The Measures Taken
Visually striking and kinetically charged, this work for five dancers uses cutting edge motion-tracking technology to project visuals that interact with the performers' movements in real-time.
Asking how and on what terms motion-tracking technology can 'watch' a moving body and how this contrasts to the way a human does, The Measures Taken explores the tendency of a system that 'knows' only by quantity and how our fundamental desire for discovery drives this. How is it that the gaze of technology has the potential to change the way we see ourselves and relate to one other and to what extent does our hunger for knowledge lead us astray?
This was the first work created for Alexander Whitley Dance Company, made in collaboration with digital arts studio Marshmallow Laser Feast. It was commissioned by the Royal Opera House and premiered at Maison Des Arts de Creteil's EXIT Festival in Paris on 1st April 2014.
“When we look to technology to deliver us from accidents, from choice and even from mortality we are asking from it something it cannot give: a deliverance from the conditions that make us human. We are seeking from technology... salvation from ourselves.”
