Novak and Yim are thus confronting a long line of significant strands of avant-garde thought that locates the machine and industrial culture in general as an absolute negative. Instead, they give us an image of the complexity of the technological and the social, one which firmly comes down on the side of their essentially affirmative ability to complement each other, even in the face of the awesome specter of their mutual antagonism with the crane’s reference to nuclear war. —Paul B. Jaskot

Dancing Cranes was made with support from the British Arts Council and Northwestern University; it is represented by a catalogue with accompanying CD-ROM and text written by Dr. Paul Jaskot. Since its completion in 2002 the work has been presented in many national and international venues. The leftmost image below is from its German premiere at Potsdamer Platz, Sony Center, curated by Wolf Lieser of the Digital Art Museum, Berlin.

Dancing Cranes has entered the public collections of the Corcoran (Washington DC), Mondriaanhuis Museum (Amersfoort NL), Davis Museum (Wellesley MA), Tweed Museum (Duluth MN) as well as a number of private collections. In June 2017 a revised version was commissioned, acquired, and installed at Prudential Plaza, Chicago IL (below, center left, center right, far right).

Dancing Cranes (2002)
single channel HD video, 1440*1080px
(Insen Techno Club Mix)
5’50

Dancing Cranes 2017 (2017)
single channel super widescreen video, 3392*480px
(Millennium Park Kawaii Citycenter Mix)
5’43