Reimagining Dance/Tech Education:

cultivating pedagogies toward interrogating Techno-Neoliberalism

Virtual Dance Collaboratory

Photography and Design by Taylor Craft

The Virtual Dance Collaboratory (VDC) is a a student-lead collective launched in Fall 2020 to educate and train dancers in new media design skills in the wake of COVID-19. VDC was co-designed by myself and Alesyn McCall as a provocation toward ethical approaches to digital media training that prioritizes student well-being, student-led leadership, and collective learning. Throughout the 20/21 and 21/22 academic years, VDC became a home for students interested particularly in screendance and projected media for live performance. The philosophies and digital media elements developed over the course of VDC’s existence have since been integrated across the dance curriculum and live particularly in the legacy student-led company, Dance Workshop.

RELATED PUBLICATION

Rajko, J., McCall, A., Sigler, L., Williams, E. “Reimagining Dance/Technology Training in an Era of Techno-Neoliberalism: Collective Models for New Media Design Education in Dance.” Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training Journal: Special Issue on Performance Training and Well-Being. (2022)

VIRTUAL CONCERT ARCHIVES

FEMINIST UNBOXING

Dancers in Vibrant Lives unboxing Woojers (from left to right): Tim O’Donnell, Julie Akerly, Danielle Feinberg, Eileen Standley

WHAT IS FEMINIST UNBOXING?

Feminist unboxing is a facilitatory structure for introducing a new technology into a creative process, research project, and/or collaborative working group. The purpose of this process is to slow down and take the time to document your personal experiences receiving, unboxing, setting up, and finally using a new tech device or software platform for the first time. This included looking at the product website before opening the item and reading the privacy statement before creating an account. These activities do a few things:

  1. Unveils possible risks incurred when engaging with the technology so that we may build awareness and have a chance to voice objections to its use.

  2. Cultivates a preliminary critical analysis of the item, its designers, and the communication strategies used to entice potential users.

  3. Provides a method for introducing new technologies into a group setting and fosters dialogue about any issues and concerns.

  4. Cultivates generative tension between artists and technology before and during the creative process.

  5. Situates a technology within one’s own lived experience and amplifies the role of the technology and its designers in limiting the choices afforded by the software or hardware in question.

WHERE DOES FEMINIST UNBOXING COME FROM?

The idea of feminist unboxing was first introduced to me by my colleague and collaborator Jacque Wernimont, who currently sits as the Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College. Jacque and Liz Losh crafted feminist unboxing assignments for their collaborative teaching at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute with the history of unboxing in media in mind. I’ve expanded upon the process to consider creative and artistic research practices as well as somatically-informed practices, largely within research intersecting dance and computing.

WHERE HAS FEMINIST UNBOXING BEEN ENGAGED?

Since expanding upon the work, I have presented and facilitated Feminist Unboxing in the following contexts. If you use Feminist Unboxing, please let me know so I can track where it is being engaged!

2021. “Borders, Boundaries, and Surveillance,” online workshop, The Landingspace Project.

2019. “Palpability and Wearable Computing” course, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC.

2017. “Me, My Quantified Self, and I” creative research process.

2017. “Palpability and Wearable Computing” course, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC.

Palpability and Wearable Computing

Palpability and Wearable Computing is a cross-disciplinary curriculum that introduces people to biosensing and wearable technology concepts using somatically-informed movement practices, custom wearable technologies, and a suite of interactive software programs that render biosensors and related algorithmic principals visible and palpable. The details of this research project are available on the “Palpable Wearable Computing” page.

In 2016, I began working on curriculum titled Palpability and Wearable Computing, which includes the design and creation of custom wearable technology bands, Max/MSP software patches, Arduiono software files, and a flexible curriculum. I launched my pedagogical research at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI)—a week-long summer intensive for faculty and graduate students interested in taking digital humanities coursework. The workshop introduces students to wearable computing through small, sensory-focused, movement explorations inspired by my own work in somatic practices and dance improvisation. Building from these initial exercises, students explore their senses using non-digital technologies such as ear plugs and stethoscopes. We then transition to similar explorations with my wearable technology bands, which allow students to snap in and out various digital sensors. The entire curriculum takes a movement and body-first approach to critically unpacking: 1) how various sensors function and 2) how wearable technology researchers deploy methods for making sensor data usable and legible. Throughout the course, students tinker with popular consumer wearable technologies (e.g. FitBit), learn basic physical computing skills, and dream up new wearable designs.

RELATED PUBLICATION:
Rajko, Jessica J. "Embodied Learning: Somatically Informed Instructional Design." Perspectives on Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL). Springer, Cham, 2019. 187-211.

RELATED COURSES AND INTENSIVES

  • Palpability and Wearable Computing, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC (2016, 2017, 2019)

  • Palpability and Wearable Computing: AME 598 Special Topics course, Arizona State University

RELATED WORKSHOPS

  • “Palpability and Wearable Computing,” Present/Breath Symposium, 22 North Gallery. Invitation from Petra Kuppers, Ypsilanti, MI, May 2022

  • “Palpability and Wearable Computing.” 13th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. Tempe, AZ, March 2019.

  • “Palpability and Wearable Computing.” Dance and Somatic Practices Conference. Coventry, UK, July 2017.

  • “Not My Data,” ART Lab, University of New Mexico. Invitation from Amanda Hamp (dance) and Lee Montgomery (visual art), Albuquerque, NM, November 2017