Tracing Light, Reclaiming Movement

The question: can movement be represented without the body under scrutiny? The work strips the dancer out of the frame and leaves only the trace of motion, which turns a familiar viewing experience into something closer to reading a signal.

Two builds ran in parallel. The guaranteed deliverable mounts lights at the joints and films in darkness, producing usable footage on its own terms. The ambitious version uses TouchDesigner body-part detection to generate visuals correlated to the movement itself. Structuring it this way was deliberate: the simple build protects the deadline and doubles as raw material for the complex one, so an ambitious technical bet cannot take the whole project down with it.

Selected for funding in 2025 (Lewis Center for the Arts) and 2026 (Martin A. Dale '53 Summer Award, a selective university-wide $7K award for independent sophomore projects). The 2026 iteration is ongoing.

This is independent research kept private while it's in progress. Get in touch if you'd like to see more.