING COME FROM?

The idea of feminist unboxing was first introduced to me by my colleague and collaborator Jacque Wernimont, who currently sits as the Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College. Jacque and Liz Losh crafted feminist unboxing assignments for their collaborative teaching at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute with the history of unboxing in media in mind. I’ve expanded upon the process to consider creative and artistic research practices as well as somatically-informed practices, largely within research intersecting dance and computing.

WHERE HAS FEMINIST UNBOXING BEEN ENGAGED?

Since expanding upon the work, I have presented and facilitated Feminist Unboxing in the following contexts. If you use Feminist Unboxing, please let me know so I can track where it is being engaged!

2021. “Borders, Boundaries, and Surveillance,” online workshop, The Landingspace Project.

2019. “Palpability and Wearable Computing” course, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC.

2017. “Me, My Quantified Self, and I” creative research process.

2017. “Palpability and Wearable Computing” course, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC.

Palpability and Wearable Computing

Palpability and Wearable Computing is a cross-disciplinary curriculum that introduces people to biosensing and wearable technology concepts using somatically-informed movement practices, custom wearable technologies, and a suite of interactive software programs that render biosensors and related algorithmic principals visible and palpable. The details of this research project are available on the “Palpable Wearable Computing” page.

In 2016, I began working on curriculum titled Palpability and Wearable Computing, which includes the design and creation of custom wearable technology bands, Max/MSP software patches, Arduiono software files, and a flexible curriculum. I launched my pedagogical research at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI)—a week-long summer intensive for faculty and graduate students interested in taking digital humanities coursework. The workshop introduces students to wearable computing through small, sensory-focused, movement explorations inspired by my own work in somatic practices and dance improvisation. Building from these initial exercises, students explore their senses using non-digital technologies such as ear plugs and stethoscopes. We then transition to similar explorations with my wearable technology bands, which allow students to snap in and out various digital sensors. The entire curriculum takes a movement and body-first approach to critically unpacking: 1) how various sensors function and 2) how wearable technology researchers deploy methods for making sensor data usable and legible. Throughout the course, students tinker with popular consumer wearable technologies (e.g. FitBit), learn basic physical computing skills, and dream up new wearable designs.

RELATED PUBLICATION:
Rajko, Jessica J. "Embodied Learning: Somatically Informed Instructional Design." Perspectives on Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL). Springer, Cham, 2019. 187-211.

RELATED COURSES AND INTENSIVES

• Palpability and Wearable Computing, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC (2016, 2017, 2019)

• Palpability and Wearable Computing: AME 598 Special Topics course, Arizona State University

RELATED WORKSHOPS

• “Palpability and Wearable Computing,” Present/Breath Symposium, 22 North Gallery. Invitation from Petra Kuppers, Ypsilanti, MI, May 2022

• “Palpability and Wearable Computing.” 13th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. Tempe, AZ, March 2019.

• “Palpability and Wearable Computing.” Dance and Somatic Practices Conference. Coventry, UK, July 2017.

• “Not My Data,” ART Lab, University of New Mexico. Invitation from Amanda Hamp (dance) and Lee Montgomery (visual art), Albuquerque, NM, November 2017