Title: Media in performance - the Subway project

Authors: Andrew Quitmeyer; Michael Nitsche; Ava Ansari

Addresses: Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, USA ' Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, USA ' Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY 10003, USA

Abstract: The collaborative media-art project Subway combines the mediation of a dance performance with interactive digital technology toward a new performative feedback loop. In a response to the restrictive practices regarding dancing in public in Iran, Subway applies digital technology to connect performers in the USA with those in Iran. Together, they create a new mediatised performance. The piece uses digital technology to break a dance video documentation into individual frames, which become the basis for a cell phone application that allows performers in Iran to re-enact individual poses. Finally, each pose is sent back and re-assembled in the documentation of the shared event. The text outlines the background of this work, its implementation, as well as the particular condition for the socio-technological context, and ongoing and future work. Subway is presented as a piece of experimental media performance art that integrates technology in a transformative way as it answers given cultural challenges.

Keywords: digital performance; activism; digital media; mobile technology; participation; dance performance; interactive digital technology; USA; United States; Iran; dance video; video frames; cell phones; mobile phones; pose re-enaction; shared events; Subway project; experimental performance art; media performance art.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2014.066454

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.356 - 372

Received: 17 Jun 2013
Accepted: 04 Aug 2013
Published online: 31 Dec 2014 *

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