PhD Research
Dr Lucie has completed her practice-as-research doctoral studies as part of her Pathway to Excellence funding scheme at the University of Salford.
Abstract:
This practice-as-research investigates embodied dance improvisatory approaches within motion capture environments through a shaping process I call Sculptural Qualities. Sculptural Qualities, a term developed during this research, are processual and relational. The thesis explores what Sculptural Qualities emerge within motion capture environments and how movement practitioners can access and activate these unfolding experiences of being intertwined with body, self, and the world (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Within phenomenology and embodiment, access and activation are processes of direct experiential “coupling” (Clark, 2008) of the movement practitioners’ bodies, movement impulses and the environment. These coupling processes involve direct and active engagement to enable movement practitioners to “extend” awareness of their sensations, emotions, and bodily experiences of seeing-moving-responding.
As motion capture technologies develop, they enable an innovative way to perceive and interact with movement, allowing real-time tracing of movements and gestures. The real-time engagement introduces a feedback loop and transforms the sculptural motion – the path of the movement visualised in the form of a digital trace (Laban & Ullmann, 2011) as lines, dots, particles and polygons. Through studio-practice experimentation, the movement practitioner’s lived experiences and their expressive responses of shaping and reshaping contribute to the sculptural emergence with temporal and dynamic unfolding. I propose that these shaping processes extend the improviser’s body-mind into tools, technologies, and the environment (Clark, 2008a, 2008b; Ihde, 2012). This thesis embodies PaR methodology and Nelson’s (2013, 2022) multi-modal knowledge model with qualitative and interpretative phenomenological methods to gather and analyse experiential responses and insights from movement practitioners.
This PaR’s contribution is a methodological framework focusing on the holistic experience of sensing and responding as an innovative and dynamic approach to dance improvisation within motion capture environments. I propose new methods for engaging with dance improvisation through in-readiness as an active listening state of experiential couplings between physical and digital. The sculptural intentional improvisations engage feedback loop processes and activate Sculptural Qualities through four core elements: stillness as a dynamic state, states of focused stillness with T-pose, repetition, and accidental micro-intentions.
PhD thesis is accessible here: Shaping Dance Improvisatory Processes Intertwined with Actual and Virtual Bodies: Exploring Sculptural Qualities Within Motion Capture Environments
Document PhD – link to the page here
Link to University of Salford PaR research Page – Lucie Sykes | Practice as Research | University of Salford
Media City MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub — ENGAGE @SalfordUni (scicomm.space)
Citation
Sykes, L. (2024). Shaping Dance Improvisatory Processes Intertwined with Actual and Virtual Bodies: Exploring Sculptural Qualities Within Motion Capture Environments. (Thesis). University of Salford
Other relevant publications to Lucie’s research
Sykes, L. (2024). Shaping movement improviser’s experiences: document(ing) embodied and extended sculptural qualities within motion capture environments. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2024.2324399
Gbolagun-Suwa, Vashti; Marshall, Anne-Marie; Merlusca, Simona; Poliah, Keren; Stein, Andrea; Sykes, Lucie; Whitnall, Davina; Yaw Obeng, John (2023) Games, Gambling and Generation Z: Disruptive approaches to awareness of gambling harms – A practical guide to implementation.
Moriaty, M., Sykes, L. (2022) DeviceD: Audience–dancer interaction via social media posts and wearable for haptic feedback. Cambridge University Press as Open Access (OA) in Wearable Technologies – accessible at https://www.doi.org/10.1017/wtc.2021.20.
Figshare open access repository
Sykes, L, (2021) Festival of Research/Presentation recording July 2021: Practice as Research: Dance and Motion Capture Technology
Sykes, L (2021) Art as Change Part 1/workshop: Interdisciplinary Collaboration Using Dance and Motion Capture Technologies