About this page
Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments: Dance Based Approaches to Data (AH/W005034/1, 2022-2025) grows out of Dr. Kate Elswit and Dr. Harmony Bench (The Ohio State University)’s longstanding working collaboration, most recently on Dunham’s Data: Katherine Dunham and Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry (AH/R012989/1, 2018-2022).
Whereas Dunham’s Data pioneered the application of scalable digital methods to the field of dance history, Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments will focus on the adaptation of data-driven research to the medium of dance that serves to enable this broader paradigm shift. Grounded in the specific needs of dance scholarship, this next phase of research engages with emerging digital techniques and technologies from the perspective of dance-based knowledge practices to further investigate how a data-driven approach that is tailored to the medium of dance can transform the use of digital tools to evidence and elaborate the historical study of embodied knowledge more broadly.
The primary mode of delivery for this AHRC Research Development and Engagement Fellowship is research activity to curate historical data that centres dance-based knowledge practices and to create palpable visual arguments in the form of digital visualizations and immersive experiences, guided by choreographic principles. Collaborating Organizations and Project Partners include museums and archives exploring digital innovation (the San-Francisco-based Museum of Dance; the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas; the National Archives of Data on Arts and Culture; The National Archives), emerging technology and design centres at two US universities (Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design at The Ohio State University and Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology), and community dance stakeholders (the US-based Institute for Dunham Technique Certification).