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Show COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS NDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS GLYPH: EMBODYING TIME THROUGH MULTI-MEDIA, SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE Amanda Newman (Ellen Bromberg, Jim Agutter) Department of Modern Dance University of Utah The field of site-specific performance stems from the desire to understand humanity in the context of its spatial and temporal environment. As w e n o w journey through the digital age, this human environment is becoming increasingly digitized. It follows, then, that performance artists have become interested in the interaction of the human body and digital technology in the context of time and space. To this end, a creative team spanning the Department of Modern Dance and the College of Architecture + Planning collaborated on the design and realization of GLYPH, a multi-media, site-specific performance created specifically for the layered space and sweeping vistas of the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU). GLYPH provided the public an opportunity to interact with traces of Utah's past, left behind both intentionally and accidentally.The performance was designed to explore three questions: 1) H o w can the living body be brought back into the realm of fossil, bone, and artifact? 2) Conversely, how can the space and histories of the museum and its patrons be more fully embodied and experienced? 3) H o w can the embodiment and recording of time, both past and future, be engaged in the present moment through the integration of the human form and interactive media technologies? GLYPH's exploration of these questions involved fourteen dancers from the Department of Modern Dance. Solo and group improvisational choreographies developed during an extended rehearsal process were then "installed" throughout the museum during two evening performances in February 2013. Amid these dance installations, interactive technologies allowed audience members to participate actively in the performance as their movement through the space affected projected text from obituaries of loved ones lost by the collaborators, dancers, and the public. This integration of live dance performance, projection elements, and a multi-dimensional, original sound score allowed performers and audience members to explore the human drive to experience the vastness of time and to mark existence within that expanse. Amanda Newman Ellen Bromberg Jim Agutter 29 |