Linzi's EDC blog

In Block 1, I made a connection between online learning and dance as a subject that is physical. To embody the movement, one must master the steps, quality, rhythm and space. If we were to use 360 degree footage would it bring another layer to the learning experience ?

Now, this video can be viewed either on a smartphone or a laptop but I suggest viewing with your phone. I guarantee you will need room to move in order to follow Vince (the dancer) as he moves around the dance studio. It is a feel good video and I know Thomas and Vince had great fun creating it. Technology is something that Shaper/Caper, a dance company I work for, value as a tool to connect with their audience. Whether it’s live stream footage of a workshop/performance or an interactive performance, technology enables Shaper/Caper to reach an online community that goes further than the location of the company. Here, we have a moment where the viewer can interact with the performer. In order to view the footage the viewer has to move, get up and turn. The movement begins to resemble a dance sequence. I let my mother watch the footage on my smartphone this week and I really wish I had recorded her experience. She began to bounce in time with the music, feeling the beat and swaying with Vince. She had a smile from cheek to cheek until she began singing along escalating to a full rendition of ‘Young Heart’. Now I’m not sure if the connection was enhanced through my mother and I having a personal relationship with Vince or if we would have reacted the same without that connection. If you stumble on this lifestream post I would love to hear your experience……

This post connects with a reading of Hayes (1999) and Valverde & Cochrane (2014) where I consider the body-mind skill through online learning and a computer/smartphone function to interconnect environments, channels of communication and perceptive experiences.

References:

Hayes, N.K (1999) How we become Post-humans: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press

Valvarde, I., & Cochrane, T. (2014). Innovative dance-technology educational practices within senses places. Procedia Technology, 13, 122-129. do:10.1016/j.protcy.2014.02.016

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This video was brought to my attention by Philip one of my peers on the EDC course. Whilst viewing I was on the fence but believe that technology and todays culture is enmeshed. Whenever there is discussion around technology and dance particularly dance education, there is fear. Dance like technology is continually evolving. However, if the inevitable will happen should pioneers within dance turn their back on technology as a teaching tool and leave a technologist to create the software and implementation? If technology is to be used within dance pedagogy, should it not be the dance specialist(s) that look at ways to enhance teaching?

Kozinets (2010) states that we choose technologies through our actions and ideas proposed which in turn adapts and shapes how we use them. Our beliefs and attitude towards technology come to play and the culture and technological interact is a ‘complex dance’. Wouldn’t it be nice if the dance specialists and technologists created a collaboration that intertwined?

References:

Kozinets, R. V. (2010) Chapter 2 ‘Understanding Culture Online’, Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage. pp. 21-40.