Mobilities in Digital Performance Conference

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF DIGITAL DANCE PERFORMANCE,

25-27 APRIL 2014 at the University of Bedfordshire

OPEN CALL FOR PAPERS, PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS:

Join dancedigital fellows, associate artists and catalyst artists in an exciting weekend of performances, debate, discussion, papers, installation, and dialogue.

In partnership with the University of Bedfordshire, dancedigital is presenting a festival of digital dance performance that will showcase works created by dancedigital catalyst and associate artists. Artists presenting work include Luke Pell and Jo Verrent, Rachel Davies, Marguerite Caruana Galizia, Annie Lok, Tim Casson and Tom Butterworth, Rachel Cherry, and Helen Williams and Stacey Weeks.

The current dancedigital theme, Mobilities, offers opportunity to consider how digital technologies transform experiences of the mobile in new choreographies that may be located on stage, online or on the ground. We are interested in the distinct performance vocabularies and innovative modes of embodiment that are enabled by digitally embedded choreographic processes. We are also interested in the mobility of collaborations across disciplines that bring together the expertise, vision and innovation of artists, technologists, scientists and users in the creation of new art works.

dancedigital is working with the University of Bedfordshire to host a conference within the festival, which gives opportunity for the sharing of current scholarship, performance research and debate. Confirmed speakers include Marlon Barrios Solano, Alex Rueben, and Anthony Lilley.

Within this over-arching theme of Mobilities, we invite proposals that respond to or extend some of the following sub-themes and areas of investigation:

- Touch and Light – interactive stages create design systems that choreograph bodies, light and sound. How do these configure the embodied experiences of the dancer and the choices of the choreographer?

- Playing the City – sensory technologies have the potential to re-organise and re-invent our experiences of the public space. The city can be re-configured as a play space of multiple reactive surfaces, textures and sounds that transform experiences of mobility and ambulation in time, space and body.

- Interventions and Invitations – interactive designs have the potential to engage audiences in new ways, sometimes incidentally, sometimes by invitation and sometimes by intervention.

- Changing Mobilities – how are new movement spaces of access and participation opened by the harnessing of digital technologies? How does the social create access to movement and participation in digital practices? What modes of embodiment are articulated in digital performance and how do they change perceptions of mobility?

- Digital Futures – how will future generations create and participate in artwork? We are interested in works made for and with young people, and work that addresses the engagement of future audiences and artists.

- Archiving and Access – how do digital archives affect audience experiences of dance? How are embodied knowledges communicated and transformed in the digital archiving process? What creative strategies can be used to facilitate meaningful audience engagements with archives and online performances?

We welcome work that investigates the crossover between discipline boundaries to create adaptive, self-governing, evolving domains for the public to engage with culture, choreography and performance.

-Paper presentations are limited to 20 minutes.
-Panel presentations can be proposed, in which case, the panel session will be limited to 90 minutes. Please list the names of all presenters in your proposal.
-Performances, installations, videos and other formats will be negotiated on an individual basis – please describe your set up and durational requirements in the proposal. Please list names of performers, technicians and other collaborators in -your proposal.
-Workshops are limited to 120 minutes in duration.
-Posters. We welcome poster submissions from artists, academics and students.

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES:

All proposals should be in the following format:

1. Names of presenters/performers, address and organizational/institutional affiliation(s)
2. AV requirements

ON A SEPARATE PAGE WITH NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION:
3. Title of performance, presentation, paper, workshop
4. Length of performance, presentation, paper, workshop
5. 500-750 word abstract/description
6. Bibliography (optional)

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS IS THURSDAY 12 DECEMBER, 2013. PROPOSERS WILL BE NOTIFIED OF ACCEPTANCE BY FRIDAY 31 JANUARY, 2014.

Proposals will be selected through a blind peer review process.

Proposals should be emailed to [email protected]

Questions about conference proposals can be emailed to: [email protected]

Contributors will have the opportunity to submit academic papers and other textual contributions for consideration for a special issue of the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices.