At last week’s BA Design show M-O-D, visitors had the chance to see an unique eight-minute performance, designed by Liakike Robi for her graduation project and performed by Tru Peñate. #Habitus is a performative dance installation about social media and how it increasingly occupies our daily life, subconsciously affecting our mood and behaviour. Here is the designer herself explaining how the project came to be:
Why did you decide to design a dance performance for your final project?
“I was just following my intuition and passion for dance. At the end of my second year at Goldsmiths University, I knew I wanted to work with dancers for my final project. I’ve also always wanted to continue my practice as a designer in the field of stage and set design. So it made sense to me that the outcome should be something that would combine these two. I had a quite clear vision of what my project had to look like, however, the concept for the performance was more complicated.”
Do you have any experience with dance yourself?
“Before coming to London I was in one dance company back in Lithuania, while on the side collaborating with local artists creating performances in gallery spaces. Here in London, I still go to various dance classes, like breaking, new style hustle, house or jazz. Of course, the preparation for the exhibition and exam slowed down my own practice.”
What was it like to work on designing the performance with your performer?
“Working with another person with a different background is absolutely amazing. On this design course, we are encouraged to work in groups and collaborate. The challenging part of this project was showing that a dance performance can also be a design project- and building a language between me and the dancer, building the piece and making her see the project more as a designer, rather than a dancer.”
Goldsmiths Design Blog 