Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D.

Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D. Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D. Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D.
Home
Dance Tech
Photography
Writings
Endeavors

Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D.

Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D. Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D. Dr. Kwabena Slaughter Ph.D.
Home
Dance Tech
Photography
Writings
Endeavors
More
  • Home
  • Dance Tech
  • Photography
  • Writings
  • Endeavors
  • Home
  • Dance Tech
  • Photography
  • Writings
  • Endeavors

Interactive Touch-Sensitive Technological Performance

By using touch as the trigger, this interactive electric touch-senstive experience turns connection, pressure, and collaboration into a shared visual and sonic moment. Flexible across immersive art, performing arts, family programming, and brand activiations. This is a human powered experience where touch completes the circuit and connection creates the show.

 Electric tap dance was the first form. The goal was to visualize the assertion of willpower that a tapper makes with stomping on the floor. The role of contact has expanded to direct human to human contact.

Light, sound, video, and other systems can be triggered by the interaction of the participants. The technological tools in this project include transistors, copper, relays, latches, MaxMSP, Playtronic, and others.

Patty Cake

Smack

The system monitors skin on skin contact, such as high-fives, foot steps, smacks on your face, and others.

Illustration of the system

When the dancers stand on the contact points and clap their hands together, the system recognizes the flow between them.

Capoeira & Piano

Two forms of movement that are tightly integrated with music.

Shadows In Dance

There's a dancer behind the white curtain. When the dancer in front steps in certain places on the dance floor it causes lights behind the curtain to turn on, which casts the hidden dancers shadows onto the curtain.

Lay Your Hands (In Mine)

When one person touches both of the contact points the systems recognizes the pre-existing electrical flow in their bodies. The triggers an internal system to turn on a light.

I had the honor of presenting this at Lunder Institute's Think Tank

Kwabena Slaughter, “lay your hands on ours”, Greene Block + Studios, July 3, 2025. Lunder Institute for American Art Summer Think Tank 2025, photography by Ben Wheeler.

Electric Tap Dance

The shoes and the dance floor are customized so the system recognizes continuity between two contact points.

Art All Night

Staircast made in honor of the work of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Audience participation during Theatre Week.

Theatre Week

Youth interaction at Arena Stage

The early phase of building the electric tap dance system

Dr. Slaughter

Copyright © 2026 Dr. Slaughter - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by