Autograft
Written on August 4th, 2026 by Brandon Woo SnyderDance, film, and installation.
In Autograft, Taryn Cheng navigates her identity and practice as a dancer, as she recovers from a torn ACL.
In injury and recovery, the body and mind must renegotiate their relationship to one another. In dance, this holds high stakes, as oftentimes the body moves in response to music.
However, in Autograft the music is created live, controlled by Taryn’s movements. Outfitting her leg brace with a motion-sensor, Taryn builds a sonic world. As her body gradually heals and regains in initial agency, Taryn claims new agency in a renegotiation of how music and movement have functioned previously in her practice.
The music was developed collaboratively between myself and Taryn. Her leg brace was outfitted with a MUGIC motion sensor, which controlled synthesizers, samples, and audio effects programmed in Ableton Live and Max MSP.
The 16mm motion picture film format for this project aims to merge an authentic connection between the digital technology of the motion sensor and the raw human experience of healing. The film is divided into three sections where we follow Taryn’s healing experience in stages.
Jucel filmed using an Arriflex SR2 Standard 16mm paired with an Angenieux 12-120mm PL lens with 800 ft of Kodak Vision3 500T/7219, and was developed at Fotokem in Burbank, CA and scanned at Karmir Film Lab in Frogtown.
See autograft at TRYST August 7-9, 2026.
Trailer
- Taryn Cheng - Director, Producer
- Jucel Andrin - Video
- Brandon Woo Snyder - Sound, Music, Brace-Motion Sensor Programming
- Michelle Chun - Curator
- Yuna Jo - Photo
