Exploring the intersections of dance, science, and technology

A collaborative, experimental design project for a multi-sensory experience of dance. 

 

What if you could feel a dancer's footwork in the palm of your hand? Merging technology and dance, the Harvard Biohybrid Organs and Neuroprosthetics (BIONICS) lab, led by Professor Shriya Srinivasan, investigates the utility of an Immersive Haptics Platform in the performance setting. 

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This technology augments the sensory experience of dance by enabling audiences to feel the intricate patterns produced by the dancers’ feet, through a mobile application in the palm of one's hands.  The Anubhava Dance Company aims to build a greater appreciation for the rhythmic complexities embedded in choreography, making the art more accessible to lay audiences and those with visual and hearing impairments, and creating unique multi-sensory experiences that audiences will remember.

At the premiere show, viewers described the experience as - 

 

“Amazing to see and feel the choreography! Felt similar to what it is like to read music as one hears a piece of music.” “Provocative." “This was incredible. I felt much more immersed in the dance and really related to a greater degree.“

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This project will be featured in PBS NOVA's upcoming "Built World" series.