Abstract (Long paper)

Keywords: Dance, External Frameworks, Ex-quiry, Artificial Intelligence, Performance Agents.

The collaborative process is central to dance practice, as is the desire to engage both somatically and conceptually with frameworks beyond the body/self. This paper proposes a framework of ‘ex-quiry’ to describe this process in contemporary dance practice. We draw both on the long history of external frameworks in dance practice, and upon new experimental opportunities for ‘ex-quiry’ provided by digital technologies such as an artificially intelligent performance agent. The concept ‘ex-quiry’, has been articulated within a series of solo practices by Australian dance artist, Steph Hutchison.

• Steph Hutchison is a choreographer, performer, and artist-researcher. She is an experienced and sought after artist with background in contemporary dance, improvisation, circus arts, physical theatre, dance video and dance technology. Steph is completing her PhD at Deakin University’s Motion.Lab (Melbourne, Australia). meta: discourses from dancers inside action machines.
• Professor Kim Vincs, director Motion.lab, Deakin University, Burwood, Vic, Australia.  Motion.Lab is a movement, art and technology research centre working across the intersections between movement practice and technologies such as motion capture, AR, VR, haptics and robotics. I am a choreographer and interactive artist.
• Dr. John McCormick is one of the pioneers of new media dance, motion capture and telematics performance. John has worked with Motion.Lab (Deakin University, Burwood, Vic, Australia) for the last five years, researching movement visualisation and analysis, and with the Centre for Intelligent Systems Research for the past three years investigating machine learning of  movement and its application in the performing arts.

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