This study examines how graphic design and dance visually interpret and record movement, aiming to develop a graphic score system accessible to non-experts and to explore its potential through choreographic analysis and participatory workshops. While ...
This study examines how graphic design and dance visually interpret and record movement, aiming to develop a graphic score system accessible to non-experts and to explore its potential through choreographic analysis and participatory workshops. While graphic design employs symbols such as arrows and lines to convey objective information, a visual language capable of systematically representing diverse movements remains underdeveloped. Conversely, traditional dance notation systems such as Labanotation can precisely record complex movements, but their highly specialized and abstract symbol systems create significant barriers to accessibility and practical application. To address this gap, this study proposes an open graphic score system that enables intuitive movement visualization.
The research proceeded through three stages: literature and case analysis, score development, and workshop-based application. Through comparative analysis of visual languages from dance notation, scoring systems, and signage across both dance and graphic design fields, key movement components were identified: movement, energy, time, and space. Building on these elements, score symbols were designed around twelve fundamental actions and eight effort qualities. The intuitiveness of these graphic symbols and their capacity to reveal structural and qualitative movement characteristics were examined through analyses of works by Youngseon Gong and Yvonne Rainer. Results demonstrate that the proposed score effectively visualizes movement aspects difficult to capture through conventional notation systems, including flow, dynamics, energy shifts, and spatial organization.
Workshop experiments further explored the score's potential as a creative tool. As participants generated abstract patterns or descriptive images, compositional principles—such as contrast, rhythm, and balance—were naturally translated into choreographic structures, revealing the score's function as a mediator converting visual patterns into choreographic organizing principles. Beyond movement generation, the score demonstrated potential as a tool for constructing interpersonal relationships, symbolic meanings, and narrative imagery that could be retranslated into movement. However, experiments also revealed the need to expand directional possibilities in certain symbols and showed that participants interpreted and used the score more freely than anticipated, selectively adapting it according to individual bodily experiences.
This study experimentally demonstrates the potential of graphic scores as a new visual language for recording, analyzing, and creating movement. The proposed score visualizes intangible elements—texture, energy, and flow—and can function as both a documentation and creation tool accessible to experts and non-experts alike. The study thereby suggests possibilities for application across diverse fields, including contemporary dance, design, interfaces, and education.