Dance Code

US-based Austrian artist Ursula Endlicher has developed a Butoh dance vocabulary for the html codes that give structure to websites. Each tag has its own corresponding movements, allowing users of this vocabulary to act-out or 'impersonate' the source code of websites. These impersonations are archived on Endlicher's website, the 'html-movement-library.' In this case 'library' is a perfect term, as it's essentially an archive of texts, even if they are read through the medium of a martial arts-infused dance. Recently, new media organization Turbulence.org commissioned Endlicher to perform 'HTML Butoh,' a choreographed series of actions determined by the code in the 'Global Top 500,' the 500 most popular websites on the internet, as determined by the Alexa organization. The principle behind Butoh is one in which the performer becomes 'an image through her movements,' which mirrors the process by which a web browser translates strings of code into a visual interface. Endlicher's spin, however, is a bit more kinetically-enriched. Log-in and see (or dance) for yourself. - Irene Wu