This talk presents a practice-based research that uses choreography to critique the often-concealed algorithms operating in the background of everyday web environments. By harnessing choreographic practices, researchers can both reinforce existing forms of control over people's movements or catalyse critical investigation into movement, thereby offering a multifaceted and nuanced perspective on this issue. Joana Chicau will showcase a series of projects that integrate elements of artistic research, critical design, choreography, and embodied sense-making to render hidden algorithmic processes visible and experiential. Her approach seeks more intimate and visceral forms of algorithmic resistance, exploring how embodiment can empower and emancipate users.

Joana Chicau is a designer and researcher — with a background in dance. Chicau's research seeks to increase public understanding of computational processes through embodied and choreographic approaches. Her practice interweaves web design and programming with choreography — from the making of online platforms to performances and workshops. She participates in and curates events focused on computational arts and community roundtables about digital activism. Including Mesh Festival (Basel), Fiber Festival (Amsterdam), Piksel (Bergen), Transmediale Vorspiel (Berlin), Art Meets Radical Openness (Linz), Radical Networks (NYC), to name a few. She is a lecturer and PhD candidate at the Creative Institute at the University of the Arts London.
https://joanachicau.com/