Yanira Castro: Guest Talk on Performance and Technology

ACCAD welcomes Brooklyn-based dance and interactive performance artist Yanira Castro for a focused residency exploring performance, technology, sensing systems, and haptics.

 

As part of the residency, Castro will give an informal artist talk and conversation on performance and technology in the ACCAD Motion Lab. The talk takes place during Norah Zuniga-Shaw’s Performance and Technology course and is open to guests.

 

Castro returns to ACCAD following our support of her RAFT project through the ACCAD Motion Lab residency program. Funded by Creative Capital, RAFT premiered at EMPAC in May 2026.

 

During the current residency, Castro and ACCAD collaborators are continuing work on “sensing systems” and haptics for performance, exploring how these systems can be applied to works by Castro and other artists.

Yanira Castro is an interdisciplinary artist born in Borikén (Puerto Rico), living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn), and working at the intersection of communal practices, performance, installation, and interactive technology. Her work is rooted in communal construction as a rehearsal for radical democracy.

 

Working with collaborators under the name a canary torsi, Castro creates iterative, multimodal projects and performance scores that unfold in real time through the presence and participation of the public. Her practice investigates collective embodiment, agency, communal action, witnessing, and decision-making, bringing performance and civic practice into conversation.

 

Castro has developed more than fifteen projects recognized through national awards, commissions, and residency support. Her honors include awards from the Creative Capital Foundation, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Dance, NYSCA/NYFA Interdisciplinary Artist and Choreography Fellowships, and two Bessie Awards for Outstanding Production. Recent residencies include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography.

 

Her recent public art project, Exorcism = Liberation, created during the 2024 election, used campaign materials and QR codes to connect audiences in New York City, Chicago, and the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts with immersive sonic experiences centered on mutual liberation.