Figural Bodies is a research project out of Goldsmiths college that uses motion captured dance with disabled, non-disabled, and neurodivergent dancers in order to explore non-normative avatar representations as well as the accessibility challenges for immersive technologies. Their installation at SXSW included a dance performance where audience members could hear an experimental audio sound track while watching Kat Hawkins dance in physical reality while seeing them puppeteer a range of abstract, flowing, and non-humanoid avatar representations in collaboration with another dancer sharing this virtual space, but performing remotely in London.

There was also a VR component of his experience that allowed you a closer look at the recordings of these non-normative avatar representations being puppeteered while you listened to an autoethnographic audio essay exploring themes of embodiment, challenges with accessibility, and centering disabled bodies into the experiential design process.

The authors of this piece granted permission for me to air this autoethnographic essay at the beginning of interview with Clarice Hilton, who is a creative technologist and researcher and co-director of Figural Bodies as well as with Kat Hawkins, who is an artist working with dance and film, and is doing their Ph.D. research with Candoco dance company of disabled and non-disabled dancers. We explore the multi-faceted themes of embodiment, dance, accessibility, and some of the resonant connections between non-normative VR avatars and non-binary gender identity.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality