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Short abstract

The use of Labanotation to reveal structures in the movements of microscopic animals that may augment existing biological observation vocabularies, introducing the hypothesis that choreographic notation can expose spatial and temporal patterns not captured in current observational frameworks.

Long abstract

This presentation introduces a methodological experiment at the intersection of artistic practice and evolutionary biology in a space context. The project develops a notation-based approach for analysing the movements of Bdelloid rotifers recorded in microgravity experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as part of the research project Ēngines of Ēternity (Vermeulen et al., 2022).

The method applies Labanotation, a formal system originally developed to record human dance (McCaw, 2012), to transcribe the microscopic movements of rotifers observed in video recordings. Through observation and movement analysis derived from choreographic practice, conducted both manually and through algorithmic motion tracking, rotifer trajectories, orientations, and temporal patterns are translated into symbolic movement scores. This provides a structured representation of behavioural sequences that complements existing biological analyses by focusing on the spatial organisation, repetition and rhythm of organisms' movements.

The work is framed within boundary object theory (Star & Griesemer, 1989). In this project, the notation score functions as a boundary object between artistic movement analysis and evolutionary biology. It allows the findings to be positioned simultaneously within the evolutionary biological analysis of rotifer behaviour and within the art–science methodological framework developed in this project.

The presentation outlines the methodological process and introduces the project’s central hypothesis: that translating rotifer movements into choreographic notation may expose movement structures that are difficult to describe using existing observational vocabularies alone.