Rco : IInvestigating social and technological constraints through interactive dance

Abstract

We describe the research led by the performance Radical Choreographic Object (RCO). RCO is a participatory performance where the audience members respond to instructions and interactions sent to their mobile phones as well as invitations to dance from the performers. The performance provides an experimental ground where we question how humans participate to the dance and how they relate to their mobile technologies. Through observations and conversations with participants during several showings, we show that the participants progressed from obeying and feeling hostage of the interactions to re-interpreting and re-appropriating them. We then discuss these fndings in the light of the norms and constraints that are imposed by social behaviours and by the abundance of mobile technologies. We also refect on the alternatives that emerge where people break free from those norms, embrace eccentricity and dare to dance.