This visual regime is echoed in dance, where the stage has historically privileged a clearly delineated, coherent human form and the ideal of bodily legibility. Shy dramaturgy<\/em> seeks to unsettle this expectation by approaching embodiment as fluid, relational, and non-identitarian. The research is informed by a perceptual orientation often associated with neurodivergent experience, in which the body is sensed less as a stable identity and more as a shifting field of sensation and material presence. This orientation is not framed as a personal identity category, but as a methodological and aesthetic resource that enables alternative modes of attention and composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through practice-as-research structured in three cycles (haze, darkness, hologram), the project gradually unsettles the visual legibility of the performer to test the assumption that the visible body is essential to dance. By suspending the hegemony of the visual, shy dramaturgy<\/em> proposes expanded modes of embodiment that resist anthropocentric perception and invite more ambiguous, dense, and multi-layered encounters with the dancing body. that transcend visual biases and conventions, fostering more diverse perceptions of dance performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this presentation, I will start by deconstructing the title of my PhD research: Hyperwithin: A Shy Dramaturgy in Shadowtimes<\/em>. Each part of the title reflects the core ideas of the research, and I will walk you through their meanings and connections as a way to introduce the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My use of the prefix hyper-<\/strong> is directly inspired by Timothy Morton’s concept of hyperobjects which refers to entities so vast and distributed in time and space that they surpass the confines of human perception (like climate change or capitalism). The term hyper-<\/strong> implies an excess in scale and presence, an overwhelming force that challenges our ability to fully comprehend or visually grasp its entirety. Hyperobjects exist on a scale that transcends conventional understanding, urging us to reconsider our relationship with phenomena that are both pervasive and elusive. I use hyper-<\/strong> to convey the idea of something that is expansive beyond the reach or total understanding of visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within<\/strong> signifies a deliberate, internal stance, it is about a conscious turning inward. It draws from the notion of an interior space where one deliberately resists the impulse to externalize. In my research, within<\/strong> signifies a refusal to be continuously on display; it\u2019s not about escaping or retreating in a mystical sense but about choosing not to conform to the demands of hypervisibility. In performance, this means embracing a mode of presence that is measured, contained, and deliberately withdrawn, a strategic use of absence and shadow that challenges the expectation of constant outward expression.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Therefore, hyper + within = hyperwithin<\/strong>. It captures the idea of an overwhelming, expansive force (hyper) that meets a deliberate turning inward (within). Hyperwithin should not be equated with escapism or mere self-observation. Instead, it refers to a deliberate, inward-focused process in which one consciously limit external self-presentation. Hyperwithin is a political and philosophical stance as well as an aesthetic approach and, mostly, a way of moving. It is the mode of presence and performance I aspire to embody by the end of my PhD, it represents the outcome I am striving to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To build hyperwithin, I am working with a core concept, shy<\/em>, which takes full effect through the process of dramaturgy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n From 2015 until 2021, I created a series of dances called Shy Works. I wanted to explore movement beyond the traditional frameworks of visibility and performance; and produce work without relying on the traditional, competitive dance circuits. I wanted to escape what felt like constant pressure to appear everywhere in order to secure opportunities and having to put my appearance on display, for it to be curated or dissected often against my own internal world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Shy Works I used posthumanism as a theoretical anchor, which helped to connect the personal desire to \u201cnot be seen\u201d to a greater quest to understand, and challenge, the anthropocentric assumptions that dictate how we view the human body in performance. Shy works was, in part, an attempt to reclaim freedom of action and arrive at a place where dance is not mediated through external gaze or expectation, as well as an interrogation of what dance could be without any recognisable human body in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I proceeded quite simply, with one constraint to respect: hiding the face. This lead to a kind of intimate performativity and of course a specific movement research, because hiding the face obstructs or limits movements, which in turn creates new pathways. I specifically chose to work with videos, and to not stage the works. Then I had full freedom to show to whoever, whenever. Because eventually shy works got programmed, a WebGL was made to host all of the videos and eventually ended up as a full virtual reality environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept of “shy” is not defined here as a mere reluctance to engage with others, driven by self-consciousness or fear of judgment. Instead, it is framed as a stance, an active, proactive mode of avoidance, more aligned with the definition of “shy away.” When I began my PhD, I sought to expand on this idea, shifting from a route focused on transformation and becoming, to a more radical exploration of disappearance. If Shy Works refers to a deliberate refusal to be recognized according to the established norms of contemporary Western culture, then hyperwithin takes it further: it is about choosing not to appear at all, positioning dance as an expression that exists independently of being seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is visible is often equated with what is considered worthy or legitimate, while what remains unseen is excluded from societal acknowledgment. This dynamic reinforces hierarchies and power structures, where those who can\u2019t or won\u2019t conform to the demands of visibility are rendered invisible and, by extension, deemed irrelevant. I view shy<\/em> as a mode of resistance to this very phenomenon. By choosing to remain unseen, shy <\/em>effectively rejects the societal pressure to be visible in order to be recognized as valuable. In this sense, shy<\/em> stands as a refusal, a deliberate decision not to participate in the constructed process by which worth is conferred through visibility. It is not about evasion out of fear or self-consciousness, but about opting out of the evaluative structures that force personal identity and worth into the public gaze. By remaining out of view, shy<\/em> refuses to accept the terms under which visibility is granted, thus challenging the very system that equates being seen with being legible or valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, it might seem counterintuitive to activate this concept through dance, the very medium where human bodies are most exposed, performing at full visibility. But I believe this is exactly where the tension becomes compelling and where it takes shape. It\u2019s often said that performance resists commodification precisely because it exists in the moment, defying documentation. Dance, with its ephemeral and immaterial essence, is believed to resist becoming a commodity. Yet, the stage is also the place where we are the most visible, where we objectify ourselves, in our desire to be seen. So, what happens if I suppress that urge? Right there, in the space where it\u2019s expected to unfold. If my goal is to remove the human from view, then the stage is the most potent playground for that experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I use dramaturgy as a systematic framework which contains all the tools I use in my research. I start by grounding the research in a deep textual and theoretical analysis. By theorizing my concept fully before testing it, I create a well-defined dramaturgical text. This script isn\u2019t static; it evolves as I introduce practice-based experiments that serve as \u201cstaged readings\u201d of the theoretical insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have divided my research in three research cycles (haze, darkness, hologram) which serve as distinct dramaturgical phases, with each cycle exploring a different aspect of the concept of shy. The key part of my methodology is the use of experiments, which allow me to test these theories and concepts in real-world, embodied situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example: For the moment I am in my year of darkness. This phase of the research focuses on darkness as a performance condition and a perceptual shift. In reading across physics and philosophy, I became interested in how the absence of light reconfigures attention: when the body is no longer offered to the eye, performativity loosens, and presence becomes internal rather than projective. Darkness creates conditions in which the dancer does not need to be seen in order to dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To explore this inward performativity, I developed HARDsCOREs: personalized, complex score-structures composed of numerical sequences linked to movement tasks. Unlike traditional choreography scores, which serve primarily as systems of recall or notation, HARDsCOREs operate as cognitive architectures that require sustained mental and physical engagement. The dancer\u2019s attention is not oriented outward toward the audience or image, but inward, toward a continuous problem-solving process happening in real time. The result is a mode of presence that is absorbed rather than expressive, a body engaged in doing rather than showing. Importantly, this is not a withdrawal or negation of performance, but a reorientation of attention. HARDsCOREs allow difficulty to coexist with softness: the dancer must remain open, adaptive, and receptive while navigating a complex task. The intensity is not only muscular, but cognitive, relational, and temporal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I tested HARDsCOREs twice with two groups of fifteen dancers, working entirely in darkness. Two dancers with whom I collaborate regularly observed the sessions and completed open-ended evaluation forms, while participants completed post-session questionnaires. The absence of light produced an immediate and measurable shift in attention: dancers reported a heightened awareness of weight, breath, and the internal pacing of movement. Many described the experience as \u201crelief,\u201d \u201cprivacy within performance,\u201d or \u201cbeing with myself, not my image.\u201d In the follow-up survey, 96% stated that they do not dance in order to be seen. This result challenges one of the foundational assumptions of Western theatre: that the stage is a space of visibility, and that visibility is the condition through which dance becomes meaningful. Instead, for many dancers, meaning arises from sensation, concentration, and relation long before (or even without) visual legibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This phase of the research suggests that presence does not require visibility, and that disappearing from view can be a strategy of preservation, autonomy, and depth. In a cultural moment saturated by exposure, documentation, and hyper-visibility, darkness becomes a site of refuge and resistance: a way to continue existing without being consumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than developing a fixed hypothesis, the research of this year proceeds through three conceptual provocations that guide thinking and studio experimentation. These provocations function as conceptual entry points rather than questions requiring resolution. Instead of seeking closure, they frame sites of ongoing inquiry. Each provocation opens a field in which I work through references, artistic strategies, and studio experiments. During this current phase of research, the year of darkness, they guide my practice as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shadowtime is the context of my research. It is a term coined by the The Bureau of Linguistical Reality<\/em> which is a public participatory artwork by Heidi Quante and Alicia Escott focused on creating new language as an innovative way to better understand our rapidly changing world due to manmade climate change and other Anthropocenic events. Shadowtime is a parallel timescale that follows one around throughout day to day experience of regular time. It manifests as a feeling of living in two distinctly different temporal scales simultaneously, or acute consciousness of the possibility that the near future will be drastically different than the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this research, shadowtimes<\/strong> frame the way we experience the Anthropocene: an age of ecological uncertainty where what we fail to see is in fact shaping our day to day life and also shapes how we understand and respond to planetary change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Anthropocene marks the moment when human activity became a determining planetary force. Yet much of this transformation remains difficult to see: atmospheric change, slow toxicity, species disappearance, and infrastructural shifts unfold gradually, diffusely, or at scales too large or too small for human vision to apprehend. These are forms of harm that are gradual, accumulative, and hard to witness (Nixon 2011). The crisis is therefore not only ecological, it is also perceptual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, contemporary visual culture produces an unprecedented saturation of images, including images of environmental disaster. But rather than bringing us closer to ecological awareness, these images often produce distance, abstraction, and emotional overload. Climate change becomes something we look at<\/em>, rather than something we sense ourselves to be inside of<\/em> (Demos 2016). The spectacle of the Anthropocene can function as a buffer, aestheticizing what is already lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the contemporary subject is oriented toward self-visibility, continuous self-presentation, self-monitoring, self-staging. We are trained to face ourselves as image, often more attentively than we face our surroundings (Crary 2013; Han 2015). This dynamic reinforces a perceptual enclosure: vision collapses inward. The world recedes. So the problem is not simply that we do not see<\/em> climate change. It is that seeing has become insufficient as a primary mode of relation. The visual register no longer holds the scale, texture, or temporality of the world we inhabit. This research begins from that perceptual impasse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Anthropocene exceeds the visible, then dance, as a practice of sensing, orienting, and inhabiting, may offer ways of cultivating presence beyond visibility. In this sense, shy dramaturgy<\/em> does not seek to eliminate the body or withdraw it from the world, but to create conditions in which presence is not dependent on visibility. The research proposes that dance can sustain forms of existence that are not structured around display, legibility, or self-exposure. In shadowtimes, when the most consequential forces shaping our world exceed what can be immediately seen, attention, relation, and sensation may become more meaningful than appearance. Shy dramaturgy asks how a body may continue to act, move, and relate without entering the regime of visibility, and how disappearance can function not as erasure but as a mode of autonomy, preservation, and depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity<\/em>. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crary, Jonathan. 2013. 24\/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep<\/em>. London: Verso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demos, T. J. 2016. Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today<\/em>. Berlin: Sternberg Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Derrida, Jacques. 1994. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International<\/em>. London: Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Didi-Huberman, Georges. 2005. Confronting Images: Questioning the Ends of a Certain History of Art<\/em>. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison<\/em>. New York: Pantheon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Han, Byung-Chul. 2015. The Transparency Society<\/em>. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay, Martin. 1993. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought<\/em>. Berkeley: University of California Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May, Theresa J. 2020. Earth Matters on Stage: Ecology and Environment in American Theatre<\/em>. London: Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morton, Timothy. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World<\/em>. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nixon, Rob. 2011. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor<\/em>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phelan, Peggy. 1993. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance<\/em>. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHyperwithin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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shy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dramaturgy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This provocation considers visibility as a mechanism of power, regulation, and legibility (Butler; Foucault; Ranci\u00e8re). It asks how hyper-visibility operates in performance and in contemporary culture, and what forms of refusal or opacity may constitute resistance. Here, shy dramaturgy<\/em> emerges as a strategy of protective unavailability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
This line of inquiry addresses the dominance of light within Western epistemologies and aesthetic traditions (Crary; Jay; Didi-Huberman). It explores darkness not as absence, but as an alternative mode of knowing: a space in which attention shifts from outward image to inward attunement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
This provocation examines the expectation of full bodily presence in performance and considers forms of spectrality, withdrawal, and non-appearance (Derrida; Phelan). It explores how suggestion, trace, and partiality can generate meaning without relying on visual confirmation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\nShadowtimes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why the Anthropocene?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n