What is Dust
Dust is a Virtual Reality piece which invites the audience to experience dance performance from the perspective of eternal particle travelling in space.
DUST aims to transform the way people see and experience contemporary dance through a 4 minute long immersive virtual reality experience. It explores the boundaries between the virtual and the real-world experiences and advances research in the fields of participatory performance, human-computer interaction and VR technologies.
In DUST, the audience uses a Virtual Reality (VR) headset to place themselves in the immediate presence of the dancer and within a unique visual and aural scenario created by capturing volumetric recordings of dancers and photogrammetric imagery of Rambert’s building. The resulting effect is exhilarating, allowing the audience to experience the work from different perspectives and within the space where the dance is happening. DUST creates an emotional connection between the audience and the dancers, and between the audience and the digitally reconstructed architecture. It is a demonstration of what dance, performance, film and sound could become in the future of VR.
The piece is inspired by how almost every element on Earth was formed at the heart of stardust, including our bodies. Drawing inspiration from these eternal particles, as well as the motif of the unthinkable world expressed by the philosophy book In the Dust Of This Planet by Eugene Thacker, DUST seeks to reimagine our perception of body, space and time with the use of digital technologies. DUST seeks to explore innovative forms of engaging the audience and ways of building new narratives through the creative partnership of performing arts and new media.
Gallery
Experience it yourself!
24–28 APR 2024 Festival Videodanza, San Juan, Puerto Rico, US
23–25 JUL 2021 Moovy Festival, Cologne, DE
07–15 MAR 2020 Pixels Fest, Yekaterinburg, RU
18–20 OCT 2019 Festival Prototyp, Brno, CZ
08 NOV 2018 Theater und technik, Dusseldorf, DE
22 SEP 2018 Oslo night, House of Electronic Arts, Basel, CH
17 SEP 2018 Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, MX
26 AUG 2018 Dancity Festival, Foligno, IT
06 JUL 2018 Pergine Spettacolo Aperto Festival, Pergine, IT
13 JUN 2018 Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, JP
02 MAR 2018 Unlit Horizon, SmetanaQ gallery, Prague, CZ
19 JAN 2018 Athens video dance project, Athens, GR
11 JAN 2018 Temps d’images, Tanzhaus, Düsseldorf, DE
8 NOV 2017 Mixed Pickles, Theater Roxy, Basel, DH
7 OCT 2017 Festival DOM, HotDockGallery, Bratislava, SK
29 SEP 2017 WinterLAB, LABoral, Gijón, ES
13 SEP 2017 Frameless Labs 2017 Festival, Rochester, NY
01 AUG 2017 ACM SIGGRAPH Immersive Expressions WebVR exhibition, LA
27 JUL 2017 Kiosk Festival, Žilina, SK
18 MAY 2017 Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR
11 APR 2017 Ex Post, Prague, CZ
28 JAN 2017 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
27 JAN 2017 Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol, UK
26 JAN 2017 Bartlett School of Architecture, London, UK
16 NOV 2016 Rambert Dance Company, London, UK
Our interest is rooted in exploring what performance art and virtual reality can offer to each other.
We are Prague-based independent artists who have been investigating the creative potential of technology for over a decade. Our work combines the exploration of technologically informed dance practices with participatory performances, body movement, time and space. We are interested in applying the process of choreographic thinking to digital arts practice and vice versa, as we believe that it leads to the creation of richer and more meaningful experiences. We often find ourselves in close collaboration with performers, dancers and choreographers, trying to better understand the principles behind the creation of movement as well as sharing our own creative practices.
Awarded in UK
16 APR 2019
We are really excited that Dust has been selected as a winner of Zealous Stories: Digital in UK.
Awarded in Korea
13 NOV 2018
We are really excited that Dust has been selected as a winner of Mu-Ah-Ji-Kyung Prize by Nexon Computer Museum in Korea.
17 SEPT 2018
Dust has been exhibited at Connecting the Dots which took place in Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City.
11 JUNE 2018
Dust has been awarded New Face Award by 21st Japan Media Arts Festival. We are grateful for a chance to exhibit in Tokyo and to attend award ceremony in person.
02 MARCH 2018
A site-specific version of DUST was exhibited at SmetanaQ gallery, Prague alongside with our new cinematic experience of dance in virtual reality titled Unlit Horizon.
29 SEPT 2017
Recently we have been leading 3D Scanning/Photogrammetry workshop, giving a talk and panel session titled VR Storytellers: The Narrative Architects of the Future, as well as exhibiting our installation DUST in one of LABoral’s beautiful spaces.
28 JULY 2017
We customized the installation with a laser scan of this beautiful synagogue where Kiosk Festival of new Slovak theatre and dance happens.
16 DEC 2016
Together with the choreographer Patricia Okenwa we were working on the dance part of Dust. Bearing in mind that the audience will see the dance piece from any point of view at any time, the very process of choreographing is being questioned. How does one approach this challenge?
20 NOV 2016
We were running a workshop aimed at professional dance artists who are interested in exploring how digital technology can be used as a tool to develop choreography. Through the use of interactive installations that superimpose 3D captures with computer animated imagery in real-time, participants were introduced to a range of digital tools and task-based movement studies.
16 NOV 2016
We talked on our creative journey during Sprint: digital creative residency at Rambert and discussed the future direction of our research. The event was also a great opportunity to show the DUST prototype to an audience of dance, creative and art+tech professionals.
31 JULY 2016
We are developing a custom suite of tools that allows us to capture and edit footage in three dimensions for viewing in a virtual reality headset. This week we were testing out the capture from various angles simultaneously in order to create full body volumetric mesh.
