Untitled, 7 Looping DVDs is a dance performance that takes the form of a multi-channel video installation. Created as my thesis project during my graduate studies at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in 2008.

As a choreographer, I was interested in emphasizing process, distance and mediation to expand definitions of choreography in an age of electronic communication and physical displacement. The studio process for this project consisted of working with dancers on improvisational scores and vocal exercises, and the evidence of our labors is the content for the installation. With this project, I asked, How is this mediated experience of dance a live performance? How is the video installation a work of choreography?

In the installation, each performer is present via a video monitor whereas the performers were never in the same room together during the composition process. The performers activate the installation/performance space through their televisual presence, attempting to encourage the audience to move through the space via sound cues. Even when the dancer leaves the frame of the camera, the sound of their voice and physical activity is audible, foregrounding the production of presence through sound despite visual absence.

The performance as a whole is comprised of looping single channels, each a different duration. With each repetition, the channels fall in and out of phase with each other; a continued exploration of repetition as a form of change. Each single channel is also a portrait of each dancer. A brass name plate affixed to each monitor is engraved with information about the corresponding dancer.