A practitioner-scholar whose artistic and theoretical research explores the nature of the dialogue between the sensory and new technologies, I was formerly Professor of Choreography and New Media at the University of Chichester, and was recently appointed Professor Emerita. I have now re-embarked on a freelance career as scholar and artist (see www.sensedigital.co.uk).
My artistic research specialises in choreographic digital installations in which the haptic senses are the primary interface between visitor and installation. I mount installations in dance and theatre venues and in non-dance venues such as art galleries. My academic writings have been published extensively, nationally and internationally, and recently co-edited book with Prof. Gretchen Schiller of the University of Grenoble. Entitled "Choreographic Dwellings: Practicing Place" the book presents a series of articles on extended choreographic practices that address issues of Place.
I am a qualified PhD supervisor and Examiner, having examined PhDs both in the UK and overseas, and continue to lecture and write for national and international organisations. Address: Bishop Otter Campus College Lane Chichester PO19 6PE
This report outlines the research methodology, research imperatives and process used in the devel... more This report outlines the research methodology, research imperatives and process used in the development of the multi-user interactive installation "Sensuous Geographies". A collaboration between composer Alistair MacDonald and choreographer Sarah Rubidge, this installation explored the sensuous geographies inherent in this immersive sonic environment.
Blurring the boundaries between dance, installation and music, new technology combines with chanc... more Blurring the boundaries between dance, installation and music, new technology combines with chance and ritual to produce an intriguing, disquieting and yet hugely accessible work. The actions of the audience generate and influence musical layers and projected imagery in an interactive/reactive environment. The soundscape created by these visitors, who can chose either to 'observe' or participate as 'players', shifts in quality and texture to produce a mood and atmosphere that is unique to each session.
This thesis examines the incidence and nature of dance in adult education in the context of arts ... more This thesis examines the incidence and nature of dance in adult education in the context of arts education in the adult sector, and investigates the characteristics of practitioners in the field and their attitudes towards their dance activities, It includes within its research remit provision offered by both statutory and non-statutory bodies. The thesis supplements previous studies of the arts in adult education and existing studies of dance education in the initial sector. Data for the study was collected by participant-observation and by questionnaires distributed to teachers and students of dance in the adult sector. The questionnaires elicited low returns which prevented the results being used as the basis of a statistical analysis. Instead they have been used as indicators in the formulation of a profile of dance students and teachers in adult education in the mid-nineteen eighties. Dance in adult education was found to have increased significantly in the last two decades in ...
As an academic with the dual identity of digital choreographer and scholar, like many artists my ... more As an academic with the dual identity of digital choreographer and scholar, like many artists my practice interrogates ideas and concepts as much as any of the papers I write. This paper is written from the perspective of an artist-scholar, with the emphasis on the artist side of the equation. It explores through examples the possibilities that digital media can offer to developments that are starting to take place amongst artists in South East Asia whose practice is rooted in traditional dance forms. Although a new artistic medium it is argued that digital choreography can provide a means of thinking beneath the traditional forms of expression to the implications that they might harbour within 21 century society, and the implications that 21 century thinking might hold for approaches to traditional dance forms. Intended as an introduction to the use of this new medium in dance, it traces the development of the use of digital media in the choreographic domain, and introduces some of...
In the context of the increasing use of new spaces for choreography and new modalities of choreog... more In the context of the increasing use of new spaces for choreography and new modalities of choreographic practice, such as the generation of choreographic installation spaces and screendance, this paper proposes that theorists such as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Brian Massumi, Manuel deLanda and Susanne Langer, Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift and Paul Rodaway offer a rich resource for a discussion of choreographic space. In this paper the notion of choreographic space is predicated on the conception of space as a dynamic, relational concept, and suggests that choreographic space is constituted as intensive space, a transient spatiotemporal network of forces, vectors and tensions, processual rather than stable and, crucially, experiential. It further proposes that extensive and intensive space are by no means oppositional forms of experiencing space, rather they are co-present in any experience of choreographic space whether that experience is of participant, performer or audience. The paper thus argues that choreographic space is an in/extensive space, one that interlaces the dynamic textures of qualitative space and the stable features of material space within a process of reconfiguration of the latter’s affective contours.
This report outlines the development of the choreographic digital installation Thai Tracings (201... more This report outlines the development of the choreographic digital installation Thai Tracings (2013). It weaves descriptions of the artistic and technological research processes undertaken, including the way technical and artistic issues encountered were resolved during the generation of the work with a) the very specific sociocultural context for which it was created b) the theoretical ideas that underpinned the decisions made during the artistic research. All of these elements were of crucial significance to the artistic project, and affected the working processes that led to the final manifestation of Thai Tracings at Bangkok University’s International Performing Arts Festival in 2013.
This article explores the notion that many, but not all, choreographic installations generate the... more This article explores the notion that many, but not all, choreographic installations generate the conditions for performative events. It discusses choreographic installations in the context of performative installations from the visual arts and dance. In examining different forms of choreographic installation, it explores different meanings of the term 'performativity', proposing 'strong' and 'weak' usages in the context of the term 'performative installation'.
The presentation of this paper at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2009 sat somew... more The presentation of this paper at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2009 sat somewhere between a paper and a sharing of the results of preliminary research for an artistic project. Eventually we, the authors, hope that our artistic research into the processes of ...
… expanded dance. Lisbon, Portugal: Faculdade de …
Originally given as a performative paper at the TeDance conference in Lisbon in November 2007, I ... more Originally given as a performative paper at the TeDance conference in Lisbon in November 2007, I here offer a written discussion of that exploration of the technological poetics of the digital performance work global drifts. global drifts was a multi-stranded multi-sited collaborative ...
This report outlines the research methodology, research imperatives and process used in the devel... more This report outlines the research methodology, research imperatives and process used in the development of the multi-user interactive installation "Sensuous Geographies". A collaboration between composer Alistair MacDonald and choreographer Sarah Rubidge, this installation explored the sensuous geographies inherent in this immersive sonic environment.
Blurring the boundaries between dance, installation and music, new technology combines with chanc... more Blurring the boundaries between dance, installation and music, new technology combines with chance and ritual to produce an intriguing, disquieting and yet hugely accessible work. The actions of the audience generate and influence musical layers and projected imagery in an interactive/reactive environment. The soundscape created by these visitors, who can chose either to 'observe' or participate as 'players', shifts in quality and texture to produce a mood and atmosphere that is unique to each session.
This thesis examines the incidence and nature of dance in adult education in the context of arts ... more This thesis examines the incidence and nature of dance in adult education in the context of arts education in the adult sector, and investigates the characteristics of practitioners in the field and their attitudes towards their dance activities, It includes within its research remit provision offered by both statutory and non-statutory bodies. The thesis supplements previous studies of the arts in adult education and existing studies of dance education in the initial sector. Data for the study was collected by participant-observation and by questionnaires distributed to teachers and students of dance in the adult sector. The questionnaires elicited low returns which prevented the results being used as the basis of a statistical analysis. Instead they have been used as indicators in the formulation of a profile of dance students and teachers in adult education in the mid-nineteen eighties. Dance in adult education was found to have increased significantly in the last two decades in ...
As an academic with the dual identity of digital choreographer and scholar, like many artists my ... more As an academic with the dual identity of digital choreographer and scholar, like many artists my practice interrogates ideas and concepts as much as any of the papers I write. This paper is written from the perspective of an artist-scholar, with the emphasis on the artist side of the equation. It explores through examples the possibilities that digital media can offer to developments that are starting to take place amongst artists in South East Asia whose practice is rooted in traditional dance forms. Although a new artistic medium it is argued that digital choreography can provide a means of thinking beneath the traditional forms of expression to the implications that they might harbour within 21 century society, and the implications that 21 century thinking might hold for approaches to traditional dance forms. Intended as an introduction to the use of this new medium in dance, it traces the development of the use of digital media in the choreographic domain, and introduces some of...
In the context of the increasing use of new spaces for choreography and new modalities of choreog... more In the context of the increasing use of new spaces for choreography and new modalities of choreographic practice, such as the generation of choreographic installation spaces and screendance, this paper proposes that theorists such as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Brian Massumi, Manuel deLanda and Susanne Langer, Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift and Paul Rodaway offer a rich resource for a discussion of choreographic space. In this paper the notion of choreographic space is predicated on the conception of space as a dynamic, relational concept, and suggests that choreographic space is constituted as intensive space, a transient spatiotemporal network of forces, vectors and tensions, processual rather than stable and, crucially, experiential. It further proposes that extensive and intensive space are by no means oppositional forms of experiencing space, rather they are co-present in any experience of choreographic space whether that experience is of participant, performer or audience. The paper thus argues that choreographic space is an in/extensive space, one that interlaces the dynamic textures of qualitative space and the stable features of material space within a process of reconfiguration of the latter’s affective contours.
This report outlines the development of the choreographic digital installation Thai Tracings (201... more This report outlines the development of the choreographic digital installation Thai Tracings (2013). It weaves descriptions of the artistic and technological research processes undertaken, including the way technical and artistic issues encountered were resolved during the generation of the work with a) the very specific sociocultural context for which it was created b) the theoretical ideas that underpinned the decisions made during the artistic research. All of these elements were of crucial significance to the artistic project, and affected the working processes that led to the final manifestation of Thai Tracings at Bangkok University’s International Performing Arts Festival in 2013.
This article explores the notion that many, but not all, choreographic installations generate the... more This article explores the notion that many, but not all, choreographic installations generate the conditions for performative events. It discusses choreographic installations in the context of performative installations from the visual arts and dance. In examining different forms of choreographic installation, it explores different meanings of the term 'performativity', proposing 'strong' and 'weak' usages in the context of the term 'performative installation'.
The presentation of this paper at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2009 sat somew... more The presentation of this paper at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2009 sat somewhere between a paper and a sharing of the results of preliminary research for an artistic project. Eventually we, the authors, hope that our artistic research into the processes of ...
… expanded dance. Lisbon, Portugal: Faculdade de …
Originally given as a performative paper at the TeDance conference in Lisbon in November 2007, I ... more Originally given as a performative paper at the TeDance conference in Lisbon in November 2007, I here offer a written discussion of that exploration of the technological poetics of the digital performance work global drifts. global drifts was a multi-stranded multi-sited collaborative ...
This paper explores the way multi-sensory immersive interactive installations contribute to the c... more This paper explores the way multi-sensory immersive interactive installations contribute to the complex interweaving systems that make up the embodied mind, and through this the notion of corporal literacy. It also draws on the work of neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio (2000) and Gerald Edelman (2001), psychologists such as Howard Gardner (1993), and philosophers such as Bergson (1910); Merleau Ponty (1989) and Deleuze and Guattari (1987). In this paper I will be offering my thoughts on the primacy of the corporal in understanding the environments we inhabit. I will be speaking from the perspective of an installation artist who takes this conceit as one of the founding principles of her work. My work is predicated on understanding the immersive installations I generate with my collaborators environment primarily through the somatic perceptual systems. My aim here is to explore the notion that such installations can serve to enhance, or heighten corporal literacy. In this paper I will using the terms 'literacy' and 'literate' in an extended sense, frequently transposing their original meanings (which pertain to the written word) into meanings which refer to those understandings we glean through our senses. Just as in the visual arts the term visually literate is used to refer to the ability to make fine discriminations in the detail, texture and structures of visual phenomena, and in music the term aurally literate refers to a highly refined ability to identify the detail, texture and structure of sound, so I will using the term corporal literacy to refer to the ability to discriminate equally subtle details of the structurings and textures of corporal sensation which emanate from the somatic perceptual system 1 during interaction with the environment. It is recognised that the visual and auditory perceptual systems cannot be separated out from the corporal. However, in this paper my focus will be on the somatic perceptual systems 2 , which incorporate the sense of touch, the kinaesthetic sense, proprioception. And the physiological systems which allow us to sense subtle changes in pressure, temperature and so on. (Gibson; 1968: Rodaway; 1994). The somatic perceptual system is concerned with knowing the world in a fundamental way, that is through 'feeling' the world, both by means of an immediate and an extended sense of touch. It is through the somatic system that we can know (sense) our 'place' in the environment at a given 1 This term incorporates the sense of touch, the kinaesthetic sense , the visceral sense and proprioception, and thus extends beyond J.J.Gibson's 'haptic " perceptual system. 2 In which psychologist J.J. Gibson (1966) includes touch, the kinaesthetic sense and proprioception
This is a research report on an experimental interdisciplinary research project, "Diagramming Mov... more This is a research report on an experimental interdisciplinary research project, "Diagramming Movement between the Cartographic and the Choreographic", which in part was concerned with exploring a collaborative research methodology that had a heterarchical structure. The project was undertaken with geographer Dr Derek McCormack, from Oxford Univerrsity, PhD students and independent artists. An analysis of the project is the subject of the final chapter of McCormack's book "Refrains For Moving Bodies: Experience and Experiment in Affective Spaces" (Duke University Press). As but one 'molecule' of a larger research project "Society of Molecules", the theme that guided our research was the diagramming of movement between the cartographic and the choreographic. It used Deleuzian-induced understandings of the cartographic, and explored the notions of affect that emerged in Deleuze and Guattari's work. The research involved practice-based experimentations/ interventions alongside readings of the work of geographers, philosophers and other theorists whose work addressed issues consonant with our concerns. Conceptual traces of these could be detected in the practical results of the research experiment. The above are all described and reflected upon in this research report.
This paper discusses a practice-based research project, the intention of which was was to record ... more This paper discusses a practice-based research project, the intention of which was was to record though audio/visual means traces of the sensation elicited by the experience of "sensewalking". The paper explores the conceptual and pragmatic issues that arose in our attempts to articulate these traces visually and aurally using digital media. It describes the practical strategies and techniques developed for 'recording' experiences involved in Sensewalking, and the digital processing of the outcomes of those recordings, the aim of which was to provoke similar experiential/physiological responses in viewers and listeners, that is to go some way to answering the question: can vision be experienced haptically? To this end the paper also explores the play of perception and consciousness in sensate experience, and issues concerning the 'authenticity' of any 'real-world' re-presentation of the nuances of sensate experience. (see also Diagramming Movement Research Report)
This Research Report outlines the practice-based research processes undertaken in a preliminary r... more This Research Report outlines the practice-based research processes undertaken in a preliminary research project to test the viability of using a cutting-edge custom built 3D wireless motion tracking system to allow the use of the movement of dancers to spatialise sound in 3D in realtime. The research was conducted by choreographer Sarah Rubidge and sound artist Stan Wijnans, in collaboration with improvising dancers Abi Mortimer and Carrie Whitaker of Lila Dance Company. The project culminated in an improvised performance for an invited audience.
This Research Report outlines an Arts/Science collaborative research project from the perspective... more This Research Report outlines an Arts/Science collaborative research project from the perspective of the artistic research processes. The research explored the potential of generative/ALife systems that would create imagery that echoed the internal flows of dance-like movement, their potential as an operational system for visually-based interactive digital installations with a choreographic sensibility, and the use of viewers' physiological responses to the resulting kinetic imagery as an interactive interface to modulate that imagery. Undertaken over a period of 18 months with Dr Beau Lotto and four of his PhD students, Daniel Hulme, Richard Clarke, David Malkin and Erwan le Martelot at Lottolab – then a research lab at the University of London specialising in the study of perception, now a public research space (see www.lottolab.org) – the cross-disciplinary research researched the impact of visual imagery on viewers' physiology, the development of Alife systems that responded to physiological responses and the creation of an interactive installation that articulated the results of the research.
This is the interim Research Report on a large-scale digital choreography event undertaken with A... more This is the interim Research Report on a large-scale digital choreography event undertaken with Australian choreographer Hellen Sky as part of the Brisbane International Arts Festival, 2006.
(See also "The Technological Poetics of "global drifts" in Papers section.)
This paper discusses key issues which arose during the creation of Sensuous Geographies, a multi-... more This paper discusses key issues which arose during the creation of Sensuous Geographies, a multi-user interactive/responsive installation created in 2003/4. In particular it will refer to the way in which the design of the installation was intended to draw attention to bodily sensation, facilitate collaborative interactivity between participants and bring about an emergent choreography, and to the collaborative methodology used in developing this work.
Sensuous Geographies was an immersive, interactive installation, which was activated through a co... more Sensuous Geographies was an immersive, interactive installation, which was activated through a colour tracking system. It fluctuated between being an experiential installation and performance event. Sensuous Geographies comprised an electronically sensitized space which responded to participants’ movement trajectories. Having donned richly coloured gowns made of silk participants were invited to step into the installation space where they became immersed in a field of sound & colour. Each 'collected' a sound on entering the space. As they moved strands and layers of sound material followed them participants around the installation. These were distributed and modulated in real-time by the participants' trajectories through the space, the velocity of their motion and their proximity with others. Although primarily designed to be explored and experienced from within, the movement of the group of participants in the installation space also became, for onlookers, an informal improvised choreography.
Immersive, interactive choreographic installation created by Sarah Rubidge and Alistair MacDonald... more Immersive, interactive choreographic installation created by Sarah Rubidge and Alistair MacDonald, costumes by Maggie Moffat. The installation environment, sonic and visual, was modulated by the trajectories and velocities of blind-folded and costumed participants as they moved through the space, seemingly 'following' an individual sound strand that was triggered by the colour of their costume as they entered the active installation space.
The work was mounted at the New Territories Festival 2003; The Red Cat Theatre, Los Angeles, 2004; and toured theatres in England in 2004
Practicing Place introduces the notion of kinaesthetic topologies and their relation to place. Ki... more Practicing Place introduces the notion of kinaesthetic topologies and their relation to place. Kinaesthetic topologies describes the processes involved in, and qualitative residual impact of body-environment interactions and the ways in which these elements shape our perception. The theoretical grounding of this body-environment condition is described as a dynamic architecture of affect, agency and affordance which presents a paradigmatic shift in thinking the choreographic - moving us away from the dancer, the dance and dancing. The themes of choreographic dwelling and the physical enactments of place are proposed as platial efforts which both challenge and embrace concepts of embodiment in Place Studies.
This first article in "Choreographic Dwellings: Practising Place" (eds. Schiller, Gretchen and R... more This first article in "Choreographic Dwellings: Practising Place" (eds. Schiller, Gretchen and Rubidge, Sarah. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan) explores the way that place becomes action in physical practices that, although not dance, are permeated with a choreographic sensibility. It introduces the notions of Choreographic Dwelling, platial efforts, kinaesthetic topologies and the architectures of affect, agency and affordance that characterise the embodied encounters that invoke choreographic dwelling.
The articles in "Choreographic Dwellings: Practising Place" extends the notion of the choreograph... more The articles in "Choreographic Dwellings: Practising Place" extends the notion of the choreographic by highlighting the experiential condition of contemporary performance projects which enact place as action. It explores the kinaesthetic as a topological condition of choreographic dwelling where body-environment interactions produce platial efforts through their physical enactment of place place. The articles in the book challenge and embrace discussions of embodiment from philosophy, geography and psychology, and shift the attention from the dancer, dance and dancing to that of the dynamic architectures that are at play between the individual and the environment. This paradigmatic shift in thinking the choreographic is brought to life in this collection with writings from artist-scholars and movement practitioners from dance, music, performance, urban studies, circus, interaction design and Parkour.
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Papers by Sarah Rubidge
(See also "The Technological Poetics of "global drifts" in Papers section.)
The work was mounted at the New Territories Festival 2003; The Red Cat Theatre, Los Angeles, 2004; and toured theatres in England in 2004