Misperforming Symposium

Techies and artists will come together at a conference on the changing worlds of performance art and technology.

Exploring how technologies such as motion capture, digital art and robotics can work in performance art will be among topics addressed at 'MISPERFORMING: A symposium on the unstable paradigms of performance and media arts'. The one day symposium on Saturday 28 November will hosted by AUT University’s School of Art & Design and AUT’s CoLab Creative Technology Centre.

Misperforming is a cousin event to the 15th PSi (Performance Studies International) conference Misperformance: Misfiring, Misfitting, Misreading that was held in Zagreb earlier this year.  New Zealand performance practitioners who attended the PSi will present their papers in two sessions.

Keynote speaker, Australian digital choreographer/performer/director and writer Hellen Sky will explore the emerging 21st century transdisciplinary performance art in the context of a rapidly changing creative and technology industries environment.

The AUT University Art & Design School will also launch a new degree – the Master of Performance and Media Arts which is concerned with performance and media arts practices created with interactive technologies.

Misperforming will be followed by GLITCH, a three hour evening performance at St Paul St Gallery and CoLab is also hosting a Performance Workshop with Hellen Sky and industrial designer Brandon Hur.

Keynote speaker Hellen Sky

Hellen Sky is an Australian digital choreographer/performer/director and writer.

She has been described as a visionary for her innovative use of technology and computer interactivity in the performing arts. Through their use she finds new ways of telling stories which are relevant to the complexity of the 21st century.

Helen’s interdisciplinary work bridges dance, performance, theatre and installation extended through new technologies. She is working collaboratively on a system to develop a human computer system using bio data from brain, muscle and motion which is edited to create spoken word, movement and audio visual projections.

She collaborates with artists, scientists, performers, composers, academics, designers, writers, architects, computer interface designers and programmers to develop scores and technology that often use real time data generated by the body as part of the media which feeds influences the choreography.

She studied at the Australian Ballet School, has a BA in Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts and is a founding member of the Australian Performing Group and a founding member of Circus Oz.

Related Article: Misperforming: A Symposium on the Unstable Paradigms of Performance and Media Arts