Wellington mutlmedia artist Daniel James is the man behind what is being billed as a world-first, an interactive installation work merging dance, film and touchscreen technology. Debuting in Wellington at the Hutt Winter Festival it's called Dance with a Stranger. You can dance with it at the Hutt City Council offices for one day only 2pm to 6pm Saturday 17th of August. Daniel has been selected to present at Prague Quadrennial twice over (it's the world's largest performance design festival). In 2015, he hand-built a human-scale robot that was included in the NZ national exhibition there. Daniel has just come back from Prague where he composed the music and created a mapped projection work. The concept for Dance with a Stranger initially came out of conversations with Jess Quaid. The idea is that the screen becomes a place where someone can connect (via the screen) and have a moment of joy dancing together with a complete stranger. The intention is that it would break down perceived barriers of age/race/gender and other demographics - allowing humans to interact with other humans. Daniel doesn't know of any other works that involve community workshops to create content for an interactive touchscreen. His aim with this interactive workshop is for people to come away with a feeling that we are not all that different from one another. He has run filming workshops around different community hubs across the Hutt Valley, where he filmed members of the public and inserted them into the piece and appear as the 'strangers' that other members of the public will dance with. The instant that a participant presses their own hand to the window, a stranger suddenly appears, pressing their hand to the participant's hand, and the music starts playing. Exactly as the title of the work suggests, the stranger on-screen dances, whilst pressing their hand to the participants. The participant may respond by dancing together with the stranger, as their hands press through the screen. When the participant releases their hand, the screen returns to its original ambient state.
4 Aug 2019
