The dance of trust in high risk multi-partner collaborations : an exploration of the antecedents of trust in cross-sector R&D projects

This paper explores the dance of trust in cross-sector R&D collaborations, and does so by drawing on a multi-method study (involving qualitative research, case studies and a survey of project leaders) of the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program. R&D collaborations formed under this Program involve two main types of risk, venture or performance-related and relational, and these are problematic given power, information and risk impact asymmetries among the partners. Within the CRCs these risks are addressed through formalisation, employing the “right people”, and through relationship building. Trust (theorised following Sako as a multi-dimensional construct) is central to these processes. Where trust is formed among CRC participants, and is reinforced over repeated interactions, then relational and performance risks cease to become a major concern for CRC managers. In the CRCs, trust is formed and sustained as a multi-level process. Engagement and relationship commitment is achieved at an organizational level, and partner reputation, credible commitments and the institutional context are important factors here. At the project level, trust, in conjunction with a task focus, leads to a positive collaboration experience and this is associated with positive project outcomes. Within CRC projects, capabilities for communication and cross-sector management are important for the formation and maintenance of trust. The paper concludes by discussing the managerial implications of the study’s findings and by identifying areas for further research and conceptual development.

Capturing dance and choroetopography : analyzing and visualizing complexity

 Motion capture provides 'snapshots' of the complexity of movement patterning.  This presentation explores how this complexity can be mapped to specific variables for analysis, and what such analyses both reveal and mask in relation to the choreographic practices involved, drawing on my three-year collaboration with mathematician Vicky Mak-Hau and biomechanist Richard Smith at the Deakin Motion.Lab in Melbourne, Australia.  The paper explores how these analyses can potentially drive creative processes in dance, and, through a discussion of performance project Choreotopography, how real-time motion capture can visualize and enhance spatial pathways using 3D stereoscopic projection.

Stressors, Recovery Processes, and Manifestations of Training Distress in Dance

Abstract
Dancers are expected to maintain consistently high levels of performance capability and to perform on demand. To meet these expectations, they subject their bodies to long hours of intensive physical training. Such training regimens are often combined with tight rehearsal and performance schedules, which over time, can lead to persistent fatigue, psychological distress, performance decrements, and injury. A similar process has been observed as a consequence of high-intensity training in many different sports, and considerable sport-related research has been devoted to identifying the antecedents, the symptoms that are experienced, and the most cost-effective ways of monitoring symptom development. This paper presents a general heuristic framework for understanding this “training distress process” and discusses the framework with specific reference to dance.

Learning to dance with a human

Artificial neural networks are an effective means of allowing software agents to learn about and filter aspects of their domain. In this paper we explore the use of artificial neural networks in the context of dance performance. The software agent’s neural network is presented with movement in the form of motion capture streams, both pre-recorded and live. Learning can be viewed as analogous to rehearsal, recognition and response to performance. The interrelationship between the software agent and dancer throughout the process is considered as a potential means of allowing the agent to function beyond its limited self-contained capability.

From score to work? Making a group, improvising a dance

A questioning of the authorial role in dance-making through the creation of an improvised group dance.

Development and assessment of an incremental fatigue protocol for contemporary dance

Nine trained contemporary dancers performed a modality-specific, heart-rate-monitored, choreographed fatiguing dance protocol with an assumption of fatigue at volitional exhaustion (RPE 16). Postural stability was assessed as the variability of ground reaction forces and the centre of pressure during the performance of a flat-foot arabesque. Psychological response was assessed using self-reported fatigue, psychological distress (PD), and psychological well-being (PWB) (Subjective Exercise Experience Scale). After reaching RPE 16 in 15.7 ± 2.6 mins, heart rate decreased to the post-warm-up level within 64 ± 9 sec. Variability of ground reaction forces or the centre of pressure was not changed. There were no significant changes in fatigue, psychological distress, or psychological well-being. Within fatigue, there was a significant increase in the item tired (p = 0.04). As supported by the heart rate data and RPE, the protocol achieved an appropriate level of physical demand. No changes in the stability indices were observed, possibly attributed to the rapid recovery in heart rate. The expression of only tiredness suggests the use of a disassociative attentional style by the dancers. The project represents pilot work toward the validation of a monitoring process that supports dancer health and awareness training.

Cameras and body memory create new blends of performance with visual art practice

I propose that a learnt somatic experience of dance can translate into another discipline such as visual art. In my visual art practice I combine both photography, which is traditionally seen as a still medium, and performance in order to create a new form of embodiment. I have developed two series of art works of prints and video made in response to the Australian landscape. By analyzing my method of movement and photography I will describe how an embodied dance language can result in a material outcome – a series of drawings of light and movement, a body signature made possible through old and new technology. I have activated a performative state while capturing images discovering new ways of using technology reliant upon my knowledge of dance, performance and photography. Making a human size camera to make analogue prints I gained an intuitive knowledge of light – a skill that has become foundational in performance and photography. In response to space and light in the Australian landscape I then built a custom made camera that allows for the longest possible time to capture an image. I move while taking the image and use the camera as if an eye at the end of my arm. In this way I activate dance skills and embodied knowledge of space, timing and light, opening up a radical space for new thinking, making and performing.Furthermore this process engages memory and sentiment embodied through age. Many artists have responded to the unique qualities of the Australian landscape and by using a performative/photographic approach I have engaged with my own body memory. Being brought up in the landscape and training in ballet my body has acquired memories at a cellular level. My method has given memory a voice. In doing these works I have become conscious of how unconscious memories of the space and light in the landscape is a movement vocabulary activated in a way that ‘feels’ like dancing. As an ageing person this experience is profound and the resultant materialisation of the photographs and videos leave a material record of the event. The sentiments evoked through my process bridge the past with the present, the body with the mind, memory with body and space connecting disciplines in a new way.The materialisation of artworks itself continues cross-disciplinary processes using a technique that is a continuum of the performative. Through using technology I release memory of the landscape and pixel by pixel build imagery that relies on and is a part of the performative process. It is a photographic performance dance manifesting as pigment on paper exhibited a gallery context. The exhibition allows a space for the viewer to respond - re-membering the universal the act of moving. The works titled ‘body signatures’ and ‘Fly Rhythm’ become a communicative device in the gallery context.My paper through an analysis of process and methods used in making the two series will talk to several of the subjects listed and reveal a new way of connecting performance and visual art and old and new technologies.

Moving towards a group dance

This paper describes the process of the creation of an improvised group dance, discussion how both the dance and the group came into being through practising with what were called 'scores'. The dance was created as part of a three year practice-led research project. The question asked on conducting the research was What is the work of 'scores' in the creation of an improvised group dance? where scores were verbal propositions, usually relating to physical, bodily, or movement notions. The aspect of the overall project discussed in this paper concerns the coming into being of of the group in both social and material terms.

Technology as collaborator in somatic photographic practice

This article will address several areas of research. Firstly it will propose that a dance experience can translate into another discipline such as visual art. In my visual art practice I combine both photography, which is traditionally seen as a still medium, and performance in order to create a new form of embodiment. By acknowledging the inter-relationship between the body and the camera my project seeks to challenge a perceived separation between the disciplines. Fly Rhythm, an exhibition of 13 photographs and one video projection was conceived through a performative somatic process. I have developed the term ‘somatic photography’ to articulate subjective experiences in the context of my process of imaging movement in stillness. My thinking has been informed by visual art practice exploring movement and meaning using video and an older history of performance as a dancer and choreographer. I am primarily interested in movement initiated by a bodily response to light through still rather than moving imagery although artists such as Maya Deren whose films explore themes of time and space have influenced me. In my practice the term ‘somatic photography’ helps articulate the act of taking photographs, which is how meaning is being created rather than purely in the finished art works. The term somatic photography puts emphasis on the action of taking the image. Through using a custom made camera I was able to negotiate time and space as a dancer and create a visual drawing that talked to both choreography and fine art practice. This article engages with the following ideas: somatic photography, photography as choreography, body memory, ageing body, technology as collaborator, gallery interface, screen interface and movement.

Splitting centre : directing attention in trans-media dance performance

In theatrical vernacular, the term ‘splitting centre’ refers to two performers staged at an equal distance from a centre point and sharing the focus of the audience. This term encapsulates the notion that two people (or, in the case of trans-media dance, two or more performance entities) are dividing the attention of the audience, operating as equal collaborators in a performance context. The augmentation of live performance with 3D projected scenography and mobile devices offers a starting point for discussions on the potential for dramaturgy, choreographic process, and changing expectations for audience behaviour in the theatre. In 2014, Deakin Motion.Lab premiered The Crack Up, a trans-media dance work that incorporated live performance, 3D digital scenography, and The Crack Up App, an app for mobile devices that audience members were invited to interact with during the performance. This investigation into the potential of trans-media dance performance, (defined here as a live performance in which both the digital and biological elements are choreographed as artistic equals within the theatrical context) with the addition of a mobile device raises questions about how the makers of trans-media dance might direct the attention of their audiences when the work is performed simultaneously across multiple platforms.

National dance forum 2015

There are ongoing tensions between academics who employ artistic practice as part of their skills set versus artists who enter the academy through a higher degree or taking up a university job opportunity. This panel will address both the pitfalls and opportunities when academic research interacts with creative practice. How one area supports and engages the other is a multifaceted and complex endeavour.

The Movement between: Dance improvisation, witnessing and participatory performance.

This was a practice-based project which extended the possibilities for dance improvisation in performance. The project engaged questions about how live performance is constituted, about what the roles of the dancer and audience might entail, and about how a community of common experience can develop through a responsive exchange between its participants.