Doğa Cavdir is a Copenhagen-based sound and performing artist who integrates body movement and expression into music performance. Her artistic process actively engages with kinesthetic, immersive, and shared experiences for inclusivity as a way to bridge diverse abilities.
As a Turkish woman artist, her work is strongly influenced by the ongoing tension between autonomy, expression, and the body. She explores our embodied, lived presence in a technology-mediated world through body movements as she designs and performs with her custom-made instruments solo and in collaboration with dancers.
She is a recipient of the 2021 Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) fellowship from Stanford University where she completed her Ph.D. at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
While at MacDowell Cavdir created new music for her custom-designed, movement-based musical instrument, Bodyharp. Alongside her collaborator, Bonita Oliver, they integrated Oliver’s daily ancestral dance practice, originated from Kakilambe dance, into a duo performance piece, documented at MacDowell’s Pageant Amphitheatre. Cavdir will incorporate elements of the collaboration into an upcoming tactile sound installation in Sweden. Cavdir also developed new conceptual designs for more accessible dance interactions with Bodyharp through explorations with other resident artists.
