The Choreography of Things

A Trailer Show by Choy Ka Fai

19 September – 17 October 2014 (part of ArtLicks Weekend)

What we think about when we think about dance?

Is it possible to alter the neural impulses of our choreographic minds?

Following Choy Kai Fa's residency of the same name The Choreography of Things is an exploration into the neurological narratives of our body and the things that condition us. The project investigates perceptions of movements and memories. Inquiring into the paradigm of the mind and body with a pseudo scientific aesthetic.

The Trailer Show will present a series of studies on the act of choreography and the possibilities of a choreographic neural archive.

The human brain is the single most fascinating and enigmatic organ of our body. It is also one of the most complex and ancient technologies we had yet to explore. Choreographers had always been intrigued by concept of the mind and the body.

Many had explored this relationship through dance, text, emotions, sound and images. Some works were mesmerising; while others were inherently abstract in the way they negotiated the complexity of our neurological paths. However, with today emerging technology, we are able to access our neural data easily with commercial devices. Artists are now able to hack into our own brainwave activities to create artistic hypothesis.

These artistic hypotheses would generate an alternative ways of how we perceive brainwave data as a basis of experiment on our cognitive potential in relation with the idea of movement.

The Choreography of Things is a continuation of Choy Ka Fai two previous projects Prospectus For A Future Body (2010-2012) and SoftMachine (2012-2014), all investigating choreographic processes, from the technological conditioning of the human body to the cultural-social aspects of dance, movement and choreography

Prospectus For A Future Body imagines the technological narratives of our body, and research on the possibilities of a digital muscle memory concept.

SoftMachine investigate the statue of contemporary dance, surveying 86 Asian dance makers with interviews, documentaries, collaboration and performance.

The Choreography of Things is part of this trilogy of work by Choy Ka Fai on the conception of movement, dance and technology. Appropriating the scientific, historical and cultural aspect of the body as a medium of expression, to speculate on the physical relationships and the cognitive interactions between the bodies of man, machine and nature.

Choy Ka Fai an artist, performance maker and speculative designer. He is inspired by the histories and theories that together contain the uncertainties of the future. His research springs from a desire to understand the conditioning of the human body, its intangible memories and the forces shaping its expressions. These factors converge into complex articulations at the intersection of art, design and technology.

Ka Fai graduated in Design Interaction from the Royal College Of Art London, with the Singapore National Arts Council Overseas Scholarship, and was conferred the Singapore Young Artist Award in 2010. He is currently the Artist-In-Residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien for 2014-2015.

His works have been presented in art festival worldwide, such as, Platform Media Art Festival, Moscow (2014), 25th Tanz Im August, Berlin (2013), Singapore Arts Festival (2012). His projects was also exhibited at various institution, including Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2014), The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2012), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010).

The project is first developed with the support of arebyte Gallery Residency in Jan 2014.