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17 Jun 2010 14:30:10
The Head of Performing Arts and English at the University of Bedfordshire is taking her research to a home and international audience over the next few days.
Helen Bailey is first a keynote speaker tomorrow (Friday, 18 June) at the fortnight-long international Gdansk Dance Festival in Poland.
She will be presenting a paper as part of the Baltic Movement Conference, considering the impact of technologies on dance practice through a review of the world-leading e-Dance Project and the Motion in Place Platform project.
Helen said: “The conference is looking at the way in which dance is being developed strategically in the Baltic states.
“It’s about how our research - the two projects - extends the boundaries of contemporary dance and it’s recognition for the way in which we do things at the University.”
The following Friday (25 June), Helen is giving an invited paper at the University of Sussex. This is part of an international Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded workshop on motion capture technologies and is the official launch event for the Motion in Place Platform project which covers the fields of dance, archaeology, visual arts and media.
A £500,000 grant has been awarded for this cross-university collaborative project which links the unlikely areas of dance and a Roman archaeological dig!
The University of Bedfordshire is working in partnership with lead institution the University of Sussex as well as King’s College London and a UK-based motion-capture development company called Animazoo.
The grant is from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) which supports world-class research that furthers understanding of human culture and creativity.
Helen said: “It’s really great profile for us and it confirms we’re world leaders in research which explores the relationship between dance and technology.
“This also extends our collaborative relationships as we’re working with two research-led institutions and there’s also a hi-tech company involved.”
This project builds on research undertaken by Bailey as part of the e-Dance Project and particularly research at the interface between choreography and archaeology. Bailey has already published research in this area.
The funding will support the development of a motion-capture platform that will integrate mobile GPS technology and motion-capture to track/capture movement on location.
Data will be gathered at Silchester in Hampshire, the site of the largest archaeological dig in Britain over the last decade or so. The Insula IX Town Life project is a research and training excavation of one part of the large Roman town at Silchester.
The information will then be brought back to Bedfordshire to produce the choreographic work followed by performance work staged later this year or in early 2011 at the University. The year-long project began in March.
