Ella Emanuele PhD Thesis Exhibition

dAnCing LiNes by ELLA EMANUELE  

The project has been developed in collaboration with choreographer Simon Birch, and data visualisation experts David Hunter and Zach Duer

dAnCing LiNes' exhibition at the James Hockey Gallery marks the completion of Ella Emanuele’s practice-based research into dance as a medium for drawing. Exploring how the agency of dance moves from the performative to the visual via technological means, dAnCing LiNes investigates performative drawing beyond notions of gestural traces of the body in movement. Capturing chorographic scores and task-based instructions, the act of drawing is interpreted as a choreographic activity through data visualisations. Five multi-participant choreographed performances are reinterpreted through digital technologies. Converted using algorithms into lines, points, and coloured block shapes, the data collected during the live events generate an imagery that sits between an index and a diagram. Bringing attention to the dancers’ patterns and formations, these visualisations reveal sightlines and perspectives that cannot be seen simultaneously during the live events.

Transferring the choreographic patterns and formations on a roll of unfolding paper ‘live’ in the gallery space, the addition of the CNC Drawing Machine offers an iteration of the translation of the performative to the visual, becoming a ‘collaborator’ in the art making process.

The topographic artefacts, reminiscent of the live events and shown alongside the CNC Drawing Machine and the data visualisations, play once again with different visualities of perception that move from the performative to the visual and to physical form.  Each iteration contributes to extending the scope of the shifting landscape and evolving relationship between dance and drawing within contemporary art discourse.

With thanks to the Arts Council England, the University for the Creative Arts, Falmouth University and Virginia Teach, USA 

Preview: 27th November 5-7pm