Tap - James Buckhouse
My friend Cristina just showed me her tap dance routine, which reminded me of this art project. It’s a little dated; I couldn’t get the screensaver to work, but I think it will still work if any of you have Palm Treo cell phones. pretty great. Here is a quote from his literature:
“With Tap, Buckhouse and his project collaborator, Holly Brubach, present a PDA-based artwork that exists in the overlap between digital public space, physical public space, and the more personal network of person-to-person exchange. Tap can be downloaded from the internet, received from one of several beaming stations located in public spaces around Manhattan, or beamed directly from one person to another.
Once loaded onto a PDA running the Palm operating system, the artwork begins. A male or female figure stands fidgeting, ready to start. The user can work with the dancer to practice steps, to improvise new dances, or to choreograph new dances from a palette of sixteen steps. The character will stumble, throwing its arms up in the air in frustration, bow askance sheepishly, and continue, despite repeated mistakes. With practice, the character gradually gets the steps right, sometimes lapsing, but eventually mastering each step. Whether improvised by the character or choreographed by the user, dances can be saved, re-worked and exchanged. They can then be beamed directly from user to user or posted and retrieved from the permanent dance archive on Tap’s website. A screensaver version is available which allows for exploring the steps with a character that is an experienced dancer. “
