extended_bio

Marlon Barrios Solano is a Venezuelan-American creative technologist and researcher with a background in software engineering, improvisational dance, and embodied awareness. He has over 20 years of experience working with digital and networked systems and has been a web3 developer since 2020. He has performed in dance productions and installations with interactive multimedia systems from 2003 to 2010 and was a research associate at the Inter-University of Dance/University of The Arts in Berlin from 2013 to 2016. Marlon has published video interviews and essays on the intersection of dance, arts, and technology and has been a pioneer in developing XR projects for knowledge transmission. He has consulted, taught, and developed international projects in various countries and has collaborated with choreographers and musicians in NYC. He is a meditation teacher and movement instructor at Kernel, a web3 educational community. He holds an MFA in Dance and Technology from The Ohio State University and has graduated from The General Assembly Software Engineering Immersive Program. He is certified in Vipassana/Mindfulness Meditation, Embodyoga, and the Somatic Experiencing Certification Program.

It is all connected…

As a contemporary dancer and improviser, I have collaborated with renowned choreographers such as Lynn Shapiro, Merian Soto, Dean Moss, Bill Young and Susan Marshall and musicians such as Philip Glass, John Zorn and Erik Friedlander. I have participated in numerous festivals and have taught both nationally and internationally. I have studied and practiced improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith, Jeneifer Monson, Bebe Miller, KJ Holmes, and David Zambrano. In Venezuela, I apprenticed with Danz Luz, DanzaHoy and danced with Aktion Colectiva and Rajatabla Danza. I co-founded Danza Contemporánea de Maracaibo with Yasmin Villavicencio in 1986.

I hold a MFA in Dance and Technology from The Ohio State University, where I specialized in the intersection of interactive/real-time technology, dance improvisation, and embodied cognition. I have been creating dance pieces with rich multimedia since 1997 and developed the interactive multimedia performance project Unstable Landscape, where all dance and media is created in real-time through a performance score and computational processing. This framework has been performed and presented internationally and has evolved into an integrative approach integrating embodied cognition, interactive networked technologies, computation, and generative procedural knowledge production/performance.

In 2007, I launched the dance-tech project, which aims to develop and maintain a series of online and hybrid collaborative platforms for interdisciplinary explorers of movement performance, innovators, and emergent performance practices. As part of the dance-tech project, I have produced 400 video interviews as one of the first international video bloggers dedicated to the intersection of dance, arts, and digital technology. I have also published several essays and created pioneering XR projects for knowledge transmission within dance/art festivals.

I have been working with digital and networked systems since 2002 and have performed with and developed interactive multimedia systems for dance performance and installations. I was a research associate at the Inter-University of Dance/University of The Arts (UDK/HZT) in Berlin, Germany from 2013 to 2016. I was also a 2017 Hombroich Fellow in Germany and an artist/researcher in residency at ICK Amsterdam in 2013-14 and at the Gilles Jobin Company in Geneva, Switzerland from 2009-2012. I graduated from the General Assembly Software Engineering Online Immersive Program in December 2021 and currently freelance as a creative web developer and art and technology educator and lecturer.

In terms of mindfulness, cooking, and ethical living, I started meditating at the Village Zendo in NYC with Sensei Enkio O’hara in 1997 and shifted to practicing vipassana meditation at Insight Meditation Society in 2009. In 2016, I decided to work as a retreat cook and have studied, lived, and practiced meditation at Insight Meditation Society and Beatenberg Meditation Center under the mentorship of Joseph Goldstein, Chas DiCapua, and Stephen Batchelor. I am a Certified Vipassana/Mindfulness Meditation Teacher by Spirit Rock Meditation Center and an Embodyoga® 200 Hour Teacher (RYT200). Currently, I teach meditation internationally to creative technologists and dancers. I am also a resident meditation teacher and guest movement instructor for Kernel, a custom web3 educational community.