a chinese woman with short hair wearing a virtual reality headset looking at her hands through the sensors
Dan Xu
Bucharest Dance Hack (2025)

Bucharest Dance Hack (BCDH) 2025 is a transdisciplinary residency intensive that connects dance artists with creative technologists to explore ways of blending the moving human body and technology.

It took place between 7-11th April 2025 at Cinetic – the International Center for Research and Education in Innovative and Creative Technologies.

Photo credit: @bittersweetvenom24

During BCDH, I collaborated with fellow participants to explore the relationships between movement, technologically mediated touch and sounds.

A group of people sitting in a circle connected with wires. One hand from the right touch the arm from the left.
Right: Emmanuel Ndefo
Two people lying on the floor with their toe almost touching each other.
Left: Olga Uzikaeva. Right: Emmanuel Ndefo

For the final showcase, I 'hacked' a commercially available touch sensor: electros connected to the touch sensor are place in the mouth of two dancers, thus turning their bodies into conductive interfaces and transformed their contact with each other as well as the audience into a responsive soundscape.

A close up of the Touch Me sensor by Playtronica. A chinese woman standing behind a macbook air with a roll of red electric wires next to it. Two dancers standing next to one audience member.
Left: Ada Anghel. Middle: Irina Marinescu. Right: Yurika Yamamoto
Two dancers touching one another.
Left: Ada Anghel. Right: Yurika Yamamoto

The recording of the final presentation can be viewed below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Developing Art (@a.developing.art)

© Dan Xu 2025. All rights reserved.