A team from Art-A-Hack™ 2020 Special Edition — Covid-19 'DANCEDEMIC'

Team members:

  • Razvan Stoian
  • Aline Martinez
  • Derek Kwan
  • Kat Mustatea
  • Manik Perera
  • Ni Ni Than
  • Nuntinee Tansrisakul
  • Vinay Khare
  • Yuguang Zhang
  • Yurii Tymoshenko

The Hieroglyph team collaborated remotely from locations in Kiev, Ukraine, Bangalore, India, Tallinn, Estonia, New York and Fresno in the USA, and Sao Paolo, Brazil to create an augmented live streamed performance with sound and visuals driven by the biometrics of dancer Razvan Stoian.

A still from of the 'Hieroglyph' live performance with dancer Razvan Stoian
A still from of the 'Hieroglyph' live performance with dancer Razvan Stoian

The team drew upon language describing the perceptual experience of otherness, shifting between Stoian’s native tongue of Romanian and adopted speech in English.

The work used both interactive visuals and audio to evoke the tension of moving through unfamiliar landscapes, both literal and perceptual.

Data collected from an Emotibit biosensor on Stoian’s finger measured his blood oxygen and muscle tension. That data changed the color, size, speed, and sound of the cascade of graphically generated words and interactivity of his body on the screen with those words.

The 'Hieroglyph' team co-working remotely
The 'Hieroglyph' team co-working remotely

The choreography was a study in contrasts: turbulence and calm, dark and light, highlighting reflections of inner and outer worlds.

Team members, including generative composers, sound designers, artists, creative technologists and art directors connected remotely to a broadcasting system set up in the studio to work with Hussein and develop the performance.

Watch the 'Hieroglyph' live performance

The Hieroglyph live performance was the culmination of the team working virtually for six weeks during COVID-19 isolation. The performance had its world premiere at the 39th annual Battery Dance Festival, also entirely online, using the innovative artist-led eˉlektron live streaming platform.

Project Team

Director
Ellen Pearlman - NYC, USA
Project Manager
Katie Larson - Chicago, USA
Technical Lead
Andy McWilliams

EmotiBit
Sean Montgomery - NYC, USA

e⁻lektron
Kaie Olmre - Tallinn, Estonia
Taavet Jansen - Tallinn, Estonia
Andrus Aaslaid - Tallinn, Estonia

Hieroglyph
Dancer - Razvan Stoian - Romania/USA
Aline Martinez - São Paulo, Brazil
Kat Mustatea - NYC, USA
Derek Kwan - Fresno, California, USA
Yurii Tymoshenko - Kiev, Ukraine
Vinay Khare - Bangalore, India
Nuntinee “Nun” Tansrisakul - NYC, USA
Ni Ni Than - NYC, USA
Yuguang Zhang - NYC, USA
Manik Perera - Toronto, Canada

Art-A-Hack’s “DANCEDEMIC” was funded through an Alumni TIES and World Learning small grant from the U.S. Department of State.