Blog six - Observations of Wayne McGregor’s Process when Creating ‘Atomos’

 Atomos’ is an abstract piece of work created by Wayne McGregor alongside a fashion organisation; Studio XO, focusing on the idea of an atom being indivisible and uncuttable. In this piece, McGregor explores creating movement using technology which collects data in the form of a physiological reading of the dancers’ bodies; for example, listening to the rhythm of the heart and how it reacts to the music. From this, he begins the creative process to building the piece using ‘random’ and inspiration from science.  

The dancers are an important part in this process, as they are required to use their improvisation skills to come up with phrases of movement. From this, McGregor would pick out the parts he likes this most and would create phrases of choreography. There is a strong use of visualisation in which, the dancers are required to be very open minded and approach the project with a creative mindset, to be able to take a random idea and make it something different and unique. In rehearsals with his dancers, McGregor often tells them to work with anything that feels safe, and to build upon that feeling.  

In collaboration with ‘Studio XO’ there is a synchronisation of data created from the body and it being turned into a physical structure. These costumes are considered to be a major part of the creative process rather than just enhancing the movement as they help give the piece some kind of meaning. This biometric data is also translated to form a stimulus for the dancers to use when creating ideas which are strung together to form a motif of the piece based on the data collected. 

From an audience perspective there is no narrative or story behind it so the piece is open to the viewer’s interpretation, allowing space to analyse the piece in your own way and develop your own understanding.  

(Atomos, 2013)

Bibliography

Atomos (2013) Studio Wayne McGregor. Available at: https://waynemcgregor.com/productions/atomos (Accessed: November 14, 2022).