The Motion Capture Imaginary: Digital Renderings of Dance Knowledge

Motion capture-based renderings of dance performance constitute a complex, but highly interesting cultural phenomenon at a time when motion recognition and haptic technology increasingly affect society at large. Applications of digital motion capture technologies that aim to support the analysis and transmission of dance performance can be understood as an alternative way of bringing dance into the ‘orbit of writing’ (Rotman 2008). Despite the growth of these practices and their significance for the contemporary discourse on the transmission of dance knowledge, this phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly investigated from the perspective of dance research and practice. This thesis evaluates implications of contemporary practices of digital dance capture. How is dance conceived of as a type of knowledge that can be transmitted in these practices? How does motion capture invite us to know dance differently? This thesis examines different modes of ‘corporeal computation’ of dance by analyzing different ways of making motion data speak. The notion of ‘the motion capture imaginary’ is introduced as a conceptual framework that interconnects various characteristics associated with ways of seeing and knowing dance in the motion capture setting. Foregrounding the value of dancers’ embodied experiences, the thesis suggests that the pursuit to render motion data into accessible feedback calls for further investigation of topics that are typically part of the tacit knowledge of the dancer, such as the central importance of the breath. The process of making sense of motion data streams thus encourages new investigations of technique and knowledge transmission in performance and presents opportunities to articulate the corporeality of dancers in different ways.