Grants aim to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration

In 2019, two unconventional artists created a virtual dance experience at the intersection of arts and technology.  

Almost five years later, it's clear a Science, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD) grant awarded by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) set the stage for the success of “Body, Full of Time.”

“ICAT is the only place on campus that funds the arts and technology work,” said Zach Duer, assistant professor in the School of Visual Arts and project co-creator.

The project is one of numerous cross-disciplinary efforts annually funded by SEAD grants through ICAT. The funding provides up to $25,000 for faculty members’ research projects in science, engineering, arts, or design.

“Every year, ICAT invests in faculty to work on transformative projects,” said Ben Knapp, the institute’s director. "The funding is used wherever it is needed for the success of projects, supporting students, equipment, space, and releasing faculty time from a class.”

Proposals for the next round of SEAD grants are currently being accepted through Feb. 4.

“You know that ‘back-of-the-mind,’ weird idea you cannot get out of your head – the one you think may change the world,” Knapp said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

“Body, Full of Time” started as an idea in the mind of Duer, who was inspired by the 1968 animated dance film “Pas de Deux” by Norman McLaren.

“I thought about how I can take parts of McLaren’s animation, but do it in 3D,” Duer said.

Duer created a prototype and connected with Scotty Hardwig, faculty in the School of Performing Arts, to help develop the concept. The two made a natural collaborative pair due to their shared passion for using mediums other than writing and speaking to channel their poetry to the world.

Duer began his educational journey in music before transitioning to visual arts in graduate school, while Hardwig has been working as a professional dance and performance artist for about 15 years.  

“Movement is real,” Hardwig said. “It’s happening in real space and time. And to create art from that is really, for me, just delicious.”   

The end result equips a dancer with motion capture technology and in real time records and projects their movements as an avatar. The movements are enhanced, exaggerated, and at times frozen to fragment the choreography and reconfigure the digital body.

The SEAD grant was critical in funding the “Body, Full of Time” creation, and the additional support from ICAT allowed it to be performed in the Cube at the Moss Arts Center in 2019.

Since then, the project has been presented at numerous performance festivals and most recently was performed at the Torpedo Art Gallery in Alexandria during the opening night of the city of Alexandria Office of the Arts and Virginia Tech’s collaboration “Synaptic Soiree.”