Beyond spectacle: Kandinsky’s aesthetics and Co-creative necessity in digital dance

Abstract

This study aims to explore how dance can sustain its artistic significance in an era where digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality are transforming the modes of artistic creation and reception. Methodologically, it employs Stake’s instrumental case study and Yin’s principles of case study design, combining dramaturgical analysis with Kandinsky’s philosophy of art. The cases examined are Wayne McGregor’s Living Archive and the Merce Cunningham Centennial Digital Reconstruction Project, which together illuminate the aesthetic and ontological implications of digital dance in the contexts of creation and preservation. The findings reveal that while digital technologies expand the accessibility and scope of dance, they also risk undermining corporeal presence, liveness, and inner resonance. To address this tension, the study introduces the concept of co-creative necessity, an extension of Kandinsky’s notion of inner necessity, to describe the conditions under which human impulses are actualized through technological mediation and audience participation. This framework highlights how digital dance can evolve beyond mere technological experimentation to persist as an art form grounded in spiritual resonance and human depth.