[ISEA2018] Paper: Nancy Lee, Emmalena Fredriksson & Kiran Bhumber — 360° Dance Film: Reflections on the Making of Tidal Traces

Abstract

Keywords: 360 dance film, virtual reality, 360 cinema, contemporary dance, dance improvisation, spatial audio, practice-based research, interdisciplinary approach

Tidal Traces (2017) is a 360° dance film collaboration between filmmaker/media artist Nancy Lee and choreographer/dance artist Emmalena Fredriksson, with sound design/music composition by Kiran Bhumber. This paper accounts for the creative and technical differences of creating a dance film versus 360° dance film, and the conceptual, practical and ethical challenges the artists encountered throughout their interdisciplinary process where 360° video, film and dance intersect. 

  • Nancy Lee is an interdisciplinary media artist, filmmaker, and cultural producer based in Vancouver, Canada. The notion of staging is a constant in Nancy’s work and underpins her projects from a more traditional filmmaker into the realms of VR and new media performance and installation. Nancy has performed and presented her work in festivals and conferences around North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Last summer, Nancy co-produced CURRENT: Feminist Electronic Art Symposium, a multidisciplinary and intersectional music and electronic art symposium working with women and non-binary artists. She is a 2018 YWCA Women of Distinction Nominee for Art, Cultural & Design and is named one of BC’s Most Influential Women in STEM.
  • Emmalena Fredriksson is a dance artist based in Vancouver, Canada since 2013. Born in Sweden, she received her training at Balettakademien in Umeåand at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) in Austria. Emmalena holds an MFA degree from Simon Fraser University and has presented choreographic work, performed and taught internationally with Daghdha Dance Company (IE), Canaldanse (FR), Pact Zollverein (DE), and Falmouth University (UK) among others. Continuing her research into choreography as a relational practice in the expanded fields of dance, upcoming work includes collaborations with filmmaker Nancy Lee and lighting designer Kyla Gardiner.
  • Kiran Bhumber is a media artist, composer, musician and educator based in Vancouver, Canada. She constructs interactive installations and performance systems that allow performers and audiences to engage with themes relating to cultural memory,
    embodiment and nostalgia. She has performed and presented her works in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia including conferences and festivals. She is currently a Graduate Student Research Assistant at the University of Michigan’s Performing Arts Technology Department and a Graduate Fellow at the Centre for World Performance Studies. Kiran holds an MA in Media Arts and a Certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan, Bachelor of Music degree in Secondary Music Education from the University of British Columbia.

Full text p. 104-111