ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the based on selected research papers presented at the international “Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication” conference in Lisbon in 2019, organised by the local researchers to mark the conclusion of “BlackBox Arts & Cognition,” an ERC-funded research project led by myself. Video footage has been used as a primary research tool throughout the most diverse disciplines, from ethnography in its earliest stages to medicine, sports, and the cognitive sciences, but nowadays it is being increasingly used in the field of arts research as well. Dancing, as a cultural practise, has only started to be analysed from other perspectives beyond anthropology, ethnology, and choreology, after the rapid developments in science during the past 30 years, such as the huge advances in neuroscience and technology, and current trends in research of cognitive and computer sciences.
