Dark Elegies: The Choreographics of Surveillant Systems and National Defense

Choreographer Sydney Skybetter will present his research on the intersections of gesture, dance history, computer science, and homeland security. With case studies of the Snowden leaks, Facebook’s Oculus platform, the film Minority Report, and early motion capture research conducted with choreographers Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones, Skybetter will sketch a vision of the evolution of contemporary surveillance technologies undergirded by dance theory and choreographic method.

Sydney Skybetter is a choreographer, dance scholar, and founder of the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI), a convening of performing artists, arts professionals, ethnographers, anthropologists, and speculative designers. As lecturer at Brown University, Skybetter’s research explores the choreographics of human-computer interfaces and mixed reality systems. He has lectured at Harvard University, Saatchi, and MIT, among other institutions, across the subjects of dance and dance history to cultural futurism and computer-human interfaces.