apply. Being the kind of dancer used to being well rehearsed, or at least thoroughly planned, I wasn’t sure how I could go to the hackathon if I didn’t already have a plan or idea in motion. How would I fit in? What would I even do? But then I consid- ered that maybe that was the point. What I discovered is that as dance artists, we are natural storytellers who integrate physical interactivity with design, and these skills are essen- tial in XR. After an intensive day of work- shops ranging from sound haptic design to ethical hacking, I found myself at 11 pm in an impressive and modern MIT campus building on a multigenerational team working on a project with Ayaskant Panigrahi, Jennifer Chan, Barak Hussein, and Jesus Morales. Collectively, we embodied the intersection of pro- gramming, design, cyber security, and, of course, dance. A team of dias- poric XR creatives — developers, designers, and dreamers. Our project Delta Real/ation intro- duced a game where migrants lead in designing their new settlements rooted in a mixed reality XR game. This project followed a more-than- human design ethos, placing play- ers in the shoes of Koda and Nisa, recent migrants tasked with planning a sustainable and inclusive commu- nity. Aligned with the UN Sustain- ability Goal #11, the game aims to foster inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human set- tlements. The Looking Glass, a 3D frame-like display, serves as a win- dow into Koda’s Meta Quest or VR headset design process, making trans- parent what is usually invisible: indi- vidual decision-making and its poten- tial community consequences. After a round, players swap roles and are then encouraged to contemplate ges- tures of welcome for newcomers in their communities. This project drew inspiration from speculative design
principles, embracing the Protopia Futures frame- work to explore possi- ble, plausible, probable, and preferable futures. Through ideation pro- cesses, world-building, and collaborative activ- ities, Delta Real/ation envisioned a future where diverse communities can thrive. If you are inter- ested, check out our game building on our DevPost. B ack in San Francisco, and being home, I’ve begun to integrate my three-week professional development tour. One of the things that has become
or no movement is detected, the film glitches to an alterity of a city or sub- urban garden, dancing a metaphor of neo-colonialism. (a) Bathing contem- plates in motion the historical ten- sions between migration, settlement, belonging, and being responsible to a beloved place – nature. When the audience moves together at a cer- tain speed, a metaphor for collective action, they will witness an emerg- ing screen story that reflects the inte- rior lives of the film’s all-BIPOC cast. This culturally rich community comes from a range of socio-historical posi- tions, yet bathing in nature together will show a poetic relationality that contests the present world’s racial and colonial hierarchies of value. With the audience experiencing collective phys- ical movement, I hope this embodied social art experience with integrated technology will help foster and imag- ine a cross-racial alliance for audi- ences to reckon with their conscious and unconscious colonial complicity. YAYOI KAMBARA , MFA, started her career as a professional dancer and currently directs and produces live performances and multi-media works, including film and XR.
clear is a larger research question guiding my work inspired by a con- versation I was having with the co-interrogators of Dancing Around Race , Gerald Casel, David Her- rera, Raissa Simpson, and Bhumi Patel: how might creative practice be employed as a framework for harm reduction within the capitalist con- text in which we live? Through cre- ative practice, I can actively involve and evolve, implicate myself, and invite my audiences to journey alongside me. One of the next pieces I am work- ing on to premier in 2026 is (a) Bath- ing, a fantastical, immersive dance film where viewers’ bodies control a visual narrative that flickers between staid urban gardens and the natural glory of a forest or natural environ- ment. This is to stimulate audiences into imagining a diverse community where colonial modernity converses with these majestic lands. I will use a motion-tracking camera on the audience so viewers explore how group movement affects the narra- tive outcomes of this film. If little
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in dance SPRING 2024 46
SPRING 2024 in dance 47
In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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