April 22, 2008

Commissioning Dancers Through "Movement Score" Initiative

SUMMARY: In this post, I introduce the concept of a "Movement Score," which is similar to a music score but focuses instead on movement for dancers. You'll find three video examples of Movement Scores, each of which is followed by a video response in the form of dance, kinetic sculpture and graffiti art.

The end of the post is devoted to an exploration of a new Movement Score initiative through which companies in scientific, technological and other fields can commission choreographers and dancers to create dance works in response to their body-centric and movement-centric products, offerings and research.

In March, Matt Gough posted a video of an improvisational dance he did in response to an audio movement score shared by Nancy Garcia. I've been inspired by this online collaboration ever since.

One of the objectives of The Kinetic Interface blog is to foster interdisciplinary conversations that bring dancers together with people in many different fields. Movement scores, which are the dance equivalent of music scores, offer an excellent means of enabling people with expertise in different disciplines to quickly visualize shared interests and passions from different perspectives.

Movement Scores in Action

Here's an example: The video below from Front Design features an example of the rapid prototyping of furniture designs. The first section of the video shows designers drawing in a 3D space and the outlines of the shapes are captured by a motion capture system:

If the above video were a movement score, then the following video from graffiti artist DAIM could be considered a response. In the case of this video, an augmented reality system is used, but the approach to drawing in a 3D space is similar to the furniture design clip above:

Shape-Shifting Robots and Pilobolus

Here's another example of a movement score and a possible response:

The following video presents a prototype of miniature shape-shifting robots that can be converted instantly into any type of product:

The dance company Pilobolus provides the perfect response in their Life Shapes Hyundai commercial:

Robots and Kinetic Sculpture

And for a third and final example of Movement Scores in action, here's the Big Dog robot from Boston Dynamics:

And a possible imaginary response from kinetic sculpture Theo Jansen:

Movement Score Commissions and Competitions

As I start to reach out to people in many fields who are exploring body-centric and movement-centric research and product development (see my 16 video examples to learn more about the industries I'll be covering), I'll be encouraging interaction designers, technologies, scientists and others to support choreographers and dancers through commissioned and competition-based Movement Score programs.

In other words, I think that companies in many fields will benefit in a number of ways (see below) by supporting dancers in the creation of dance videos that respond to specific movement scores.

To offer a possible example: A company that is developing a movement or gesture-based computer interface could create a movement score in which they demonstrate their product and then ask dancers to develop a response that offers highly creative alternative movement vocabularies for controlling their interface. If the company were offering a commission-based program, I would work with them to identify and hire the agreed upon number of dancers (say anywhere from 3 to 10). And then the dancers would create their dance video responses by a specified date.

These movement score programs could be developed in many different ways. They could be based on commissioning work for dancers or they could follow a competition model that is currently popular on the Internet. They could be either more commercial or artistic in nature. And they could focus on one style of dance or they could incorporate many different genres. So the above illustration is just one path that might be taken.

Overall, I think companies that support this Movement Score initiative would benefit in important ways:

1) Dance on TV and the Internet is incredibly popular (see background page "The Popularity of Dance Continues to Grow at Rapid Pace"). So the Movement Score video responses from dancers would likely generate a large number of online viewers.

2) New developments, especially in the scientific and technological arena, are not always easy for people to grasp. Dance can help make new product introductions and related offerings easier to understand and appreciate.

3) Dancers are experts in the art of movement and can help companies and researchers better understand new and alternative ways that their products can be used. And,

4) Companies that participate in this Movement Score initiative are given an opportunity to support dance artists who are pursing their craft in an innovative way via the Internet.

To learn more about different approaches to Movement Scores, please email Doug Fox.

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