Room is a multimedia solo dance performance inspired by the poems carved on the walls by immigrants detained and interrogated upon their arrival in the US between 1910 and 1940 at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco. The performance takes place in a translucent cube with four walls serving as projection surface. Images of the visual projections are activated through a motion capture media choreography program, which responds to the dancer’s movement, highlighting a spontaneous corporeal dialogue with this history. The performance raises the question of how we can listen to our own histories with openness and humility, and how technology can help shape this experience of listening to and encountering our past.
Conceived/Choreographed/Performed by J.J. Guan
Visual Artist: Han Qin
Computational/Projection Designer: Augustus Wendell
Original Score/Sound Design: Karam Salem
Lighting Design: Ethan Eldred
Cinematography (Performance Documentation): Steve Milligan & Sean Zhou
Editing: J.J. Guan
Media Lab, Barnard College, NYC (Oct 2026)
Harvard University CAMLab, Cambridge (Apr 2026)
The Art Center, Carrboro, NC (July 2025)
Highways Performance Space, Los Angeles (May 16-17, 2025)
von der Heyden Theater, Duke University (Feb 9, 2024)