Interactive Fan Dance: Towards a Community-Informed, Culturally Situated Interactive Dance Instrument

Jason Gao; Shirley Nguyen; Alexandria Smith; Brian Magerko

Image credit: Jason Gao; Shirley Nguyen; Alexandria Smith; Brian Magerko

• oral
• Paper PDF link
• Presence: in person
• Duration: 16
• Type: long
• Session: Musical Objects

Abstract:

Interactive Dance literature is dominated by instruments centered around contemporary dance, and to a lesser extent, ballet. This paper provides an alternative perspective of culturally situated, community-informed NIME design through interviews with 18 practitioners of Chinese and Vietnamese fan dance, examining how dancers negotiate traditional identity and culture in their practice. From these insights, we propose a conceptual framework that places fan dance as a living, highly contextual, and social practice. This framework provides the foundation for initial explorations of a culturally situated interactive dance interface, investigating how NIMEs can be embedded within existing intangible cultural heritage (ICH).