Deep Originals 



In this research I rethink my choreographic archive using AI-technology. Much of my choreographic work has been canceled due to COVID crisis as is the case for most artists. I'm working mostly online.
Digitally mediated dance is the new shared condition of what any future choreography will have to deal with. I feel I don't have the same type of understanding and expertise to work with “digitised bodies” as I do with real ones and I would like to gain the necessary skills. My practice is based on collaboration, transmission from person to person and I would like to make AI my artistic collaborator. I analyse my choreographic approach with the digital one to make new hybrids and to expand on my digital literacy to comprehend “digitisation” of dance beyond the commercial uses of digital tools. 
In the process of exploring machine learning in choreography I researched open-source software libraries and tools for pose-estimation and action recognition.

image1: produced by PoseNet, running on tensorflow.js

During the first few weeks of the research a myriad of questions opened up concerning the expectations to train AI to create simulations of my past works to inform my new work or to produce unprecedented work and results.

I aimed for making an AI a collaborator that would help me discover deep structures in my work that escape the human eye and create a digital model of how I could describe my choreographic approach.
As the computer vision presents problems working with the video - high computational and storage resource requirements, I reconsidered the entry point into my archive. Among videos, images, audio recordings and text I decided to start with the latter. 

In order to not be dependent on or subject to only commercial uses of these technologies that are increasingly mediating my everyday life it is crucial to address the sharing aspect of the research - access, exchange, non-expertise use. As well as inbuilt gendered bias in the mentioned tools, which when addressed properly would offer a chance of becoming more usable for larger number of people.




Currently I am working with Infranodus - text-network analysis tool. I am focusing on the textual part of my archive and am comparing the discourse on my artistic practice depending on the context - grant applications, public announcements, social media platform comments and posts, private chats and similar.

image2: Infranodus working session screenshot (analysis of the very description on the left side of the website)


Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the programNEUSTART KULTUR, [aid program DIS-TANZEN/ tanz:digital/ DIS-TANZ-START] of the DachverbandTanz Deutschland.

Gefördert durch die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im ProgrammNEUSTART KULTUR, [Hilfsprogramm DIS-TANZEN/ tanz:digital/ DIS-TANZ-START] des DachverbandTanz Deutschland.








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