Expanded Fields (Mozilla Hubs)

Concept and design Gibson/Martelli/Roche

Expanded Fields (Mozilla Hubs) draws on a collaborative project between dance artist Jenny Roche, visual artist and choreographer Ruth Gibson, artist Bruno Martelli and composer Mel Mercier, with dancers Kévin Coquelard, Henry Montes and Ursula Robb.

Reimagined for Mozilla Hubs, this virtual installation invites audiences into an intimate perspective of the complexities of individual and shared experiences of dancing together. We are brought into the inner worlds, images, sounds and sensations that dancers experience in the performance of a moment of dance. Film, sound installation and footage of virtual reality spaces illuminate the ‘expanded fields’ emanating from a dancing moment. Reflecting the way in which dance never materialises fully but is always co-located in other imaginary spaces to be incarnated in the moment of performance, Expanded Fields captures traces of these unseen moments through writing, sound recordings, video and motion capture and offers the audience a chance to experience these moments simultaneously in real time. Each audience member gains an avatar when they enter Mozilla Hubs that allows them to move around the virtual exhibition space and encounter different aspects of the installation. In a time when we are restricted from experiencing the live performance together in space, this installation offers the viewer an opportunity to explore the work online from multiple perspectives. 

Behind this work lies a deep curiosity about how to convey the complexity of a dancing moment and to allow the feeling states and images that are experienced by dancers to be perceived by an audience. How do we create an encounter with dance that makes us aware of our capacity to experience the world through all of our senses and to transmit these sensations between each other when we share a performance experience? It’s something intangible, intuited and yet familiar—our ability to connect with each other on a myriad of levels at once. 

The full installation of Expanded Fields with live performance was premiered in the Limerick City Gallery of Art in November 2019 and the VR version was presented at Gazelli Arthouse, London in the exhibition Enter Through The Headset 5 in September 2020. 

This project is funded by the Arts Council and supported by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick; Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Live Collision International Festival and Lightmoves Festival of Screendance.