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Movement - Moving Images

Movement is a central aspect that unites the different disciplines engaged in the production of the installations. Dance is ruled by movement dynamics that are driven by a body in time and space. In the recording of movement, the movement of the camera is also implied, generating a dialogue between the motion of the device and that of the bodies acting within its frame. Human and machine movements are closely related in Dance Films. Recoded Film/Video Frames are the smallest units with meaning building a narrativity from where the dramaturgy of a film or a dance can be constructed. At the same time, when watching a film we are fixed and sited, looking at the screen. The gaze is being directed to the frame of the shot and a sonic surround channel allows “off” speakers to narrate and provide atmosphere, music, giving a context to the visual image. In these conditions the role of movement is placed as something we observe as a hidden mechanism behind the narration of a story.
Movement is everywhere, it is intrinsic to our human nature and everywhere around us, but it has lost importance and in many cases. Our contemporary culture lost the body as a source to understand the world and generate meaning. Being aware of body language or perception of movement as a resource for information, is considered less relevant than being able to read and write, whereas at the end all of our actions we deal with our perception of movement and its dynamics. As recent cognitive neuroscience studies prove, the activation of neurons in relation to things we see and have been previously experienced in our bodies awakes the neurons in a similar way as if we were taking action. The discovery of the mirror neurons have revealed the potential source for empathy.

Thus the  act of viewing is a complex one, since it is not about what we see but about the meaning and experiences we derive from the viewing. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s state in their controversial book Metaphors we live by (1980, 2003) that ‘our sensory - motor concepts arise from our sensory-motor experiences’. Lived experiences accumulate knowledge over time and space within our bodies, being constantly used to think and accomplish actions, influence decision-making and help develop the kind of structures we need to make use of our communicational and learning skills. Experience is then rooted within the recognition of a lived situation, it is the connection between past experiences and new ones that allows understanding to come into play. Then what if the experience of viewers could come close in a physical way to those acting or performing within the filmic set? Which kind of experience will that be? Trying to bring the attention towards movement, its embodiment, perception and capabilities to generate dramaturgy are at the core of this transmedia project, where technology embraces motion, poetry and the senses.



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