What is DCS?
Dance Computing Studies (DCS) is an emerging field and international community of artists/scholars concerned with the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of movement analysis and representation across disciplines. DCS aims to cultivate critical discourse regarding the appropriation of technologies into the context of dance, as well as the integration of dance-based and choreographic knowledge in the computational practices of other fields concerned with movement. As a transdisciplinary community, DCS is committed to feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, and decolonial approaches to research and creation, both within and beyond academia.
Why does DCS exist?
DCS exists to hold space for critical discourse at the intersection of dance and computing. Integral to DCS is care for differences that have come to matter between communities of practice, both aesthetically and ethically. Resisting the transposition of motives, methods, and metrics between fields, DCS aims to cultivate methodological plurality as an antidote to the flattening effects of translation and transmission inspired by neoliberal celebrations of interdisciplinarity for its own sake. In the context of DCS, the multiplication of knowledges in dance, computing, and critical theory is embraced as source of mutual destabilisation and generative tension for all involved.
What does DCS do?
DCS maintains a variety of emerging platforms for critical exchange regarding the intersection of dance and computing, with particular emphasis on critical theory as it manifests therein. In keeping with the ethos of DCS outlined above, the specificity of methodological and pedagogical approaches is essential to each encounter, and further, informs notions of rigour and expertise within this community.
Currently, DCS is holding a structured reading and discussion group examining issues related to race, colonialism, and diaspora at the intersection of various dance and computing practices. (2020-2021). DCS also hosts provocations.online, a series of calls for provocations on sensitive themes related to cross-disciplinary discourse and collaboration in practices involving movement and computing. Stemming from the provocations project, DCS has hosted several roundtable discussions at conferences, most recently the Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) in 2018 and 2019, with another forthcoming. Public events and calls for contributions and participation will be announced here on an ongoing basis.
To learn more about DCS, read about our key areas of inquiry.