Master of Fine Arts

thesisOur way of life is changing at a speed never before seen in the history of our species. The rate of change is only increasing, and shows no signs of slowing down. Exponentially rapid advancements in technology may now, according to some, be putting us squarely in the face of our own irrelevance or extinction as soon as the next century. In the face of this encroaching "singularity," I find myself torn between the empty promises of digitally mediated realities and the satisfaction of "doing real things," or tactile physical interaction with my environment and other living beings. Between these two polar opposites, I feel that the most important commodity in this new world is our time. By placing our attention to our use of it, and allowing ourselves to reconnect with an attentive lived experience through the use of ritual, I feel that we can rediscover the same interconnectivity promised by our devices - and restore a diminishing empathic acumen. In this document, I intend to describe the inspirations for my research into the relationships between technology, connectivity, ritual, and time. I will outline the choreographic explorations I have used to dive deep into the issue, and perhaps shed some insight into how we may better integrate technology, media, and physicality to rediscover a crumbling sense of community