Digital Body Festival 2024, Hackney Bridge

It comes as no surprise to learn that the Digital Body Festival 2024 has been founded by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company. Dancer, choreographer and science buff Alexander Whitley has been moving in this direction for some time now, increasingly integrating his fascination with the possibilities of science and digital technology in his own choreographic work.

The festival, the first of its kind, celebrates developments in interactive and immersive technologies, which enable new forms of physical experience, exploring the possible forms the moving body can take. It goes beyond dance to include multiple art forms such as music, fashion and architecture and is organised under five thematic strands presenting immersive VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) installations alongside live performances, talks, panels and workshops.

Very much an immersive and collaborative event, visitors are positively urged to play their part. Among its many highlights is Vast Body, a playful artwork by Vincent Morisset & Caroline Robert, where a myriad of digital alter egos continually try to replicate the movements of the person facing it. Beyond the fun aspect, Vast Body aims to make the visitor ponder questions of identity, empathy and our relation with non-human intelligences.

In the strand on Performing Technologies, which will bring together dancers, musicians and DJS, I am particularly intrigued by Elizabeth Arifien's Boundless Body, a multi-layered sensory dance performance that aims to take audiences into a transcendental space unifying dance, costume, technology and music.

Those are just a couple of events that caught my eye from among a plethora of intriguing, futuristic explorations of the intersection between digital technologies and our moving bodies.

The festival takes place in one of East London's most dynamic cultural hubs, Hackney Bridge, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Full information and tickets here