In celebration of our pop-up Cyber Garden at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, we are pleased to share the included digital project Recessed. Special Special’s Show and Tell series, which partly inspired Cyber Garden, becomes a virtual portal into our landing in Shanghai.

A collaboration between dancer/choreographer Heidi Latsky and artist Maya Man, Recessed stemmed from the collective isolation felt over the course of the pandemic in 2020. What does it mean to choreograph and perform digitally, at a time when the screen presents the only way to access another’s body? Instead of adapting an existing dance performance, the artists decided to create an interactive, intimate experience conceived especially for the browser. 

Recessed by Heidi Latsky and Maya Man 

You are invited to navigate from a grid of images and gifs on the landing page — whether a close-up of an intensely concentrating face, or the bounces of a dancer’s hair as they rise up in motion. Clicking on any of the images prompts a unique on-screen choreography, which consists of a series of smaller pop-up windows of various sizes and placement. Each appearing and disappearing in sequential order, these tiled windows depict dynamic bodies in domestic backdrops and in nature, presenting rhythmic movement from various angles in a deeply personal way, made possible by the digital screen. 

Recessed by Heidi Latsky and Maya Man 

Heidi Latsky founded Heidi Latsky Dance in 2001 and has been dedicated to an interdisciplinary practice that disrupts space, dismantles normality, and redefines beauty and virtuosity through performance and discourse. Recessed demonstrates the radical yet poetic power of unconventional viewpoints: set against a clear blue sky, dancer Jillian’s pregnant body forms a landscape whose contours move up and down with each breath; Donald, a performer with a disability, fully integrates his wheelchair and its spinning capabilities as a part of his cyborgian performance. The precision of programming and design injects the experience of space and time into the flatness of the browser. It satisfies not so much our voyeuristic tendencies, but a natural longing to be connected to other bodies, other perspectives, and other intimate realities.  

Recessed by Heidi Latsky and Maya Man  

In order to encourage visitors to see the work in person at Cyber Garden, the artists have created a video demo that previews the experience: https://vimeo.com/561366546

Featured dancers: Sabrina Bennette, Desmond Cadogan, Jillian Hollis, Donald Lee, Sora Sol. The artists plan to expand the project to include more dancers in the coming months.

Artist bios:

Heidi Latsky, who began her company Heidi Latsky Dance in 2001, continues to disrupt space, dismantle normal, and redefine beauty through education and performance. 

Website: https://heidilatskydance.org

Instagram: @heidilatskydance

Maya Man is an artist, programmer, and dancer based in New York City whose work considers the computer screen a space for intimacy and performance.

Website: https://mayaontheinter.net/

Instagram: @mayaontheinternet