Throughout history, dance is a powerful tool for expression of self or community. Art, especially dance, became a way to react to societal shifts and stalemates through means of storytelling. Through my choreography, I used history of modern dance such as the mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, an incredibly influential choreographer, Martha Graham, and her famous protege, Merce Cunningham. I used a combination of their methodology to choreograph my intrapersonal journey with dance and life.

Although working in two different mediums, Jackson Pollock, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham created works during the 1940s and 1950s that share several analogous formal characteristics, as well as a body-centered process that reminded viewers of both the corporeality of the artists and of themselves. My thesis identifies and interprets the formal analogies evident in each the artists' approach to asymmetry, repetition, gravity, and space. I argue that the common aspects among the works of the three artists resulted from their participation in a shared modernist discourse circulating post-war America, especially in New York. This discourse provided the artists access to common sources of inspiration, such as the writings of Carl Jung, Native American imagery, and Asian cultures. Each of these elements characterizes the work of all three artists, along with similar ideas concerning the individual, national identity, and modern technology. / Art History

Die Zusammenarbeit von Merce Cunningham und John Cage beruhte auf dem grundlegenden Prinzip der getrennten Entwicklung und Erarbeitung von Klang/Musik und Tanz/Bewegung (Cunningham 1994). Für den getrennten Arbeitsprozess wurden nur Zeitklammern und die Dauer der Gesamtaufführung als gemeinsame Parameter festgelegt. Diese Trennung von Musik und Tanz bildet die notwendige Voraussetzung für die erweiterte Arbeit der Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) mit Cage und anderen Composer-Performern in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, die die elektronischen Klänge live, in der Aufführung, generierten. Der Text untersucht das Verhältnis und die Schnittstellen der beiden Performance-Systeme.

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This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the aesthetics of movement in Gilles Deleuze’s writings and in Merce Cunningham’s choreographies. But it is also a study of the movement that arises when the two meet in a series of variations, where also their respective working partners Félix Guattari and John Cage enter. It is a textual happening where the random juxtaposition between seemingly unrelated areas, philosophy and dance, gives rise to arbitrary connections. It is a textual machine, composed of seven parts. First, the methodological architecture of the juxtaposition is introduced and it is shown how this relates to the materials (the philosophy of Deleuze and the aesthetics of Cunningham), the relation between the materials, and the respective contexts of the materials. The presence of movement in Deleuze’s thinking is then presented and the figure of immobile movement is defined. This figure is a leitmotif of the analyses. It is argued that this figure of immobile movement is not only a stylistic element but has implications on a philosophical level, implications that materialise in Deleuze’s texts. Then follow four parts that build a heterogeneous whole. The analysis of movement is continued through four juxtapositions of particular texts and particular choreographies. Through these juxtapositions, different aspects of movement appear and are discussed: the relation between movement and sensation, movement in interaction with other arts, movement as a means of taking the body to its limit, movement as transformation. Through these analyses, the aesthetics of Cunningham is put into new contexts. The analyses also put into relief Deleuze’s use of figures of movement, and these suddenly acquire another kind of importance. In the seventh and concluding part, all this is brought into play.

Die Zusammenarbeit von Merce Cunningham und John Cage beruhte auf dem grundlegenden Prinzip der getrennten Entwicklung und Erarbeitung von Klang/Musik und Tanz/Bewegung (Cunningham 1994). Für den getrennten Arbeitsprozess wurden nur Zeitklammern und die Dauer der Gesamtaufführung als gemeinsame Parameter festgelegt. Diese Trennung von Musik und Tanz bildet die notwendige Voraussetzung für die erweiterte Arbeit der Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) mit Cage und anderen Composer-Performern in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, die die elektronischen Klänge live, in der Aufführung, generierten. Der Text untersucht das Verhältnis und die Schnittstellen der beiden Performance-Systeme.

This thesis is an investigation of the complex processes and relationships between the physical human performer and the technologically manufactured cyber-human counterpart. I acted as both researcher and the physical human performer, deeply engaged in the moment-to-moment creation of events unfolding within a shared virtual reality environment. As the primary instigator and activator of the cyber-human partner, I maintained a balance between the live and technological performance elements, prioritizing the production of content and meaning. By way of using practice as research, this thesis argues that in considering interactions between cyber-human and human performers, it is crucial to move beyond discussions of technology when considering interactions between cyber-humans and human performers to an analysis of emotional content, the powers of poetic imagery, the trust that is developed through sensory perception and the evocation of complex relationships. A theoretical model is constructed to describe the relationship between a cyber-human and a human performer in the five works created specifically for this thesis, which is not substantially different from that between human performers. Technological exploration allows for the observation and analysis of various relationships, furthering an expanded understanding of ‘movement as content’ beyond the electronic connection. Each of the works created for this research used new and innovative technologies, including virtual reality, multiple interactive systems, six generations of wearable computers, motion capture technology, high-end digital lighting projectors, various projection screens, smart electronically charged fabrics, multiple sensory sensitive devices and intelligent sensory charged alternative performance spaces. They were most often collaboratively created in order to augment all aspects of the performance and create the sense of community found in digital live dance performances/events. These works are identified as one continuous line of energy and discovery, each representing a slight variation on the premise that a working, caring, visceral and poetic content occurs beyond the technological tools. Consequently, a shift in the physical human’s psyche overwhelms the act of performance. Scholarship and reflection on the works have been integral to my creative process throughout. The goals of this thesis, the works created and the resulting methodologies are to investigate performance to heighten the multiple ways we experience and interact with the world. This maximizes connection and results in a highly interactive, improvisational, dynamic, non-linear, immediate, accessible, agential, reciprocal, emotional, visceral and transformative experience without boundaries between the virtual and physical for physical humans, cyborgs and cyber-humans alike.