Lecture at FCSH/UNL: The moving body, technology and tools for analysis

25 May 2017

The Director of the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University, Prof. Sarah Whatley, will give a lecture today (May 25) at FCSH/UNL entitled “The moving body, technology and tools for analysis”.

Date: Thursday, May 25, 6 pm
Venue: FCSH/UNL, Sala Multiusos 1, Edifício ID
Speaker: Prof. Sarah Whatley, Director of the Centre for Dance Research ay Coventry University, UK
Entrance: Free

ABOUT THE LECTURE

In this talk, Prof. Sara Whatley will focus on the interrelationship between somatic-informed dance, imagery and motion analysis. She will focus on a current EU-funded H2020 project ‘WhoLoDance', which is building digital tools for dance learning and dance making, and is raising some interesting questions about the tension between ‘learning how to use tools’ and ‘learning dance with the tools’. The speaker will discuss their work so far on developing categories for analyzing dance for machine reading including movement ‘qualities’, on developing a blending engine, an annotation tool, and a life-size volumetric display for the dancer to dance ‘with’ a virtual body.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Sarah Whatley is Director of the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, UK. Her research interests extend to dance and new technologies, intangible cultural heritage, somatic dance practice and pedagogy, dance documentation and inclusive dance practice; she has published widely on these themes. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), European Commission, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, her current funded research projects focus on the creative reuse of digital cultural content, smart learning environments for dancers, reimagining dance archives and dance documentation, the generative potential of error in dance and HCI, dance and disability and dancer imagery. She is also founding Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of several other journals. She is a strategic reviewer for the AHRC and an evaluator for the European Commission.