A Multimedia Exhibit
By Marcina Zaccaria . . .
A mash-up of movement to questions posed by a computer form, this presentation is not for Instagram wannabees.
It’s a built-for-movement display for people of all ethnicities and body types. A team of artists, studying at MIT’s Music and Theater Arts department, chime in with contributors from Art Spaces-Dance in Poland and Norwegian Theater Academy. Liberating for those who believe that they think they can’t dance, participants respond in movement to a timed questionnaire forwarded to them with a click of the hyperlink.
In the half-hour that I viewed Collision Shop, I noted actors showing off in the Science Lab or the great buildings at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dance looks more kinetic and exuberant when interpreted by the largely college age participants, facilitated by Director Dan Safer.
Collision Shop asks the video participants to stand or sit and show if you are short or tall. People not in the same room are presented next to each other simultaneously, in any random order on the screen. After showing something tiny to the screen, they boogie in the environment that they have created before free-styling to express their joy. Framed by a graphic with bright pink flowers, participants prove that they could bring their unique intelligence to this experimental endeavor. Contributing to the mash-up that matters, anyone can submit the next post, just to keep people dancing.
Collision Shop is currently available for viewing online or at the MIT campus, at Art Spaces-Dance in Poland, at Art Lords Gallery in Kabul, Afghanistan, at Invisible Dog in Brooklyn, NY. It is presented in association with October Octopus, a cultural programming agency based in Lyon, France.
