RNDR M3 4S (1) 0F UR AVATAR GRLS*
(2023)
author(s): AMUSED
published in: Research Catalogue
This thesis is aimed at investigating virtual embodiment and how it can affect a performer's experience of; and relationship to the physical body. With this auto ethnographic case study I hope to shed some light on the ways virtual reality technology enables critical experiences and what effects these experiences could have, through my own personal journey. The study was conducted in the setting of my home using a Pico 4 VR head mounted display and HTC vive full body tracking. The project used for the case study was an audiovisual pole dance performance that was performed on the platform Neos VR and streamed to Studio 44 in Stockholm. The research is rooted in the artistic field but draws knowledge from psychological and social research on VR as a cognitive and embodied technology. The research methods used to gather and analyse the research material were visual research, phenomenology and deep listening. The data collection consisted of visual and text based data. On the visual data I applied thematic analysis, coding and categorising of the text based data and analysing hyper reflections with a phenomenological approach. I found that the experience of virtual embodiment did change my relationship to my own body in a positive way by feeling more grounded and accepting. I was less anxious about performing and felt more confident in myself. Because of the entanglement of the study it was not possible to solely contribute the outcomes of the effect to virtual avatar embodiment in itself. It did however demonstrate how these VR technologies could be used to enable norm critical experiences by the use of norm critical design applied to avatars challenging beauty ideals and societal norms of performativity. My virtual embodiment and its effects on me can give a unique insight that would benefit developers and users active in these platforms as well as for personal introspection and self development. The study serves as a good base to build future research on and I intend to further elaborate on the extensive research data that was gathered.
Concepts of Embodiment in Interdisciplinary Work Within a Musical Context
(2019)
author(s): Sarah Albu
published in: KC Research Portal
Integrated musical experiences have long existed, previous to and outside of the traditional concert music setting. Interdisciplinary approaches to performance creation are becoming more accepted and more common in academic music contexts. This research asks the question "How does the concept of embodiment serve the creation of interdisciplinary work within a musical context?", examined through the lens of definitions of embodiment, spinning, technology, community, and inter/multidisciplinary vs. intermediality and expanded through case studies of two of the author's recent performance works.
Untitled: Women's Work
(2016)
author(s): Adesola Akinleye
published in: Research Catalogue
Untitled: Women’s Work is both scholarly art and artistic research using narrative inquiry, dance and film as research methods. The research looks at the embodied experience of a group of women in the work place. Methodology for this research was to use an embodied approach across the whole research process from dancing with participants as part of the date collection process, to using choreographic tasks to analyze the data and finally using dance and film to disseminate the ‘findings’.
The research looked at the lived experience of women living and working in the Flint and Detroit areas, USA. It is an attempt to take the body and bodily experiences ‘seriously’ when we research. The research took the position that embodiment is a methodology and method for understanding the narratives of the women’s work and what makes a ‘good’ job. I saw dance and visual images as a language for communication of the ideas the research uncovered.
Data collection asked women participants what they considered makes a good job along with collecting their memories of their own working experiences (this was done through dancing together and verbal interviews). Analysis drew out two themes: relationships (developed and negotiated in the situation of work and Self), and rhythms (of Self and work institution). Initial findings presented here suggest the continual establishment, disruption, negotiation and maintenance of rhythms and relationships in the work place has an impact on what makes a ‘good’ job.
The research is part of my on-going study of how an embodied approach to the lived experience (based of Pragmatist and Phenomenological principles that place bodily experience as central to meaning making) can be embedded into the whole research process. This challenges ‘traditional’ research methods, that it could be argued, place the body as an add-on to text-based theory even when the research subject it self is about people's experiences.
Territoriality and choreography in site-situated performance
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): K.G. Guttman
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The PhD project of K.G. Guttman 'Territoriality and Choreography in Site-Situated Performance' is conducted through artistic practice and theoretical inquiry. The project performatively activates a series of residential sites in Canada and the Netherlands. Site-situated performance refers to an artistic process that begins and ends on-site, working within the specific conditions of a location. The key terms territoriality and choreography here represent concepts and practices that express and navigate space-time(s). The project animates qualities of territoriality through a choreographed encounter between host-dancer, guest-audience and site-performance. Written and explored from the perspective of a Canadian settler scholar and artist, the project attunes to the material and discursive agency of the guest, host and site within colonial and settler colonial conditions. The project develops a critical and creative mode of engagement with the social, material and political characteristics of a site and with the world-building potential of performance.