Bombardier, 1

Dancing Our Way to the Future

Jesse Bombardier
Student #104023358

Garth Rennie
Media Aesthetics 02-40-243-01
April 8, 2015

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Dance has been rooted in our culture for a very long time now. It has taken many forms
and has influenced generations over the years, and it will continue to do so. There is a magical
quality about dance and how it relates to one's culture. It exists because everyone can participate
in this art form in their own unique way. One's way of dance may be completely different
compared to another's, but in the end we all dance. It's a social gathering where people have
found a way communicate through their bodies. So what is a dance floor activist? It couldn't be
simpler: it is someone who participates in the celebration of their culture on the dance floor. In
other words, each dance floor activist performs their own dance to their own style of music. The
aesthetical properties of dance are what truly make this medium a cultural phenomenon.
However, when one discusses aesthetics, one does not usually refer to dancing. Generally
aesthetics are most often associated with forms of technology like films, T.V. shows, or radio, but
the dance floor also supports aesthetical qualities only in an unknown fashion. Now this is the
true goal of a dance floor activist; it is to make dancing as an aesthetical medium known to the
world. This is why I have designed my own t-shirt to promote dance activism.
The textbook The Practice of Looking says a lot about the aesthetical qualities found in
visual mediums, and I personally took into account some of the concepts and theories the authors
mention when designing my t-shirt. One of the main ideas that are discussed in detail is the
concept of representation where "Representation refers to the use of language and images to
create meaning about the world around us" (Sturken, Marita, & Lisa Cartwright, 12). Before I
started planning my rough draft for my t-shirt, I realized that dance activism does not have a
following in the production industry. By doing this assignment we were creating the market, and
becoming the force that depicted what a dance floor activist is. We had to be careful about how
we represented dance activism, and we had to make sure our audience understood our intentions.

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My denotative intention when designing my t-shirt was to demonstrate all the different types of
dance culture on one piece of fabric. My connotative intention was to show that dance has
power to unify people, and by joining the dance floor activist community, one can show that they
believe in the power of this medium. The denotative meaning, the connotative meaning, and the
representation all relate to what this t-shirt is: a sign. According to the text book, there are three
types of signs: iconic, symbolic, and indexical (Sturken et al.) where iconic directly represents its
object in some way, symbolic on surface value bears no resemblance to its object, and indexical
shows the coexistence of sign and the interpreted value in the same place at some time. When
designing my t-shirt I took an iconic approach because I wanted to show what dance is and what
dance means by directly putting on my shirt what makes this medium so special. My t-shirt is
covered with all sorts of different types of dancers and musical symbols, and I believe that shows
the diversity and the massive appeal of dance activism. Art is a process that draws on life for its
creation, and, in turn, seems necessary to live life with quality and dignity (Zettl, 4). I used this
quote as the backbone design for my t-shirt artwork, and I used it to show that dance is a
powerful medium that can influence culture.
The t-shirt itself was a combination of all the ideas that came to me when I thought "what
is dance?" My initial plan was to create a logo for dance activism right in the front center of the
shirt with a powerful icon on the back showing the serious activist side on my art. For the front
logo I created the word "dance" using a large variety of dance positions I found online. The
positions came from all sorts of genres like hip-hop, formal, and even ballet. I wanted to show
the wide appeal dance has across many different cultures. For the word activism, I went into
Photoshop and generated a powerful red coloured font that was designed to grab the viewer's
eye. On the back I made a symbol of a fist punching through a prohibited sign with the words

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"dance floor activist" surrounding it showing that dance has no set rules. By doing this I also
added a symbolic sign to my t-shirt. After viewing my shirt at this point I realized that for a shirt
that represents dance floor activists, it does not do a good job at showing the creativity and
craziness that strives from dance. I decided to cover any bland white area on the front of the
shirt with musical icons because I believe music goes hand-in-hand with dance in impacting
culture. Now that the front of my shirt was crazy and colourful (like dance), I went to the back
and decided to only add the quote, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul" - Martha Graham.
I believe this quote sums up dancing as an art form perfectly because dance truly is a
revolutionary art form of communication that is only accessible to those who participate in the
medium. My final product was a shirt with the front side being a celebration of dance and all the
good that comes from it, while the back is a serious message trying to get people aware of the
power of dance culture.
Through the steps of completing this t-shirt project, I believe that I have shown above
that I have gained a new understanding for visual culture. I have also come to realize that
everyone in their own way is a dance floor activist, and that everyone has the ability to impact
their own culture. I will take this new found information with me as I proceed with my career in
Communications, Media, and Film by applying this knowledge to my research. Finally,
hopefully in the future we will see dance activism have a cultural impact on the mainstream
market and become an established product where all consumers can have the ability to become a
dance floor activist.

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Works Cited
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. "Image, Power, and Politics." Practices of Looking: An
Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Zettl, Herbert. Sight, Sound, Motion; Applied Media Aesthetics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth
Pub., 1973. Print.