Black on Earth
Black on Earth
is an innovative and thought-provoking interdisciplinary project by Brother(Hood) Dance! that seamlessly integrates Dance, Agriculture, and Technology (D.A.T.) to explore the stories and experiences of Black farmers. It is a powerful artistic endeavor that illuminates Black farmers' resilience, wisdom, and cultural heritage while addressing the urgent issues of food justice and sustainable farming practices. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, the project incorporates immersive audiovisual elements that transport the audience into the world of Black farmers. Through media design, haptic technology, soundscapes, and interactive elements, the audience is immersed in the sights, sounds, and stories of agricultural landscapes, fostering a deeper understanding and empathy for the challenges and triumphs faced by Black farmers.
Media Design Integration
Brother(hood) Dance! invited me to collaborate in their creative process while I was in the early stages of developing LOAM. Our creative process included a residency at The Ohio State University’s Motion Lab and performance in OSU’s Barnett Theater. The final media design was incorporated into the project’s full premiere at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
HAPTIC DESIGN ADVANCEMENTS: I refined my methods for amplifying the dancers’ foot percussive movements and farming actions of striking the earth by developing haptic “kicks.” The dancer’s percussive actions are synchronized with haptic kicks through the Buttkickers attached to audience risers. This amplifies the audience’s felt experience of the dancers’ actions giving them expanded power, weight, and presence.
IMMERSIVE AUDIO DESIGN: I designed a multichannel audio system using tactile transducers and transformed set pieces into speakers. One tactile transducer was positioned at each corner of the stage on cardboard boxes. I moved various immersive sounds accross the space in real-time to bring audiences into the physical worlds created through the work—sounds such as water dripping in the corner, footsteps walking across dry earth, and rotating sprinkler systems moved across or were located within the space asymmetrically to build more realistic sonic worlds.
LIVE AUDIO MANIPULATION: I designed live audio manipulation of a hydrophone located in a bucket of water, which was used throughout the work to amplify the sound of dancers washing their hands. I also manipulated one dancer’s voice in real-time using a wireless microphone connected to LOAM. At times when the dancer was recalling their past, I would amplify the reverb on their voice and pitch shift their vocals down to give them an ethereal and ghostly quality.
Performance photos by Ian Douglas