Future Dance of Nostalgia

2022

embodimentperformanceinteractive mediagaming

Through the research on work songs in which singing/chanting helps choreograph the repetitive manual labour, the artist tries to trace out how our moving bodies used to cooperate in the extinct activities of production. From here she questions: how do we preserve the body movements and restore our moving bodies as the living archives? Can we restore it on this body of you and me, now and here?

Future Dance of Nostalgia is a dancing game which invites audience to perform the choreography that extracts and abstracts the movements found in the pre-industrial, heavy physical labour, and work songs. Motion tracking technology allows the body movements to be quantified, measured, and evaluated. Historical archives of work songs provide the inspiration for the music that renders the old tales and melodies into clubbing beats that lead the dance.

Through ethnographic research into work songs and the moving body, the project draws much needed attention to alternative historical archives of our times. The gaming technology, visual, and music, bring people closer to the past through a tangible and modern experience. The work also brings fun and togetherness to audience through public participatory dance sessions and interactive gameplay.