Joanna Cook is a dance artist, researcher and multimodal choreographer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a PhD Candidate at the Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland) exploring the possibilities of Multimodality as (feminist) Choreographic Practice. Joanna holds a PGDip in Dance Studies with distinction and an MA in Dance Studies with first class honours. Her recent works include, Vector (2021-current: co-directed with Becca Weber), 3R Dance Project (2020-current:co-created with Janaina Moraes), Fragments of Silent Skin (2021), Expanding Flesh (2022), and Spooling Womxn (2022). Joanna is interested in creating work that is experiential, immersive and engages with modalities such as: movement, artist books, soundscapes, printmaking, installation, photography, voice, poetics, video documentation and live performance. Her work explores transdisciplinary materialities, pedagogies of care and feminist practices of ‘undoing-ness’ through imagination, repair, and care. She is currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Dance Studies Program at the Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland).
Joanna Cook is a dance artist, researcher and multimodal choreographer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a PhD Candidate at the Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland) exploring the possibilities of Multimodality as (feminist) Choreographic Practice. Joanna holds a PGDip in Dance Studies with distinction and an MA in Dance Studies with first class honours. Her recent works include, Vector (2021-current: co-directed with Becca Weber), 3R Dance Project (2020-current:co-created with Janaina Moraes), Fragments of Silent Skin (2021), Expanding Flesh (2022), and Spooling Womxn (2022). Joanna is interested in creating work that is experiential, immersive and engages with modalities such as: movement, artist books, soundscapes, printmaking, installation, photography, voice, poetics, video documentation and live performance. Her work explores transdisciplinary materialities, pedagogies of care and feminist practices of ‘undoing-ness’ through imagination, repair, and care. She is currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Dance Studies Program at the Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland).
Organisation/Company
Name: The University of Auckland
My Role: PhD Candidate, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Vector
Artform: Dance/Film/Mixed Reality/Virtual Reality - 360 video and Interactive Immersive Experience
Development Status: Both ready to premiere and tour ready
Pitch Video
Media Uploads
Trailer
Synopsis
Vector is a 360-video viewable on Oculus and google cardboard VR headsets and/or as an immersive participatory installation. The work uses avatars and custom-built audio-visual effects to highlight embodied attention. Ready to tour in 2023 as film (Vector: 360) plus installation (Vector: Interact) jointly, or as independent components. Suitable for all ages.
Embodied attention/sensory awareness is an invisible internal process, yet often drives dance creation. Vector uses custom-built coding to translate these internal processes into VR design effects and ignite audiences’ own multisensory awareness. Different aspects (body parts, visual feedback, aural feedback) are highlighted to indicate the direction and magnitude–or vector–of a dancer’s attention in both the film and installation.
Vector 360 is a five-minute VR film experience that allows audiences both to step inside the dance and to view the movement from a distance, providing an ‘inside out’ look at how dance is made, while challenging traditional theatre space, perspectives, and viewing habits of dance audiences.
The accompanying immersive participatory installation, Vector: Interact, uses projected, real-time responsive technology to allow audiences to create their own Vector choreography. Audience members will, one at a time, be able to move, engaging their own embodied awareness while generating multimodal (aural and visual) digital effects in a projected screen image, viewable by themselves and any others in the physical space of the installation, creating a sense of connection and exchange between the physical and virtual sites. Audience participation time varies; suggested duration 5 -10 min per person.
Creative Team and Crew
Joanna Cook: Creative Director/Choreographer
Rebecca Weber: Artistic and Creative Director/Choreographer
Danielle Lottridge: User Experience Director
Madison Cronin: Producer, Dancer
Yin-Chi Lee: Dancer
DOTDOT Studios: VR Vendor, Digital Platforms
Yvonne New: Composer
Eva-Rae McLean: Responsive Soundscape Composer
Wayne Yao, Luxman Jeyarajah, Eva-Rae McLean, Hazel Williams, Huidong Bai, Jessica Gomez-Ng: Coding and Development
Roy Davies, Jessica Gomez-Ng: Technical Support
Number of People in the Touring Party
0-6, depending on chosen format (video/installation/both) and venue capabilities (e.g. on-site technicians)
Previous Seasons
The work will be premiering in 2023; in-development showings have included Tempo Dance Festival (Auckland 2022) and ASDA Conference (Auckland 2022), full-scale/full tech installation event (Auckland 2023).
Reviews and Quotes
"This was beautiful to watch in VR, but it was like actually moving into the future, right here and now, to experience it live. The flow of movement extended through light and colour was stunning." - Audience Member
"Seeing myself in real-time projected as a moving cluster of grains was the kind of surreal experience that allowed me to explore every movement possibility with more levity and curiosity, and less of the judgement I tend to immediately hold over myself. It offered a type of freedom." - Audience Member
"Vector was an immersive and intriguing experience fusing movement and technology in a visually captivating and interactive way. Projects such as this give people a different method of accessing dance and movement." - Audience Member
Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)
- View/download document #1 here
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