The Bronx Museum Dance Poem Revolution
On view from April 11 – July 6, 2025, as part of the Working Knowledge: Shared Imaginings, New Futures exhibition at The Bronx Museum.
Melanie Hoff
Born 1989, Washington D.C.
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Dance Poem Revolution, 2024
Dance pad, steel, screen, computer, thermal printer, thermal paper
Courtesy of the artist
In Dance Poem Revolution, participants generate poems through movement – triggering words sourced from texts, songs, and histories related to revolution and what revolution has meant to The Bronx. In the spirit of creative hacking, Melanie Hoff used open-source assets and reverse-engineered code from public software inspired by the commercially popular game Dance Dance Revolution™ (DDR) – reimagining a new game experience for a different creative purpose. Developed in collaboration with local cultural producers, the work situates theoretical knowledge within lived experience, transforming critical thought and written text into interactive play. Hoff reimagines creative coding as a tool for collective storytelling, grounding abstract ideas in physical and communal engagement
