DANCE FILM OPEN CALL

UNTIL FEBRUARY 15, 2023

BETWEEN_in VR

Howool Baek BODIES.DIGITAL

Friday 3. Nov 2023

19:00 GMT+1

Metropolis Kino

VR Installation

Republic of Korea, Germany

| Synopsis

A virtual universe from body fragments
The new project by Seoul-Berlin based choreographer Howool Baek starts with a very unusual question: “Can we imagine the universe from which we ourselves come as something physical, but at the same time as something virtual?” This question reflects on the social circumstances of our contemporary society, which is characterized by a hybrid state of physicality and virtuality. In order to represent these two poles in her piece, which paradoxically can not be more polarized, Baek devises an artistic strategy that combines dance with technology. From the BETWEEN_in VR an imaginary and deeply ‘immersive’ universe emerges, in which our body parts like hands, feet or navel lead us to an unfamiliar world. Through this mind-blowing 360° VR spatial experience, we discover a new type of in-between space that merges the hard boundaries between the physical and the virtual, the body and the data, the analog and the digital, and the viewer and the performer.

About the series BETWEEN (2019 – 2023)
The BETWEEN series previously consisted of four different formats. In 2019 the first project BETWEEN_ on the Stage (2019) was created, which was performed on stage as a kind of ‘Audio Visual Dance Performance’. However, given the pandemic, Baek sparked interest in non-physical spatiality. Therefore, together with her collaborators, she created the 3D Sound Short-form videos titled BETWEEN_ with 3D Sound (2020). She then presented BETWEEN_ on the web (2021), which enabled strong interaction with the viewer using the web browser and can therefore be described as an interactive web performance. The choreographer has implemented a prototype (2022) and produced BETWEEN_ in VR (2023), thereby experimenting with a new approach to space-time experience. In the completed work, this physical-virtual approach was researched in depth.

| Credits

Direction & Choreography_ Howool Baek
Virtual Reality Production_ Christoph Vogel, Michael Bertram / VOBE
Sound Creation & Design_ Matthias Erian
Outside Eye_ Jin Lee
Description Text_ Okju Son
Trailer_ Yoann Trellu
Pre Production 3D Modeling & Animation_ EMP Emotion Capture
Pre Production_ Jinyoung Shin
Production Management_ Mario Stumpfe
Produced by Howool Baek BODIES.DIGITAL
Pre Production Supported by 2022 ARKO Art & Tech
Production Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the NEUSTART KULTUR program, assistance program tanz:digital of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland.

Howool Baek BODIES.DIGITAL

| Website

@howoolbaek_official

| Social

| Biography

– company

BODIES.DIGITAL was founded by choreographer Howool Baek and sound artist Matthias Erian. By extending the concept of a stage to a digital space, they are experimenting on the digital stage with their own choreography method and the spatiality of sound according to media changes. Through cooperation with artists and developers from other fields, interactive web performance “BETWEEN_ on the web” (2021), dance film “Foreign body” (2022), and VR film “BETWEEN_ in VR” (2023) were produced.

– choreographer

Berlin based Korean choreographer Howool Baek has established her own choreographic language by discovering faceless body expression through body fragments. And she proposes a different perspective on the body through the deconstruction and transformation of the body. By breaking stereotypes about the body, she wants the audience to have a new experience with the body and to look at society from a different perspective. Recently, she expanded the concept of the stage to the digital space and is experimenting with her own choreography method on the digital stage.

| Biography

– company

BODIES.DIGITAL was founded by choreographer Howool Baek and sound artist Matthias Erian. By extending the concept of a stage to a digital space, they are experimenting on the digital stage with their own choreography method and the spatiality of sound according to media changes. Through cooperation with artists and developers from other fields, interactive web performance “BETWEEN_ on the web” (2021), dance film “Foreign body” (2022), and VR film “BETWEEN_ in VR” (2023) were produced.

– choreographer

Berlin based Korean choreographer Howool Baek has established her own choreographic language by discovering faceless body expression through body fragments. And she proposes a different perspective on the body through the deconstruction and transformation of the body. By breaking stereotypes about the body, she wants the audience to have a new experience with the body and to look at society from a different perspective. Recently, she expanded the concept of the stage to the digital space and is experimenting with her own choreography method on the digital stage.

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