Falling upwards: somatic sensing in virtual space
Creators: name: Gibson, Ruth
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 360402
subject: Dance and dance studies
classificationCode: 360504
subject: Interactive media
classificationCode: 360603
subject: Performance art

description: Gibson/Martelli investigate the relationship between fgure and landscape via modes of moving, and bodily responses. The viewer is pulled into a lexicon of realities where movement is explored and experienced through the gateways of emergent technologies.<br><br> Falling Upwards: Somatic Sensing in Virtual Space is an exploration of immersion through the creation of interactive environments, animation and methods of visualising motion to understand more fully how we may move in and around virtual space, what this means to performance, choreography, the sensing body and audiences. My understanding of physical thinking oscillates between, kinaesthestic knowing, kinaesthetic intelligence, kinaesthetic sensing and somatic experience. In this thesis I will be looking at transmission of Kinaesthetic Awareness through a brief history of my dance practice, my collaboration with artist Bruno Martelli and the new kind of space that the digital inaugurates. I describe methods, processes and fndings of four main works 80ºN (2014), We Are Here And We Are EveryWhereAt Once (2017), MAN A (2014-) and The Bronze Key (2018) to highlight my discoveries. I bookend these case studies with Falling Upwards (2014) and Capture the Flag (2018) to illustrate the shift in the practice.<br><br> As well as revealing an arts practice which emerges through engagement with performance technologies, this thesis puts forward the notion of the Kinoshpir building on Schiller’s Kinesfeld and Laban’s Kinesphere into the territories of new technology displays coupled with new physics which is where I leave it.<br><br> Falling Upwards refects on emergent themes - paradox, accident and body/ machine. <br><br>I bring to feld a unique approach primarily interweaving a variety of performance technologies, Spatial Computing: MR, XR, AR, VR and Motion Capture/ Tracking systems with the somatic practice of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT). SRT in combination with an array of technologies is my specialist area.<br><br> Immersive, interactive and collaborative, Movement (dance) in real and virtual space, intertwining art traditions of the fgure and landscape.<br><br> Chapter 1: In the Introduction I lay out the structure of the research and map out how I will take you through Falling Upwards.<br><br> In Chapter 2 I give a historical context and ofer a glimpse into the background of my collaboration with Bruno Martelli which began as igloo to the present day incarnation as Gibson/Martelli.<br><br> Chapter 3 focusses on my methodology of working in systems, in this instance the motion capture lab with Skinner Releasing dancers citing the Capturing Stillness project as a milestone in the development of the Kinosphir.<br><br> Chapter 4 brings artists past and present who are either practicing in similar ways or are aligned using familiar methods or who have infuenced or educated and inspired us.<br><br> Chapter 5 Is a brief overview of Skinner Releasing Technique, taxonomy and language.<br><br>Chapter 6 draws on the infuence of SRT out in the feld and spells out the importance of stillness as a resource and reservoir for kinetic reception perception. This section interweaves stillness and camoufage through the works Ghille (2005) and where the bears are sleeping (2011).<br><br>Chapter 7 introduces the Kinosphir as a concept with relation to Laban’s Kinesphere and Schiller’s Kinesfeld. Ideas that are central to my conception of the Kinosphir.<br><br>Chapter 8 Cultivating Kinaesthetic Awareness, Case study 1 focusses on the work 80º N to uncover Inner and Outer Awareness in interactive environments with haptic interfaces. <br><br>Chapter 9 In the Lab and the Landscape, Kinaesthetic Navigations to Understand, Case study 2 considers the artwork We Are Here And We Are EveryWhere At Once made on location in New Zealand.<br><br>Chapter 10 and 11 New Understandings of the Choreographic sees the practice shift into new avenues of choreographic investigation through Case study 3 MAN A and Case study 4 The Bronze Key.<br><br> Chapter 12 Concludes, drawing the practice together and articulating central concerns, contribution to knowledge and the adoption of the Kinosphir.<br><br>