Spelman College
Spelman College
Arts and AI: How T. Lang’s Switch Code Program is Bringing Dance into the Digital Age
Arts and AI: How T. Lang’s Switch Code Program is Bringing Dance into the Digital Age
When asked about her journey and current relationship with dance, T. Lang describes herself as “making space for multimedia artists to experiment and have space to tinker with their art.”
T. Lang, the inaugural chair of Spelman’s Dance Performance and Choreography Department, has been experimenting and teaching students since 2008. Now entering her 17th year at the college, Lang is launching a new approach to performance through the Switch Code Fellowship.
The program, created from the receipt of a UNCF/Mellon Grant for Teaching and Learning Institutes, aims to foster innovative perspectives on how students blend dance with technology.
“I’ve been thinking about how Spelman can position STEAM in this new world that we're in,” Lang said.
She defines the purpose behind Switch Codes as wanting “to use technology wisely.”
“Not as a gimmick but as another tool, like writing, like the pen, like newspaper, to put those codes in,” Lang said. “So when I'm using the technology it's not frivolous, it's meaningful, it's protective.”
The program’s title, a reversal of the term “code switch,” is meant to change the code of what performing arts can be. It joins a global shift towards technology in a move that is explorative, rather than adaptive.
“I’ve been thinking and creating work, and I’ve been colliding my movement and choreography with technology. And placing my choreography in alternative spaces that are beyond the proscenium stage, beyond the round,” she said. “And building these new worlds for my kinfolk to think deeply about who they are, the endless possibilities of what could be.”
The year-long incubator will feature several guest artists who work with students to blend choreography with their diverse technological skillsets, eventually creating 60-minute self-produced works in the spring.
“I was led to create this fellowship, to not only protect the codes, but to teach different codes for our students by bringing in collaborators that I rock with throughout my network,” she said. “And bring them into the classroom and studio to play, investigate and tear up the syllabi and lesson plans, and teach our students our collaborative methods.”
These collaborators, referred to in the program as imagineers, will each spend a month working through their knowledge and craft with dance students. They include Tariq O'Meally, Carlita Scarboro-Vazquez, Faith “Aya” Umoh and Faculty Fellow Lyrric Jackson. With these fellows come experience in artificial intelligence, radical thought, installation art, motion-capturing technology and more, with the takeaways from these lessons to be put on display through showcases throughout the semester.
Lang describes this program as an “unleashing of imagination,” as students and fellows alike are encouraged to approach their craft from a fresh lens. However, when blending a rich legacy of Black dance and movement with innovation, discovery and disruption, it is clear what remains as constant.
“Curiosity. Strategic curiosity,” Lang said. “Remaining curious is the constant change, the constant key factor in all of this, in disruption, elevation and innovation. Staying curious. If that's not there, there's no point to it.”
With the program already underway and a semester of code-rewriting still ahead, Lang says that she wants to see this program convert into possibilities for its students. In working innovatively, she hopes for the skills obtained from Switch Code to become an extension of dance and creativity that may blend with other endeavors.
“Will they now become cultural strategists?” Lang said. “Will they become these narrative-designed creatives and thinkers? Will they now be placed in New York, working with The Dance Space or the Joyce Theater, but also with Microsoft? And different councils, government councils to affect urban planning or technology shifts and changes. There's more ideas that dance can affect change.”
When asked about her journey and current relationship with dance, T. Lang describes herself as “making space for multimedia artists to experiment and have space to tinker with their art.”
T. Lang, the inaugural chair of Spelman’s Dance Performance and Choreography Department, has been experimenting and teaching students since 2008. Now entering her 17th year at the college, Lang is launching a new approach to performance through the Switch Code Fellowship.
The program, created from the receipt of a UNCF/Mellon Grant for Teaching and Learning Institutes, aims to foster innovative perspectives on how students blend dance with technology.
“I’ve been thinking about how Spelman can position STEAM in this new world that we're in,” Lang said.
She defines the purpose behind Switch Codes as wanting “to use technology wisely.”
“Not as a gimmick but as another tool, like writing, like the pen, like newspaper, to put those codes in,” Lang said. “So when I'm using the technology it's not frivolous, it's meaningful, it's protective.”
The program’s title, a reversal of the term “code switch,” is meant to change the code of what performing arts can be. It joins a global shift towards technology in a move that is explorative, rather than adaptive.
“I’ve been thinking and creating work, and I’ve been colliding my movement and choreography with technology. And placing my choreography in alternative spaces that are beyond the proscenium stage, beyond the round,” she said. “And building these new worlds for my kinfolk to think deeply about who they are, the endless possibilities of what could be.”
The year-long incubator will feature several guest artists who work with students to blend choreography with their diverse technological skillsets, eventually creating 60-minute self-produced works in the spring.
“I was led to create this fellowship, to not only protect the codes, but to teach different codes for our students by bringing in collaborators that I rock with throughout my network,” she said. “And bring them into the classroom and studio to play, investigate and tear up the syllabi and lesson plans, and teach our students our collaborative methods.”
These collaborators, referred to in the program as imagineers, will each spend a month working through their knowledge and craft with dance students. They include Tariq O'Meally, Carlita Scarboro-Vazquez, Faith “Aya” Umoh and Faculty Fellow Lyrric Jackson. With these fellows come experience in artificial intelligence, radical thought, installation art, motion-capturing technology and more, with the takeaways from these lessons to be put on display through showcases throughout the semester.
Lang describes this program as an “unleashing of imagination,” as students and fellows alike are encouraged to approach their craft from a fresh lens. However, when blending a rich legacy of Black dance and movement with innovation, discovery and disruption, it is clear what remains as constant.
“Curiosity. Strategic curiosity,” Lang said. “Remaining curious is the constant change, the constant key factor in all of this, in disruption, elevation and innovation. Staying curious. If that's not there, there's no point to it.”
With the program already underway and a semester of code-rewriting still ahead, Lang says that she wants to see this program convert into possibilities for its students. In working innovatively, she hopes for the skills obtained from Switch Code to become an extension of dance and creativity that may blend with other endeavors.
“Will they now become cultural strategists?” Lang said. “Will they become these narrative-designed creatives and thinkers? Will they now be placed in New York, working with The Dance Space or the Joyce Theater, but also with Microsoft? And different councils, government councils to affect urban planning or technology shifts and changes. There's more ideas that dance can affect change.”