Danceroom Spectroscopy Dr. David Glowacki, PhD, MA

Principal Collaborators Phil Tew – creative programmer and PMS resident Laura Kreifman – Guerrilla Dance Project, choreographer, dancer, and generally enthusiastic person Prof Joseph Hyde – music dept., Bath Spa Lee Malcolm – electronic artist and friend Becca Rose – project assistant, artist, designer Lots of others – Charlie Williams, Prof. Mike Ashfold, etc.

it results in the most awkward name an art project could have: dance  room spec  tros  co  py What happens when scientists do art projects…

Spectroscopy: The use of light to obtain information about matter...not many people know what spectroscopy is, but they should.

What might our eyes see if they were able to resolve the microscopic nanoscale world? We don’t actually know, but we (even scientists) make pictures anyway… artwork by Becca Rose

Another view of what our eyes might see if they were able to resolve the nanoscale world…

What drives dynamics, change, movement and flux on the nanoscale? Energy “Landscapes” …from the simple to the complex...

So that’s the scientific context for danceroom spectroscopy, what was the spark? Like lots of ideas, its origins can be traced to the “liquid network”* Lee J. Malcolm of Vessels *Steven Johnson

Is it possible to literally step into and interact with a nano-scale energy landscape? How can we fuse everyday, macroscopic motion with the invisible motion on the nanoscale? A. By turning people’s motion into energy fields that warps the energy landscape of a liquid nano- world Questions Sounds and visuals can then be generated from people’s motion

How do we accomplish it?

People’s real-time motion is like waves and ripples that affect the atomic energy landscapes and the particle dynamics FT The ripples and waves can be mapped into sounds

So what does it look and sound like?

What’s the feedback been like? “better than church”

Themes, ideas and observations that have emerged from dS What we reveal with dS isn’t so different from what is actually happening to us as we sit here Representing people as energy fields leads to a different way of thinking about self removal of inhibitions A number of everyday linguistic metaphors are in terms of energy transfer; dS constructs a visual representation of these phenomena

Themes, ideas and observations that have emerged from dS dS captures some analogies between lived experience and particle dynamics Things are stochastic – i.e., neither fully random nor deterministic beauty/order are delicately balanced with apparent chaos dS offers an interesting glimpse of accelerated human evolution, resulting in strangers choreographing their motion together More interesting patterns emerge with coherent, cooperative human action

reflections on the art/science interface Science, like any human endeavor, relies on successful communication While the criteria for success are different, both are attempting some sort of representation/model of the world around us On the frontiers of fundamental science, one often finds no right answer – rather different models and ways of understanding

dS and culture Both art and science are going to be critical in addressing the issues facing humanity – creating new technology will be just as important as creating new ways of thinking/relating to one another & the invisible world Our response to issues concerning water, air, climate, and pollution depend critically on how much “reality” we ascribe to the invisible world around us

Future Plans… Phil Tew will be working on the software full-time over the next 8 mos. Continued collaboration with Laura K and Joseph Hyde SxSW festival – Austin, TX Aiming at a wave-themed exhibition/performance as part of the upcoming cultural olympiad in Weymouth Or you can google ‘danceroom spectroscopy’

Or you can google ‘danceroom spectroscopy’