VALS: Mária Júdová – Performance Art and Digital Technology

For the latest in our series of lectures by visiting artists, we are delighted to welcome Mária Júdová, an independent artist who for over a decade has been investigating the creative potential of technology.

At the Academy of Arts in Slovakia, and later at the École de recherche graphique in Brussels, she became particularly interested in exploring the intersection of digital and performance arts. Her research resulted in the creation of numerous films of dance on camera.

Later, as an MA reseracher at the FAMU Centre for Audiovisual Studies in Prague, she took a critical perspective on common algorithmic approaches to visualizing the moving body; and as an artist in residence, she worked with both Theater Roxy in Basel and the Rambert contemporary dance company in London.

During this presentation, Mária will ask what performance art and digital technology can offer to one another, and what are the challenges of working between the two disciplines. She will talk about her most significant projects and recent collaborations with digital artist Andrej Boleslavský, amongst them the live-coded visual show ‘Fatal Light Attraction’, the intermedia performance ‘Everywhen’ and the virtual reality project DUST.

About the artist

Mária Júdová’s work combines the exploration of technologically-informed dance practices with participatory performance, body movement, time and space. She is interested in applying the process of choreographic thinking to digital arts practice and vice versa, as she believes that this leads to the creation of richer and more meaningful experiences. She often finds herself in close collaboration with performers, dancers and choreographers, trying to better understand the principles behind the creation of movement as well as sharing creative practices.

She has presented at a wide range of festivals, including the Sensorium festival (SK), White Night Festival (SK), LABoral (ES), Immersive Expressions of Siggraph (NY), Athens Digital Arts Festival (GR), Berlin Atonal (DE), Das Tanzfest (CHE), Cinedans (NL), Accès(s) – festival cultures électroniques (FR) and at the V&A Museum (UK). She actively works in the field of digital arts both nationally and internationally.