Ashokkumar D Mistry

MethodsFor is a data driven performance which consists of computer components that generate instructions and notation for performers in real time.

The work presents itself as somewhere between installation, live artwork and theatre performance, exploring our relationship
as human beings with our technology.

The system takes live data from Twitter parsed into speech synthesised notations for a tabla player to perform. The tabla player’s hand movements across the drums trigger sensors which in turn send movement instructions

to a dancer and simultaneously control the lighting in the environment. The lighting states instruct the dancer’s genre of performance or stillness and reset. During stillness and reset
a third performer recites Hello World’s/Digital Apostate – a combination of the original poem that stimulated the work with fragmentary insertions of conversations that occur during rehearsals. A final output is generated by the dancer’s movements that are captured via a Bluetooth device and drawn using a pen plotter.

This was the first major artwork that was created after Mistry’s recognition and acceptance of being disabled. Having embraced his condition MethodsFor is about looking at the world the wrong way round or beyond known borders of expression, making sense of making sense

and of making sense of Mistry’s mentality.

The full performanced can be viewed by following this link: 

Touring Dates & Venues:

18 December 2015 Studio79 (Leicester)
4 September 2016 Attenborough Arts Centre

Funders & Partners:

Arts Council England, Phoenix Arts
Desi Masti Dance

Collaborators:

G Sian, Fareda Khan, Yuyu Rao, Yuyu Rao, Stella Couloutbanis, Rishi Chowdhury, Sean Clarke, Khush Kali