“A Corps” 2013 is a dance performance where sound is generated by two types of sensors. The first are micro-contacts that capture the dancer’s movements. The latter are electroencephalographic sensors that record brain activity and transform it into digital data to modulate sound.

The performance is an improvised dance, in which the sensor system gradually influences the performer’s behavior. This system is designed to harmonize three elements: body movement, brain activity and the sound environment. Each of these elements affects the other two. For example, the sound generated by the device guides both dance and brain activity.

Electroencephalographic sensors measure different areas of brain activity and interpret the data to create a rudimentary language. As the performance progresses, the device takes more and more control over the performer, leading him into a trance-like state.

The performance explores the tension between advanced technology, evoking a futuristic, bionic universe, and a dance based on improvisation and loss of control, inspired by ancestral practices such as shamanism. The aim is to achieve a trance-like state, where body and mind are seen as a single biological entity responding to external stimuli.

Many thanks to Michael Campi for the video footage.