Creative Dance & Technology Lab

Betty Zhang
Jul 23, 2017 · 8 min read
Photo from Arcade East & East London Dance in collaboration with UAL London College of Fashion

The Creative Lab is a week of experimentation within the fields of dance, fashion, and technology. You will participate in a series of workshops facilitated by highly-experienced tutors and practitioners who will introduce you to the different areas of practise, offering a balace between knowledge sharing and practical exploration.

Alright so we look really serious in this picture, but this was really when we started getting pretty serious about what we were doing on day 2. As part of my research for my thesis, I joined a 1 week workshop program called the Creative Dance & Technology Lab where 4 people from each of fashion/costume design, dance, and technology/media design are selected. These 3 disciplines are ones I personally am very interested in working with.

There are workshops in each discipline everyday including: movement, choreography, costume making, projection mapping, and physical computing. Then we are put into groups of 3 from each discipline to collaborate and make a short experimental project together.

Here’s my encounter of the workshop and what I learned from it. I joined from day 2 because I was unavailable to attend day 1.

Left: learning how to use the sewing machine, Middle: learning physical computing, Right: starting the day with movement exercises

Day 2

“Wearable Technology” -Mouhannad Al-Sayegh & Dimitrios Coumados

  • I found many sensors I could use to create wearables: flex sensor, conductive fabric, ribbon, string, accelerometer, stretch sensor, tilt sensor, pressure sensor etc.

“Costume as a trigger for intervention” -Agnes Treplin & Claire Christie

  • I learned various techniques and basics in sewing with an industrial sewing machine and this would come in handy when I am creating garments and wearables

Day 3

In the morning, Hana and I worked on the garment we started yesterday by first making a mock-up on a mannequin. I learned how to prototype a garment by pinning strips of pattern sheets and then how a garment needs to be put together by putting together a skeleton that the fabric would be sewn onto. I also practiced my sewing skills but mainly Hana sewed together the skeleton and we managed to use a thick rubber band material mixed with nylon in order to create the textures we wanted to get on the garment. We imagine that these rubber parts would be pulled and released to change the shape of the garment. Although we had a nice form in mind, it was hard to recreate with the technical limitations. The garment had to be made in a certain way to be property worn and the technology to move the rubber bands would be motors which could be difficult to work with.

Prototyping a garment and detail of the construction of a stretchy part of the garment to be controlled by motors
Isadora visual programming for interactive performance

“Projection mapping & Tracking” -Mouhannad Al-Sayegh & Dimitrios Coumados

  • Isadora was developed by a choreographer and it is intended for making interactive projection mapping projects with movement and dance.

Much like MAX/MSP it is a visual coding software which is quite easy to manage. I could essentially control for example, a screen of dots reacting to movement or the dots can be translated into physical objects. OR I could also project onto a moving dancer who’s movements are tracked by a Kinect.

Using Kinect to track motion of the body

Key takeaway: I learned other challenges that I may not have thought about when working with a wearable by working with a costume designer. I can see how she thinks from her perspective and how that will be applied to when I design my own wearable.

We both have similar interest in continuing this project into our own thesis studies and working together.

Day 4

“Playing with Parameters” — Eleesha Drennan

  • working on collaboration skills and setting a goal and rules in doing projects

In the afternoon, we worked in the small groups to experiment with all that we’ve learned during the week. So we decided to attach a accelerometer to the dancer, made into a shoe wearable and programmed through Arduino and Isadora so that the dancer’s foot movement would draw on a projected screen. We will continue making this tomorrow as an exploration into how body movement could make visuals and I can use this to extend into future projects to do with body movement.

Left: Stitching Adafruit Flora and accelerometer onto fabric to be attached to a wearable band, Right: Sensors attached to Emma’s foot

Day 5

This is the last day of the program, in the morning, we did a quick warm up then went straight working in our groups again to experiment with drawing with movement. The concept of our project came from a chat about how hip-hop culture relates with sneakers and how dancers could identify each other from signature sneakers and footwear. So we wanted to take this idea of the dancer’s identity and belonging to a tribe and translate it using visuals.

Left: Kristine sewing together the wearable strap, Middle: wearable strap and sensor components, Right: Emma demonstrating the final prototype

Wearable components

In the 5 hours that we had working together, not only did I learn much about the dance and fashion disciplines and how to collaborate, I also expanded my personal technological development by prototyping this wearable made with an Adafruit Flora, an accelerometer, and Isadora. This is one of the ways that I will consider working in for my FMP.

I found difficulty in tracking movement and mapping the data into smoother, more reactive outputs. Also, the next step would be to make the wearable wireless so the dancer can dance freely. Some interesting ideas for the next step:

  • projection on a building

This workshop was very helpful in contributing to my personal practice as well as FMP research. I could not find people who can give expertise in different disciplines to help in future projects, which I want to continue involving fashion and dance.

Watch the demonstration:

Currently, I am working with Hana continuing the ideas we had during the CDTL and using this for both your thesis projects. We will be creating a costume that will shift and move based on gestures expressing emotions of love and attraction, telling the tensions felt during this initial contact.

Betty Zhang

Written by

Interaction designer and interdisciplinary artist working in wearable technology, sound installation, performance, experience design and many other obsessions.

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