Sorcha Browning
17 June to 29 June 2024

Through my background in dance and movement, I have become interested in how the body acts and reacts with specific audiences in mind. My research explores the practice of pole dancing, and how, through this form in particular; the body is affected by the technological gaze. I aim to see this surveillance technology as audience in order to tease out some of the ramification of this gaze. By approaching movement and technology in this way, I hope to explore who we are and how we are allowed to be as subjects within this object gaze dynamic.

For this residency, I will use the studio space to investigate and explore ways in which gesture and performance can contribute to the ‘uniterable’ demands that the technological gaze imposes on the material body. These explorations will contribute towards a film project in development, with the working title Iter. My work filters performance through the lens of film and other media to expand and exaggerate the technological manipulations on the body. The work opens a space for performative movement and gestures of play between technology and the body to critique how we perform identities and construct selves through this techno mirror space.

Sorcha is a past student of Alan Foley Academy of Dance at West Cork Arts Centre, has recently completed her BA in Visual Arts (hons) Degree, Sherkin Island and is the winner of the inaugural OPEN EAR GRADUATE AWARD and the National Sculpture Factory's Graduate Residency Award 2024.

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.