Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

The report points out that a number of choreographers and companies fully engage with
digital technology creatively and/or organisationally, but there are a large number who do not.
This varies from some interest but little experience, through to those for whom it is still
unexplored territory and they have either the time or resources to explore the possibilities.
Those with experience have been working for many years in the field, pre-dating digitisation,
using the existing technologies of the time such as interactive video – and for whom the
palate of available tools has expanded as technologies have developed.
The website Digital Potential - www.artswebtraining.com run by Pilot Theatre, offers a guide
to the technologies currently available. The appendices found in the Digital Capacity report
provides a set of definitions, a range of websites and reading for those who wish to take their
practice further.
The report on digital capacity in dance indicates a high degree of consensus on the issues
and themes by those consulted for the report. It states that most artists do not view
themselves as ‘technologists’, but have used technology to create work as part of their
ongoing creative exploration and/or because they are interested in the human condition and
see our relationship with developing technologies as part of the 21 st century human
experience. For a small minority ‘digital dance’ is seen as a specific genre.
At the same time, the increasing ubiquity and affordability of digital technologies means that
anyone can create content and publish dance online. This is demonstrated by the YouTube
hit, Matt Harding’s Dance Around the World Part 2. See:
www.metacafe.com/watch/183556/where_the_hell_is_matt_dance_around_the_world_part_2/
The authors of the report see this growing phenomenon raising interesting questions of how
to define an artist in a world of increased democratisation and personalisation. Who is best
placed to make judgements of quality, with exponential increases in the number and diversity
of arbiters of taste? When anyone can be an originator of content, will it become more difficult
for professional artists to sustain income streams from the creation of work? Democratisation
was highlighted in Whose art is it anyway?, by John Knell (2007) 78 It is an issue that will
continue to present challenges to Arts Council England and the wider dance sector in the
context of the digital revolution.
78 Knell, J (2007) Whose Art is it Anyway? [a report to Arts Council England on democratisation of the arts] London:
Arts Council England
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