Video Essay Noud Heerkens published

Noud Heerkens recently published and presented his video Essay accompanying his research project ‘An Invitation to DANCE’. This research project examines the cinematic experience of a dance performance.

‘The Audience Experience of An Invitation to DANCE’, a 23 minutes video essay from filmmaker Noud Heerkens. Based on conversations with ten professionals from the arts he questions his assumptions, reflects and draws conclusions. The participants visited different set ups of the film installation and were afterwards interviewed by Minke Nouwens, anthropologist and artist, and Heerkens.

The video essay centres around two screen set ups, called ARENA and PANORAMA, each of which provokes a different physical and mental response from the visitor. The size of the screens, the software-driven image editing as well as the sound mix remain the same. Only changing the set-up of the screens enables to explicitly investigate the role of the body in the experience of dance.

Through the interviews Heerkens investigates the hypothesis that: When there is an interaction between body and artwork, between film image and memory this will enable the visitor to determine the character and intensity of the experience. The video essay intends to state that the visitor becomes the co-creator of the installation.