Score for a dance piece by Alexander Whitley

This collaboration from choreographer Alexander Whitley with Marshmellow Laser Feast explores the relation we have with technology, using five dancers, reactive projectors and a score by yours truly.

The theme of man vs/with machine is magnified by the music, which combines warm melodic pads with glitchy white noise and (more than on any other Machinefabriek project) propulsive rhythms.

"When we look to technology to deliver us from accidents, from choice and even from mortality we are asking from it something it cannot give: a deliverance from the conditions that make us human. We are seeking from technology ... salvation from ourselves." - John Gray

Visually striking and kinetically charged, The Measures Taken explores our interdependent relationship with technology. With the choreographic process rooted in the digital collaboration, the work is both a dialogue and a duet between human movement and the digital world.

At its core are questions of the role of technology in society and the contrasting ways we come to view the world in a culture highly mediated by digital technology. In the process, the piece explores the potential of technology to augment our self-image and change our understanding of what it means to be human.

The Meassures Taken was commissioned by the Royal Opera House and created in collaboration with visual artists Marshmallow Laser Feast, lighting designer Lee Curran, composer Rutger Zuydervelt and costume designer Oliver Townsend. The piece will premiered at the EXIT Festival at the Maison des Arts de Créteil, France on 1 & 2 April 2014 and had its London premiere at the Royal Opera House on the 15th & 16th May.

Watch a video of (a sample version of) The Measures Taken

Photos by Simon Annand