In this black and white image, a performer positioned between two computers falls onto a black mat. She is caught with her knees hovering just above the ground and her body thrown backwards. She wears a black, skin-tight technical suit. A set of imposing numbers and a grid-based formation of crumpled, digital bodies is projected behind her.
April 13 at 7pm
COMMIT! is an interactive performance in which a performer falls repeatedly, throwing themselves on the ground trying to execute the most “committed” fall that they possibly can.
During the show, the performer attempts to measure “commitment” through audience feedback and sensor data that tracks body shape, speed, and impact. The performance juxtaposes the unrelenting falling, real-time audience feedback on their “commitment,” and projected visuals of collected data. Together, these elements reveal the expectations raised and enforced by technological surveillance and gamified interaction systems, and confront the viewer with the physical and emotional toll of trying to conform.
This work is supported by the Dance Place Co-Presentation Series.
About Kate Ladenheim
Kate Ladenheim is a choreographer, media designer, and creative technologist. With work that spans interactive installation, media design, choreography, and creative robotics, she researches bodies in motion and how they impact and are impacted by systems of social and technological pressure.
Ladenheim holds an M.F.A. in Media Design Practices from ArtCenter College of Design and a BFA in Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory. She has conducted research in motion interfaces for robotics design at U.C.L.A., and was the 2019-2020 Artist in Residence at the Robotics, Automation, & Dance Lab at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Her artistic projects have been presented internationally, including at The Invisible Dog, National Sawdust, GrizzlyGrizzly, Brown University, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and The Performance Arcade (New Zealand). Her work has been celebrated in Dance Magazine as one of their “25 to Watch” and “Best of 2018.”
Ladenheim is currently the Associate Artist-in-Residence at the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, a faculty position at the University of Maryland in Theater, Dance and Performance Studies.
About Collaborator Mollye Bendell
Mollye Bendell is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus in electronic and digital media. She has created radio sculptures as a resident of Wave Farm, and developed augmented and virtual reality projects as a resident of Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and the Tides Institute and Museum of Art. She is also a founding member of media arts collective strikeWare, which creates experiences grounded in our collective history, often using new technologies to emphasize the nowness of that history. Mollye’s solo work has been exhibited in venues such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the New York Electronic Arts Festival, and Maryland Art Place. She recently completed her first augmented reality public art commissions from Ladew Topiary Gardens and the City of Redmond, Washington. She has recently exhibited at the Julio Fine Arts Gallery and Maryland Art Place.
Mollye is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park. She lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.
Thank you to our 2023-2024 Season Supporters!
Important Note: ASL Interpretation available upon request 2 weeks in advance of the event
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