Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the implications of recording and digitizing (by video and motion capture technologies) a variety of cultural and contemporary dance performance practices, core to a multi-partner European project: WhoLoDancE, focusing on issues of reuse, ownership and responsibility.

Paper long abstract:

The WhoLoDancE project is a multi-partner European Commission-funded project that is creating a variety of digital tools for supporting the transmission of different dance practices (contemporary dance, ballet, Flamenco and Greek folk dance). The aim of the tools is to support educational and creative processes in dance; including analysis (through annotating and discovering dance content stored within the movement library) and choreography (through a blending tool and virtual learning devices). The recordings and subsequent processing of dance material into digital data raises interesting questions about the responsibilities of the project team to the dancers who have contributed their material to the project, particularly when it is transformed into data visualisations that can be accessed and reused by others. The presentation will focus on how value accrues in these kinds of resources and sometimes in unexpected ways, partly through the preservation of traditional (and previously undocumented) dance practices but in collecting and sharing these materials, what ethical issues arise around ownership and attribution in the digital environment?