HABITUS
A sneak peet at Habitus dance performance during BA Design Degree Show MOD
#Habitus is a performative dance installation linked to social media, how it is increasingly occupying our daily lives and subconsciously affecting our mood and behaviours. With regular scrolls, clicks, messages and posts becoming routine too, it gives social media a lot more power to dictate how we feel, that before social media, weren’t affected by devices that occupy our pockets and homes.
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#By creating performance, and combining dance and design, I want to transfer something digital and two dimensional into a physical manifestation that represented our social media lives. I did this by exaggerating the physical effects and emotional side of social media through dance and used the set design as a solid yet dynamic representation for social media.
#The driving force of this project was the stubborn eager- ness to create a dance installation based, which was impacted by obsession to squares.
#Dance itself might be seen more as a form of art, however with my set design and concept at the centre of the project it becomes something else entirely. The dance becomes a design because it’s the only fluid thing that has to adapt and be constructed to fit the other variables in this project.
#Creating a dance performance based on social media made me to divide my design process into two aspects; working on choreography and evolving set design. Both the choreography and the set design had to feed each other and fluidly communicate the same topic.
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#In order to fully create the choreography I had to design a method to explore the dancer’s ability to interpret the concept I had created, just to make sure that we’re on the same path when it comes to the execution of my vision.
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To do this I used cards with words divided into three categories: Body parts, Social media actions, and Character. The dancer had to pick a card from each of the categories and interpret them in accordance with the concept of social media. So for example, if the dancer picked a body part card with “Right Arm” on it, and a social media action card saying “Following”, with the Character card titled “Icon”, they would have to improvise a dance/movement that starts from the right arm, reflects the social media action of following, and is done in the character of an icon. This expanded the dancer’s movement vocabulary as well as creating a way of communicating with each other.
#Later on the platform was introduced, so the dancer was challenged again to reflect and interpret the cards but this time, on the platform itself. The most important feature of the platform is the centre of it, which has a glass window which covers a camera underneath. The glass window is a representation of the digital screens we see every day. The positioning of the camera beneath the glass and that it only sees a limited view of what the dancer is doing represents how social media only gives us a limited and controlled view into people’s lives but doesn’t reflect the whole story. The screen acts as a filter, hiding the imperfections of our daily lives. The central position of the screen also shows the importance of social media in our lives, but can also be interpreted as a portal to a different world. The way the dancer moves away and is drawn towards the centre proves that it’s very powerful and there is a wonder shrouded around it.
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Staying on the outside of the platform is representative of being off of social media, whilst being on the platform rep- resents the active use of it and its influence. The projection shows the limited and curated representation of your digital self that you project onto social media.
#By creating this performance, combining dance and design, I wanted to transfer something digital and two dimensional into a physical manifestation that represented my concept well. I did this by exaggerating the physical effects and emotional side of social media through dance, and used the set design as a solid yet dynamic representation for social media. Hopefully it helps to open up a bigger discussion and thought about our own digital habits and the impact that it has on us. The focus audience for this would be art consumers.
CAPTURING DANCE PERFORMANCE