Bodies in critique: a technological intervention in the dance production ...

Session: Supporting Art & Literature

February 11-15, 2012, Seattle, WA, USA

Bodies in Critique: A Technological Intervention in the Dance Production Process Erin A. Carroll Danielle Lottridge Celine Latulipe HCILab Department of Communication HCILab University of North Carolina Stanford University University of North Carolina at Charlotte [email protected] at Charlotte [email protected] [email protected] Vikash Singh Melissa Word HCILab Department of Dance University of North Carolina University of North Carolina at Charlotte at Charlotte [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

The dance production process is strongly influenced within the physical rehearsal space by social context factors and dynamics, such as intimacy of bodies, gender distribution, and the hierarchy of choreographers and dancers. Introducing online tools for asynchronous collaboration can change the traditional dance production process and impact the social dynamics of the group. We developed and deployed the Choreographer’s Notebook, a web-based, collaborative, multi-modal annotation tool used in the creative process of making dance. We collected usage logs and choreographer reflections on the use of this tool, along with conducting interviews and focus groups, from the interdisciplinary perspectives of both technologists and choreographers involved in the project. We describe the socio-technical impacts of the Choreographer’s Notebook based on the results of its usage in three dance productions. We analyze these case studies through various contextual lenses and provide a visualization of how the choreographic correction process evolved.

Dance making is a social, embodied, creative process. The environment in which choreography emerges impacts the outcomes of the process in a variety of intricate ways. Just as the set of tools available determines the possible design space for any artist, the available resources and context in which dance is produced are major determining factors in its character and quality. The dance production process and the dance rehearsal studio have been and remain predominantly nondigital environments. Studio time provides critical support elements such as sprung marley floors, mirrored walls, ballet barres, and a floor-to-ceiling cyclorama. These are the ‘technologies’ of conventional dance practice. But studio time is a very limited and often expensive resource (in a poorly financed domain) and the best use of such space is to dance. Thus the interaction between choreographers and dancers has been predominantly synchronous, face-to-face within the rehearsal space, emphasizing physicality and movement. There has been little utility in the process for time spent sitting at a computer. Our collaboration in dance has led us to believe that dancers and choreographers have been less likely in the past to engage in extended computer interaction, favoring a more active and embodied life in general. However, with computing devices becoming increasingly pervasive in all aspects of life, dancers and choreographers are now using digital devices regularly.

Author Keywords

socio-technical principles, collaborative software, dance ACM Classification Keywords

H.5.3 Information Interfaces and Presentation: Group and Organization Interfaces: Web-based interaction

Our goal is to enable dancers and choreographers to use technology to review, reflect, and comment on their current dance productions. As part of ongoing interdisciplinary research, we observed numerous occasions where dancers and choreographers would sit in a circle on the dance floor studio, communicating about aspects of the dance. We were curious about this practice, as we noted that a significant amount of studio time was spent in discussion rather than movement, which does not appear to be an effective use of dance studio resources. Our goal was to provide a means of communication and reflection about dance to occur outside of the studio, mediated through digital technology, which may free up more time in the studio for actual dancing. To this end, we devel-

General Terms

Human Factors

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CSCW’12, February 11–15, 2012, Seattle, Washington, USA. Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1086-4/12/02...$10.00.

705



five socio-technical perspectives identified as relevant to design [7]: situated action [13], peripheral awareness [4], routines and rhythms [2], co-adaptive systems [10], and distributed cognition [5]. Lottridge and Mackay caution that these five phenomena are not exclusive but provide actionable results. We discuss these five phenomena first.

oped and deployed the Choreographer’s Notebook (ChoNo), a web-based, collaborative, multi-modal annotation tool used in the creative process of making dance. Within the physical rehearsal space, the dance production process is strongly influenced by social context factors and dynamics, such as intimacy of bodies, gender distribution, and the hierarchy of choreographers and dancers. Introducing online tools for asynchronous collaboration can augment, enhance, and change the traditional dance production process. Socio-technical theory indicates that introducing a new technology will surely interact with existing social dynamics and practices [15]. Thus, the social context of dance making will influence how the tool is used, and the tool may in turn impact the social dynamics inside and outside the studio.

Situated action describes human action as an emergent, spontaneous response to diverse aspects of any given situation at any given moment [13]. For example, you may have a plan for crossing a river on a canoe, however the actual steering does not resemble the plan; instead it is made of moment-tomoment behaviors that are responsive to the current location, waves, fatigue, etc. Heath and Luff’s work on the London Underground control room brought to light the use of peripheral awareness in workgroups [4]. The operators’ work was tightly integrated through constant awareness of the other’s activities: through extra words uttered to the self, placement of artifacts to be within the visual range, and body language. The operators would conduct ‘private’ activities with subtle ‘public’ demonstrations so that co-located others could be kept aware of actions without prying in private space. Heath and Luff argued for HCI with seamless movement from private to public residuals of activities[4].

We previously introduced ChoNo from a technological perspective, where we described the development of the tool and how it differs from other video annotation systems [12]. In this current paper, we explore the socio-technical factors that shaped how ChoNo was used and how its usage impacted the social dynamics and other aspects of the dance production process. This paper contributes insights gained from using socio-technical lenses to analyze the emergent uses (and non-use) of ChoNo over three case studies of unique dance productions. The case studies are supported by domain perspective analysis from one of our principle users: a dancer and choreographer who used ChoNo in both roles, offering valuable understanding from both perspectives.

Rhythms and routines describe semi-predictable routines and respond to environmental rhythms, such as habits on weekdays versus weekends. Crabtree and Rodden studied how family members and activities shaped the use of mail in the home and found predictable patterns and actions [2]. For example, whoever comes home first brings the mail inside to a particular location, leaving an envelope addressed to a child at his/her ‘place’ at the dining table. Co-adaptation emphasizes how users adapt their behavior to meet the demands of technology, and they adapt the technology to their needs, sometimes in unforeseen ways that were unpredicted by the original designers [9, 10]. For example, email users redefined the basic email filter to create context-specific groups of rules that could be run at any time. The concept of distributed cognition applies the models of cognition beyond the confines of the physical skull to include groups of people, artifacts, places, and culture. Hutchins studied the coordinated work of Navy personnel engaged in navigation tasks [5]. He found that different members of the group understood and took responsibility for separate parts of the tasks. Artifacts were essential to the coordination of work, and members interacted with artifacts in different ways based on background and experience.

RELATED WORK

CSCW focuses on how human beings interact in and with various systems in the world [1], and a socio-technical perspective reveals how social systems and technology are treated together [15]. These perspectives provide insight into complex systems that require functioning software and hardware but also require supportive interactions with people that occur in particular places for diverse activities that exist within social contexts. Socio-technical phenomena are often identified in the context of in-depth field observations and challenge hidden assumptions about how people interact with technology. A rich viewing of the complex landscape of actors has been called ‘interaction ecologies.’ Suchman et al. used the ecology metaphor when proposing the necessary conditions for successful and innovative design: that new technology must work within an existing framework of situated technologies [14]. Nardi at al. described the information ecology of an intensive care unit, including relevant people (doctors, nurses, etc.), machines (monitors, probes, etc.), and information (medical data and instructions). Each of these sources influences the handling of patients [11]. Luff et al. used the term ‘fractured ecologies’ to describe design problems in communication technology [8]. We use socio-technical perspectives to better understand how our system is used in the world, which may then provide opportunities or necessities for improvement and change.

Embodied interaction changes the emphasis of study from abstract ideas and representations that may exist only theoretically to people’s actions and phenomena occurring in the world. Embodied interaction goes further in highlighting the role of the body in those interactions. Dourish’s work explains how interaction is physically and socially embodied and that ontology arises out of embodied activity [3]. Dourish calls upon the concept of phenomenology to support the emphasis of enquiry. One way to discuss systems in this light is with Heidegger’s notion of ready-to-hand (for example, while interacting with windows using a mouse – the mouse is not

We draw from two core socio-technical principles relevant to this research: Trist’s socio-technical systems approach [15] and Dourish’s embodied interaction [3]. We also include

706



Figure 1. A screenshot of the Choreographer’s Notebook, and the video loaded inside the tool is from a dance rehearsal. The pins above the timeline represent timestamps where comments have been added by the choreographer to give the dancers corrections.

consciously part of the activity) and present-at-hand (for example, when the mouse arrives at the edge of the mousepad and must be focused upon to be brought back to the center to continue the scrolling and selection activities).

onate with, rather than restrict, (or worse, refute) the social organization of action” [3]. Our goal was to apply sociotechnical principles to not only better understand how the tool was used by dancers and choreographers but to also improve the tool and gain more awareness of the social organization of dance and the production process of making dance. This knowledge is intended to inform the development of features that resonate with and support the complexities of the dance production process.

Trist provides a wider perspective on socio-technical systems, focusing on the context of hierarchical production settings, the types of impacts of technological changes, and the output from the workers [15]. Trist’s perspective was strongly influenced by his situated action research studies of social impacts on work brought about by technological changes that occurred in mining operations in the UK and Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, we adopted Trist’s paradigm of Action Research in our work. Our interest in developing a tool to support choreography arises from years of interacting with dancers and choreographers through our project. Our team collaboratively designed interactive visualizations for dance productions; we were intimately involved as participants in the production process. The idea for an online dance annotation tool emerged from our observations of a lack of fit between the resources or ‘technology’ available and the needs of the participants. In particular, the technology was the dance studio: a specialized setting with sprung floors, mirrored walls, etc. We observed this studio being used like a boardroom with the dancers and choreographer sitting on the floor, engaged in discussions about what needs to be changed and improved from the last rehearsal. The dancers and choreographer need the studio resources to dance and explore movement, yet were unable to take full advantage of their time in the studio for movement purposes. Our goal was to introduce a new communication channel into the dance production process, which would exist outside of the studio, thus opening up more studio time for dancing and movement exploration

CASE STUDIES OF CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTEBOOK

The Choreographer’s Notebook, or ChoNo, is a web-based, multi-modal annotation tool designed specifically for the dance community (Figure 1). It allows choreographers and dancers to collaborate with each other throughout the dance production process by creating temporal annotations that are associated with moments in dance rehearsal videos. The first version of the tool supported several types of annotation formats, including text and digital ink. Video annotations were also implemented, but were not deployed at the time of the case studies presented here. ChoNo provides visual, temporal indexing of annotations and rich navigational controls. ChoNo has been used extensively by choreographers and dancers in the development of three full dance productions. All three dance pieces were modern dances, blending modern American dance with contemporary ballet. Each production lasted several months, and there were many variations across dance productions: from the number of dancers and choreographers involved to the length of each dance to how the choreography was developed (i.e. restaged versus new material). In this section, we describe how ChoNo was incorporated into the dance rehearsal process for three different productions. This is followed by a first-person analysis of ChoNo usage by Melissa Word, a dancer and choreographer who used ChoNo in both roles.

When introducing a new technology into an intricate creative process, we must be sensitive to unanticipated consequences. Dourish advocates: “the ability to develop systems that res-

707



Figure 2. “An Instance Of...”, Fall 2010

Figure 4. “The Angled Angels Assembly”, Spring 2011

ing rehearsal process revealed three markedly different approaches to using ChoNo in order to support the needs of restaging a dance. In the initial re-staging phase, the dancers studied video footage of the original cast to understand the broad structure of movement. While this was mostly done using DVDs, ChoNo was also used. This transitioned into the intermediate phase in which dancers compared their understanding of the movement to their ideal goal. To this end, dancers rehearsed their parts in real-time while projecting the original video footage behind them on a floor-to-ceiling cyclorama. This was then filmed and uploaded to ChoNo and used as a comparative study to clearly see the discrepancies between the original footage and the live dancer. The third phase primarily consisted of cleaning and detailing the fully learned and embodied movement of the re-staged dance. At this phase, the choreographer accessed ChoNo to post detailed commentary for individual coaching purposes. Used in this capacity, ChoNo provided the opportunity for both the choreographer and the dancers to spend as much time as they desired in improving the individual performance of dancers and the quality of the piece as a whole.

Figure 3. “In The Company Of Women”, Fall 2010

Case Study 1: An Instance Of...

An Instance Of... was a 3 minute dance piece performed in Fall 2010. The movement material and concept for this piece was a collaborative effort between 3 dancers and 1 choreographer. The overall structure of the piece was (largely) developed during a summer 2010 dance/technology workshop for the Dance.Draw project [6]. While the choreography was developed, the choreographer filmed and uploaded each rehearsal to document the progress of the dance and edits that were made throughout the process. At this time, there was no immediate idea for when or in what capacity the dance would be performed; however, the material was recorded and uploaded to ChoNo so that it could be viewed and studied at any time. The development process of this dance needed to accommodate disparate dancer schedules that often prohibited all members from working in the studio together every rehearsal. For this reason, ChoNo’s organized catalog of videos from previous rehearsals gave dancers and choreographers the ability to stay informed of choreographic changes that occurred while absent. When this dance was selected for the fall dance concert, ChoNo was used as a tool for memory refreshment between the formal dance rehearsals and for cleaning and refining movement.

Case Study 3: The Angled Angels Assembly The Angled Angels Assembly was performed in Spring 2011 as part of the Dance.Draw project [6] by 7 dancers and was about 13 minutes long. The creation process was a highly intensive workload, as it involved 2 choreographers. The main objective was to deeply explore how to create a highly integrated meeting point between projected visualizations and moving bodies in the space. Because of the need for communication between the dancers, dance makers, and technologists, it was imperative for this production to redesign the conventional rehearsal space. This meant that the time and attention traditionally devoted to creating, editing, and cleaning dance material would no longer be an exclusive exchange between dancer and choreographer but would be an environment to give equal collaborative weight to the technologists. In the new working environment, ChoNo was a resource for choreographers to film and review rehearsals during the creation period of this production. ChoNo provided a mutual space for the choreographers to process and synthesize what happened in each rehearsal; which due to the multiple parties involved, was often a chaotic and sensorily overwhelming process. Rehearsals were recorded weekly, and video was typically recorded with a Flip Cam and uploaded to Chono by one of the choreographers.

Case Study 2: In the Company of Women

In The Company Of Women (Figure 3) was performed in Fall 2010 by 5 women as a re-staging of work originally choreographed and performed in 1993. The rehearsal director for this production was a member of the original choreographic team that created and performed this 22 minute work. This production was well suited for ChoNo, as the goal was not to generate new material but to embody previously created choreography in the most precise and efficient manner. In this production, each rehearsal was filmed and uploaded to ChoNo to study and gage the progress that each dancer made in learning the nuances of the movement. The unfold-

708



dancers as their worst, most obsessive critic, I wondered if it would be possible to ask dancers to objectively watch footage of themselves and glean corrections, either given by a choreographer or through personal assessment, without superimposing their own ego. There is a natural disconnect that exists between the kinesthetic feedback that a dancer has while moving and the visual feedback a dancer gets from watching a two-dimensional representation of that movement. Given this, I wondered if a dancer could remove the lens of personal body image issues to see the bigger picture of how he/she fits into the overall design of the work.

The Choreographer’s Perspective

In this section, we offer the direct writing from a choreographer and dancer, which describes personal and social issues surrounding the video recording of bodies. As this section explores a deeply personal topic, we felt that it was best expressed from a choreographer and dancer’s perspective, in her own voice. Melissa Word is an artistic researcher and choreographer for the project, who recently graduated with a BA in Dance. She has worked as dancer, choreographer, sound designer, and production assistant on our project. As one of two dance specialists on the team, she is intimately acquainted with the implications of bringing technology into the conventional dance rehearsal and performance space. She has closely observed the effects that technology has had on the psychological, emotional, and social norms of the dancers and choreographers involved in project productions. The following commentary illustrates these effects and how they altered her initial assumptions of what ChoNo might do to the traditional rehearsal model.

In working with ChoNo in multiple productions, both as a dancer and choreographer, my initial concerns about the psycho-social effects on dancers were greatly assuaged. When I worked as a dancer I found that the fixed obligation to watch video of myself after every rehearsal for a specific, task-based purpose, forced me to get over myself, so to speak, and sequester my ego for the common good of bettering the work. This is done by reading, understanding, and embodying corrections specific to the dancer’s interpretation of choreography, and is given by an external source, the choreographer. Additionally, I realized that video, for all the apprehension it elicits, can be an invaluable tool for bettering the technique and performance of the individual. This is done through selfobtained feedback once the dancer learns to view video objectively. I observed through my long term use of ChoNo that this learning curve is facilitated by the task-based nature of the program. ChoNo does not ask dancers to watch video of themselves exclusively, as this obligation alone would likely unfold into a negative situation with self-loathing dancers. Instead, ChoNo asks dancers to watch themselves with annotated constructive corrections and reinforcements. This ultimately results in the opportunity, proportionate to a dancer’s investment in ChoNo, to exponentially improve oneself as a dancer and contribute to the rate of improvement of the performance as a whole.

An early concern that I (and Choreographer Sybil Huskey) had with using ChoNo, was the proviso that each rehearsal must be filmed in order to create a running catalog of uploaded video footage. While this is a simple and seemingly harmless task, the act of recording dancers working in the creative process for every rehearsal, and then requiring they view this footage, is highly deviant from the traditional rehearsal model. There was an additional concern that this might be potentially destructive to a comfortable learning environment. This is the case for several reasons. There is an inherent dichotomy within the psychology of dancers. Performers possess an innate confidence and excitement at the notion of being watched by an observer. Conversely, dancers as performers use their bodies alone as their tool of expression, understanding that audience gaze is the primary means of experiencing their performance. This concept alone dramatically shapes the psychology of dancers by setting an unspoken precedent that the way a dancer looks, while still and in motion, is of utmost importance. The extensive attention and emphasis placed on the body often breeds feelings of self-consciousness and a skewed body image among dancers. Furthermore, as the field of dance performance is overwhelmingly dominated by females, dancers face the additional pressure to be hyper critical of their bodies under the influence of a media-driven, consumerist culture that idolizes the feminine ideal through unattainable fabrications of beauty.

ANALYSIS

Socio-technical principles call for recognition of the complex web of elements that influence how ChoNo is incorporated in the dance production process. As described earlier, new technology is introduced into an existing ‘ecology’ of technologies which influence how the new technology is used. Dancers and choreographers embody actions and make meaning based on their own perspectives and interactions with the systems, their peers, and the world. The socio-technical principles sensitized us to examine how choreographers and dancers interpreted and experienced the technology and the dance making process, instead of trying to identify facts and measuring changes. In this section, we discuss the technological context, the social context, and the activity context, describing notable uses of ChoNo in relation to those socialtechnical elements. Our insights were derived from analysis of focus groups with dancers, interviews with choreographers, observations during rehearsals, and team reflection.

Initially, I was apprehensive about introducing a video camera into the rehearsal process, where these emotions and personal dynamics are already well-entrenched. I was concerned that a permanent record of every move, every mistake, and every physical and verbal exchange that occurred between dancers and choreographer might disturb the creative working environment in which body language and tone of voice serve to mitigate the potentially negative effects on the dancer mentality. I was further concerned with what might result from asking dancers to watch this video footage of themselves on a regular basis. In fully understanding the context of

709



Technological Context

Projecting ChoNo During Dance

Dance rehearsals happen in the dance studio, and as previously mentioned, the dance studio is the most critical technology for dance with its sprung floors and mirrored walls. Prior to ChoNo, when the choreographer of our project wanted to review rehearsal video, this process involved dancers watching videos in the dance studio and taking notes. Sometimes the choreographer would give dancers a DVD, but other times, an analog video camera and TV were used in studio to review. After the introduction of ChoNo, this video review process was seldom used.

Because In the Company of Women was a re-staged performance, dancers had the opportunity to learn the material from video of the original dance. We observed a situated action that made extremely effective use of ChoNo in the rehearsal space: the choreographer projected the video of the original dance production behind the dancers as they learned the movements (Figure 1). Dancers used peripheral awareness in the physical space to keep in synchronicity with the projected dancers in the video. On a few occasions, the videographer filmed the dancers as they danced in front of the original video and then uploaded that video to ChoNo. Dancers said that this was useful, and one dancer noted:

ChoNo is situated within an existing set of communication channels, such as email and texting. The technology to support ChoNo consisted of computer hardware to access the web application, video cameras to record rehearsals, and video software (such as iMovie) to compress and export recorded videos to the appropriate format. ChoNo was primarily accessed through laptops and personal computers from different locations, such as campus, home, and in the dance studio during some rehearsals. When used during rehearsals, projectors were used by the choreographer within the dance studio. Our experience taught us that this complex interconnected web of technology can break down at unexpected points. For example, we encouraged the choreographers to film their own rehearsals to investigate how this role might be shared and changed. When the resolution of the video was very high, this caused slow uploads and downloads that compromised the reliability of the entire system.

[They showed] the video of the original dancers on the back while we danced it, and then we could watch it on the Choreographer’s Notebook. I found that helpful because then I could watch both at the same time, and I could see if I was late at a certain part, or learning it – it helped me learn my part and clean at the same time. Technology Failure

On a few occasions, dancers had trouble accessing videos on ChoNo. The choreographer then opted to send comments to the dancers via email. The notes sent via email were extremely detailed because there was no video available to provide context. One interpretation is that the choreographer had become comfortable with entering text-based corrections and communicating with dancers asynchronously. She appeared to simply switch from ChoNo to another form of computermediated communication (CMC). Another lens of interpretation is the new rhythm for provision of feedback. ChoNo offloaded some of the in-person feedback given during rehearsal to outside of rehearsal. Choreographers and dancers were then accustomed to transmitting feedback in between rehearsals. Waiting until the next rehearsal would interrupt this new rhythm. During focus groups, dancers voiced that they felt the choreography was proceeding slowly, which can be interpreted as getting used to this new accelerated speed of development. Prior to ChoNo, the use of CMC for corrections would be rare. This choreographer reported that she relied on the ability to inform dancers of corrections online and expected dancers to internalize these corrections before the next rehearsal. These expectations are part of a very strong social context of use.

ChoNo in the Dance Studio

We anticipated that ChoNo would be primarily used remotely, as a form of asynchronous communication between choreographers and dancers. As the socio-technical principles of situated action and co-adaptation suggest, other behaviors emerged. We examine these unanticipated actions for embodied goals and needs, and we reflect on how choreographers chose to take advantage of the resources available. In the rehearsal space, the choreographer chose to spend time projecting ChoNo and going through the annotated comments in more detail with the dancers, allowing for discussion and clarification. It is clear that the choreographers understand the benefits of a physical rehearsal space. When the choreographic clarifications occur in a physical space, they can be quickly followed by physical practice. Dancers use peripheral vision of other dancers in the same space, performing similar or timed movements to learn the choreography. This attention to temporal proximity and physical embodiment was highly valued, as these tasks could have been offloaded to be outside the studio in a different form.

Social Context

Social context factors are relevant to all aspects of living and working, and they are manifested in particular ways within dance making. There is a hierarchy between dancers and the choreographer, and this hierarchy is embodied in how communication and action is executed and perceived. The historical power structure remains intact today. The choreographer is the artistic director, and he or she tells the dancers what to do: gives corrections, manages rehearsal times, and generally makes all decisions related to the dance production. Through years of experiences, dancers and choreographers experience their roles and the cultural norms that define appropriate behavior between peers and between dancers and choreographers. Phenomenology and embodied interaction sensitized

This use of ChoNo impacted the behavior of dancers. At each rehearsal, there were generally 2-3 out of the 6 dancers that brought their laptop to the dance studio. They voluntarily brought them for two reasons: to catch up if they had not reviewed all the comments on ChoNo and to use as a resource for reviewing and practicing movement when the choreographer was busy. This was surprising as dancers had not brought laptops to rehearsals in the past.

710



The dancers noted that the presence of the observer and the camera caused them to step up their performance. One interpretation is that the record of this run-through would be permanently available on ChoNo, another is that the videographer is viewed as an audience member in that dancers are stimulated to have more awareness of their performance. Another factor is that the technology increased the formality of the run-through, perhaps even heightening expectations for quality. The choreographers using ChoNo noted that this increase in dancer effort was critically valuable and led to higher quality performance.

us to observing and enquiring about the experiences of the social effects of the introduction of ChoNo. With ChoNo, new social actors entered the scene, for example, a videographer often filmed the dance rehearsals. While a formal videographer was not used in our project, this role was generally held by a technologist or the choreographer. Dancers reported that they felt the technologists were kind and polite but that they also felt observed. Workload Impacts

Similar to Trist’s review of the introduction of technology into various workplaces, it seemed likely that ChoNo would increase the workload associated with the dance production. We anticipated that the choreographers would utilize the ability to provide corrections offline and expect the dancers to come to the rehearsal with the corrections embodied. We also predicted that the dancers and choreographers may resent the extra time demanded by this new work. The choreographers did find the provision of corrections useful, and they sometimes found that entering comments was time consuming. It is noteworthy that the team never imposed demands in terms of how much time should be spent entering comments. One interpretation is that the nature of ChoNo and the project itself, created an unspoken imperative to use ChoNo to the fullest; ChoNo was always available for analyzing the videos instant by instant, and providing careful corrections to the dancers. From the dancer’s perspective, there was a mix of appreciation for the ways in which ChoNo changed the process. While dancers agreed that using ChoNo required more time, there was positive feedback from In the Company of Women:

Hierachies

Through the focus groups, interviews and observations, we became more sensitive to the power hierarchies in the conventional dance production process, in which the choreographer is in charge and giving most of the directions and corrections. Through ChoNo, we observed this hierarchy reified the ways in which the system was used. ChoNo was designed to be flexible and open-ended to allow for co-adaptation: it had one interface for all users; and it provided identical interfaces and functions for dancers and choreographers. The dancers and choreographers could have commented the same amount, yet we noted that almost all comments were made by the choreographers, and the comments posted by dancers were typically questions. Dancers explained that while in the physical rehearsal space they might advise or correct each other occasionally and would sometimes work together on movement in pairs or small groups, but they did not feel comfortable correcting one another through ChoNo. The permanence of the comments overemphasized them. There was a greater chance of misinterpretation because of the lack of physical body language available to provide context and softness. It should be noted that the dancers were never explicitly encouraged to comment on each others movements or form. In fact, social action (or the intentional lack of action) seemed to solidify these roles. These clear patterns of use suggest that different interfaces for dancers and choreographers might be appropriate.

To have the opportunity that someone was coming to film us every other day, that was kind of a luxury... for it to be so accessible. There was probably one or two times where I felt like, ‘Oh no, I didn’t do my homework’ ... because it was something I wanted to be doing once I knew it was there. There was some negative feedback from Angled Angels. During this production, large file sizes caused some reliability issues. Further, this choreography required a large floor space to rehearse, and dancers were unable to embody corrections discovered online. The dancers felt upset that they did not meet the expectations of their choreographers.

Activity Context

The use of ChoNo for several kinds of activities were anticipated, such as for learning new choreographic material; selfcorrections, in which dancers watched the rehearsal videos and noted issues about their own dancing that needed to be addressed; and cleaning/detailing, in which the choreographers made notes about corrections and rehearsal. ChoNo usage was greatly influenced by the phase of the production; we observed patterns based on rhythms and routines [2]. The early phase of production primarily consisted of creative editing. In the middle-phase, creative editing tapers off as choreographic decisions are made and the amount of cleaning-related comments and corrections grow. During the final phase of production, the choreographer uses ChoNo for positive feedback. This last usage switch is influenced by the timing and social dynamics of the production phase. In terms of timing, corrections require effort from dancers to internalize and embody through muscle memory. During production week, there is no more time to internalize more corrections. It is not useful or

Video Recordings

There were many subtle, yet important, social dynamics at play in the rehearsal space: dancers have reservations about watching themselves on video, and having a videographer physically present in the rehearsal space changed their locus of awareness. In the first two case studies, a member of our technology team attended the rehearsals to capture the video. This person was typically male, entering a world that consisted exclusively of female dancers and choreographers in the 3 productions we described. Having an extra body in the rehearsal space who is observing initially made some dancers self-conscious. The dancers eventually became accustomed to this person, but it did change the nature of this intimate environment.

711



dance production cycle was very short, yet there was 22 minutes of choreography to learn. Some examples of cleaning from In the Company of Women include:

constructive to receive corrections when they cannot be internalized. It may even be frustrating to dancers to receive more corrections when they cannot embody them, as then they perceive their performances as imperfect and flawed. Moreover, rhythms and routines suggest that people develop patterns in space and time concerning their use of a new tool or technology. In these case studies, dancers and choreographers reported that they developed habits in how they accessed ChoNo, rooted in relation to other timed routines, such as entering comments during breakfast, launching ChoNo along with Facebook, and reviewing ChoNo before the Friday rehearsal.

Relax neck so head comes into chest before roll and then really register that position with the leg extended in the back. Remember to keep the feelings of weight in your arms as you lift them up, maybe go a bit slower too. Dancers primarily used ChoNo in order to access feedback that the choreographer left for them. Typically, this involved logging into ChoNo, watching the rehearsal video, and reading comments that were applicable to them. Most dancers did not make comments in response to the feedback. In the focus group, one dancer explained, “When it came to the corrections myself, I feel like I didn’t make notes on [ChoNo] very often. I just kind of internalized what I saw needed to be fixed,” and other dancers agreed with this explanation.

Creative Editing

While the choreography was already developed for all three productions prior to using ChoNo, we observed that the choreographers used the tool to make creative decisions that impacted the dance production. The following comment exemplifies creative edits made during An Instance Of...

ChoNo was also used for learning choreography. In An Instance Of... there was a gap in time from when the choreography was developed to when rehearsals began, and there were also different dancers involved. As a result, ChoNo was used to learn the choreography for the first time, or in the case of some dancers, to re-learn the material. Since In the Company of Women was a re-staged performance, dancers learned this choreography by watching a video of the original production. Most of the learning for this production took place outside of ChoNo by watching it on DVD. Using these alternative technologies in the ‘ecology of technology of ChoNo’ made sense for a few reasons: the 22 minute long dance was a large file that took a long time to load in ChoNo, thus it was faster and easier to use the familiar technology of DVD players. In the focus group, dancers also explained that ChoNo lacked necessary features, such as full screen and slow motion, in order to learn the material. Many of these features have been since added to ChoNo.

[Dancer1], what happens if you come in between [Dancer2] and [Dancer3]? Looks like you really have to work to get upstage. ChoNo provided a different representation of the dance for dancers/choreographers to consider and reflect on. Having a synchronous and embodied conversation with the ChoNo video as a shared artifact enabled the group to discuss ideas and create shared understanding through immediate feedback in terms of gestures and tone of voice. Positive Feedback

In addition to providing critiques, choreographers used ChoNo to provide positive feedback to the dancers. This occurred later in the production process, when a dance became more polished, and also when a dancer made noticeable improvements. As performance week approached, the choreographer would transition from cleaning to providing positive reinforcement, such as: Very good job dancers. You should feel very confident in your performances since your work is more consistent with each performance. (From In the Company of Women)

Correction Process

ChoNo was intended to move some of the rehearsal discussion outside of the dance studio to online communication. We visualized the changes in Figure 5, based on distributed cognition models [5]. The visualization was co-created with the choreographers. First, a subset of authors proposed a draft of the visualization, which was shared with the choreographers to discuss and alter to better reflect their perspective and embodied reality. Not only did the choreographers adjust the visualization in terms of how knowledge flowed through people and technology, they modified the language to more accurately match their own lexicon and terms.

The choreographer directed specific comments towards dancers that improved movements that were previously identified as needing more work “[Dancer], That promenade was much stronger. Good!” While comments like this were more frequent near performance week, this type of feedback also occurred earlier in the process. Cleaning/Correction and Learning

From a distributed cognition perspective, ChoNo acted as an external archive. The interaction changed based on who accessed ChoNo and where it was accessed: dancers and choreographers embodied different roles for inputting or learning from the system, and tasks changed whether they were accessing it at home (personal use) or in the studio (group viewing to support shared understanding).

ChoNo was designed as a tool for cleaning and detailing movements, and this is how it was often used. Because In the Company of Women was a re-staged dance production, it was important to precisely embody the previous choreography. The choreographer considered ChoNo extremely valuable in the success of this production because it allowed cleaning to occur outside of rehearsals. This was beneficial because the

712



Figure 5. We visualize the conventional rehearsal process (left) and show how it evolved when ChoNo is introduced (left + right).

In a conventional rehearsal process, most activities related to dance correction and creative editing take place inside the dance studio. Dancers learn new material based on the directions of the choreographer. Choreographers may film the rehearsal but generally opt not to make any video recordings available to dancers. Instead, they prefer to watch the dancers in real-time, while making notes in a notebook. Comments, both general and personal, are communicated to the dancers. Inside the studio, dancers receive various forms of feedback from the choreographer and from their peers: cognitive and kinesthetic feedback from the way their body responds to their movements; visual feedback from their peripheral vision watching themselves in the mirrored wall; and often visual feedback from watching peers by their side. When rehearsal is over, the choreographer and dancers leave the studio. Outside the studio, the choreographer reflects and makes mental or written notes for the next scheduled rehearsal. The dancers practice, either physically or mentally, and they go over any written notes taken during the last rehearsal. Dancers use all of these feedback sources to understand the necessary adjustments to refine their movement.

retrieve comments posted by the choreographer. Although it is not possible to practice the corrected movements in the absence of the marley floor, dancers make mental notes about the corrected movements, visualize these movements, and come prepared for the next rehearsal as much as possible, given practice space and embodiment constraints. During the next rehearsal, the choreographer can show ChoNo in the studio to clarify the posted comments. The use of ChoNo in the rehearsal process adds an additional layer of feedback to the existing conventional rehearsal process: video and annotated comments. These representations benefit choreographers by making choreographic cleaning and creative editing available outside of the studio. The process of making rehearsal videos and commentary encourages the dancers to be more prepared for rehearsals. One of our choreographers described ChoNo as providing dancers with the “personal attention and coaching as if it was a solo.” She further explained that she doesn’t have enough studio time to give individual coaching in real-time to each dancer, especially when there are 6 dancers in one piece. Through ChoNo, individual coaching is more efficient: it can take place outside of the studio, while she is “sitting in her jammies with her coffee.”

The introduction of ChoNo in the rehearsal process provides another representation of feedback to the choreographer and the dancers. In the studio, the dancers often end the rehearsal with a full run-through of the material that has been learned so far. This material is filmed, and the video is uploaded to ChoNo. Outside the studio, the choreographer watches the recorded rehearsal video and posts comments directed to individuals or groups of dancers. The availability of the rehearsal video helps the choreographer to reflect on the overall design and intent of the piece. Dancers watch the rehearsal video and

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In this research, we used socio-technical principles as lenses to examine how socio-technical elements influenced the usage of ChoNo and its effects on 3 full productions. The analysis of our case studies, focus groups and choreographic commentaries revealed insights across modes of use, unexpected uses, workload impacts, and social dynamics. The theme of

713



psycho-social adjustment was explored from the personal perspective of a dancer-choreographer on the project. Her perspective provided observations, perceptions, and reflections of the rich psycho-social landscape of the dancers’ experiences with ChoNo – personal issues that are often hidden and difficult to discuss. The insights from this analysis led to the development of a visualization of how the choreographic correction process changed with ChoNo.

REFERENCES

1. L. J. Bannon and K. Schmidt. CSCW: Four characters in search of a context. In Proceedings of CSCW ’89, pages 3–16, 1989. 2. A. Crabtree and T. Roddin. Domestic routines and design for the home. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 13(2), 2004. 3. P. Dourish. Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2004.

The socio-technical principles allowed us to attend to different aspects of the system interaction, which we may not have been sensitive to otherwise. In Trist’s work, examining traditional material production settings, the output was a separate entity from the workers. We have seen that performance settings are distinctly different. There is no technological intervention that would render the workers in a performance (the dancers, actors, or musicians) obsolete, or even lead to minimizing their roles. The output in dance and theater performance are the bodies, voices, movements of these workers, and cannot be decoupled from them: they are the output. Similarly, the supervisors in this context (choreographers or theater directors) are the creative force behind the output. Thus, the concern is not so much about minimizing or overspecifying an individual’s role. Rather, the bigger concern introduced by ChoNo is workload, since like so many other forms of CMC, it blurs the lines between work and home life, allowing work to bleed out of the studio and into the outside life of the dancer and choreographer. Performance work can always be improved: there is no obvious stopping point ahead of opening night, and so the provision of this type of technology amplifies the demands of the work.

4. C. Heath and P. Luff. Collaboration and control: Crisis management and multimedia technology in London Underground Line Control Rooms. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 13(1):24–48, 1992. 5. E. Hutchins. Cognition in the wild. MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 1995. 6. C. Latulipe, E. A. Carroll, and D. Lottridge. Evaluating Longitudinal Projects Combining Technology with Temporal Arts. In Proceedings of ACM CHI ’11, pages 1835–1844. ACM Press, May 2011. 7. D. Lottridge and W. Mackay. Generative walkthroughs: Support for creative redesign. In Proceedings of Creativity & Cognition ’09, 2009. 8. P. Luff, C. Heath, H. Kuzuoka, J. Hindmarsh, K. Yamazaki, and S. Ovama. Fractured ecologies: Creating environments for collaboration. Human-Computer Interaction, 18:51–84, 2003. 9. W. Mackay. Responding to cognitive overload: Co-adaptation between users and technology. Intellectica, 30(1), 2000.

Analysis of ChoNo using socio-technical lenses led to a number of design changes. First, to better match the social environment of the dance production process in which choreographers soften dancer corrections with tone of voice and body language, we have implemented audio and video commenting modalities. To better match the activity of choreographic learning, we have added slow-motion playback, as well as looping handles that allow dancers to specify a segment of video to repeatedly loop over. To address the strong roles that we observed in the usage of ChoNo, we are working towards implementing a role-based access system that would provide different functionality to dancers and choreographers.

10. W. Mackay. The interactive thread: Exploring methods for multi-disciplinary design. Proceedings of DIS ’04, pages 103–112, 2004. 11. B. A. Nardi and V. L. O’Day. Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart. MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 1999. 12. V. Singh, C. Latulipe, E. Carroll, and D. Lotridge. The choreographer’s notebook - a video annotation system for dancers and choreographers. In Proceedings of ACM Creativity & Cognition 2011, pages 197–206, 2011.

Complex systems of technologies, people, places, activities, and social contexts shaped how Choreographer’s Notebook was used within 3 full dance productions. We investigated these systems through a set of socio-technical perspectives to better understand how the use of a novel tool plays out within the intricate, creative act of producing dance. Through this process of analysis, we gained a deeper understanding of the dynamics between these diverse socio-technical elements. We offer insights into these systems and processes, to foster the thoughtful development of useful and effective tools that support dance productions.

13. L. Suchman. Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1987. 14. L. Suchman, J. Blomberg, J. Orr, and R. Trigg. Reconstructing technologies as social practice. American Behavioral Scientist on Analyzing Virtual Societies: New Directions in Methodology, 43(3):392–408, 1999. 15. E. L. Trist. Perspectives on Organizational Design, chapter The evolution of socio-technical systems, pages 19–75. Wiley, New York, NY, 1981.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was funded by the NSF CreativeIT (#IIS0855882). We thank the dancers, choreographers, and other collaborators who have participated in Dance.Draw.

714