The spiritual realms have always been inextricably bound to artistic image, Icons, symbols, mandalas and physical movement assist the elevation of the soul. These types of visual images are alive with metaphysical meaning. Spiritual dance, image and sound assist the connection to the higher realms of consciousness. Cybodule looks at the interaction between the contemporary and the archaic. We are a collaboration that uses art and movement to represent our spiritual philosophy. This involves acknowledging the body as a vehicle of spiritual expression. It may be my body but I dance. The project represents the yin yang connection, the marriage of science and nature, where one contains an element of the other. Belly dance the poem of creation, the first and most enduring dance form rooted in sacred ritual. The dance is shamanic and celebrates physical and creative fertility. Cybodule aims to realise these features via computer technology. The dance represents the manifestation of the none manifest. The latency of formless chaos and therefore pure creation, has a parallel in digital terms in that the openness of interactive systems is related to the latency of potential within the data base. The structure of the installation represents the eternal inter-relationship between order and anarchy. The combination of primal metaphysics with cyboculture and cyboaesthetics, describes the formation of a future-ancient temple,-where art, worship and altered consciousness are contained within the one experience.

 

Arabic dance is framed in an installation, whose components include a ten foot interactive projection of various permutations of Ishtar the electric belly dancer, as she dances her way through the 42 video loops. The virtual Ishtar is stimulated to dance by interactive pressure pads. As these projections are being activated by the dancer (or any one wishing to participate in the process). We are simultaneously exposed to slide images of sacred feminine icons and symbols. These are juxtaposed with presumably mundane, modern ritual and transforming objects, such as seductively shot anthropomorphised depilatory products! Because of the close up framing of slides of the hand made costumes, we are forced to look at their detail, complexity and creativity. Because we are forced to look closely we are reminded of the often unseen women's art, and the fact that Arab women's dance is indeed a sacred art form.