Bug Jump, 1975-1978

As a choreographer, Forti puts ordinary movement at the center of contemporary dance. Bug Jump extended the artist’s dance practice through a labor-intensive process that involved filming Forti’s movements on a rotating platform and embedding each frame into holographic film. When this film is mounted and lit from within, a kind of physiological magic ensues in the viewer’s vision: the left and right eyes take in slightly different views of these holographically embedded frames, which are joined in the brain to animate Forti’s movements. This isolated micro-snippet of a larger performance allows viewers to “focus on the move,” giving viewers time to discover the “many things to see” within a seemingly mundane action. In that, Bug Jump exemplifies the artist’s conviction that even the smallest bits of our existence reward the gift of attention.