Dance Floor

‘Dance Floor’ was formulated to explore the core research question that was part of the original AHRC bid for my 2007 Creative Research Fellowship: ‘In what ways will High Resolution Imaging change the work produced in the convergence of art and visual technologies and consequently, our experience of that work?’ To answer this question I formulated the idea of ‘Quantum Resolution’ which proposed that audience immersion deepens with quantum as opposed to quantitative increases of resolution – that is the effects of deeper immersion would be felt with larger increases of resolution rather than incremental increases of resolution. Initially I formulated 3 practice as research portfolios as differing strategies to uncover the effects (if any) of increased resolution. These three were a) to examine everyday moving images of the world immediately around oneself, b) examine iconic moving images of the world and c) examine human portraiture and by way of this examine ideas around the human gaze. I argued that each work would be a building block in a developing argument to examine my hypothesis and that all of the works would be presented together in a major exhibition as the overall thesis – this occurred in December 2010 in collaboration with University of Westminster in their London P3 Gallery. 'Dance Floor' is the second work of the 1st Portfolio which had as its base idea the photographing of two Salsa dancers and then examine the sculptural nature of the human body when engaged in this form of Dance by using extreme slow-motion. This work was funded by an AHRC Practice and Applied award for £20,000. A key strategy was to photograph the dancers in a way that was different from that which was usually seen of this activity so that the use of ‘unheimlich’ (or strangeness) might enhance and reveal the sculptural as opposed to emotive elements of Dance Form. Consequently the dancers were shot from above and then projected life-size into a space below the audience. In the original exhibition, a 100 shoes were placed around the exhibition space for the audience to negotiate whilst coming into the influence of the installation itself. One of the consequences of which was that some people rather than just looking, actually got down into the space and themselves danced. This work was shown at several locations, subsequently I have spoken of the research outcomes in articles and papers at conference.