Professor Sarah Whatley speaks about her work on the “digital choreographic object” Siobhan Davies Replay digital archive. Asking what is exchanged between the archival material and people who meet it, and how the materials can continue to meet new people in the world, perhaps through pedagogy. She talks about her work within an AHRC-funded network bringing together interdisciplinary teams working on four digital archive projects: the Synchronous Objects from William Forsythe + Ohio State University, Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten’s Capturing Intention project, Siobhan Davies Replay, and the Wayne McGregor / Random Dance Choreographic Agent project online.
Working with a team of social scientists led by James Leach, the network considered the larger social impact of the digital archives.
The Siobhan Davies Reply archive is unfortunately no longer freely available online. We have chosen to link to an article that Sarah Whatley wrote about the project for those interested in further information.
This talk was part of Crossing Borders 2009 and was presented in partnership with London Contemporary Dance School.
Learn More:
Synchronous Objects
Capturing Intention
Choreographic Language Agent
Siobhan Davies RePlay: (Re) Visiting the Digital Archive (article)
Sarah Whatley began her career as a performer and choreographer with touring companies in the 1980s and 1990s. She has worked at Coventry for more than two-decades, introducing the first degree course in dance in 1997 before moving into the role of Head of Performing Arts from 1998 until 2007 when she took over the Direction of CeMAP to focus on her research and practice. Specialising in dance analysis and the interface between dance and digital technologies, she is collaborating with British choreographer Siobhan Davies as project leader of the AHRC-funded Siobhan Davies Archive; the UK s first digital dance archive. Her recent publication Moving Matters has emerged from a long period of research into dance pedagogies, particularly dance and disability. She leads artist development programmes that bring together dance and moving image makers, and which support dance artists working in health contexts. She sits on numerous boards and edits the international Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, published by Intellect.
Bio as published in 2009
