About “The Dance of the Nain Rouge”

“The Dance of the Nain Rouge” is an experimental decolonial Detroit demonology deepfake dream dance documentary, based on the legend of the Nain Rouge (“Red Dwarf") of Detroit. According to folklore and urban legend, the Nain Rouge is a supernatural shape-shifting native being who was brutally attacked by xenophobic colonists and has since been seen dancing as an omen of successful rebellions by the oppressed, having reportedly been seen before events such as the victory of Chief Pontiac at the Battle of Bloody Run in 1763 and the 1967 Detroit Rebellion against racism and police brutality. Besides short stature and redness, the Nain Rouge is known for dance, metamorphosis, and cross-species collaboration, having according to “Myths and Legends of Our Own Lands” (1896) “directed the dance of black cats” and “had power to change shape.”

The video, soundtrack, and voiceover are all created with custom artificial intelligence systems, programmed and trained on a hacked-up second-hand MacBook laptop to minimize environmental destruction and maximize class warfare.

The video is based on an AI trained on Victorian era public domain photos of spiritualists and factory workers, early 20th century dance, science fiction, and horror film stills, as well as microscopic images of red blood cells and telescopic images of red dwarf stars. The soundtrack is created in part from an AI trained on stethoscopic recordings of human, carnivorous plant, and fungus organs, and also radio waves from space. The narration is a prose poem written by an AI programmed to start from the first line of “The Nain Rouge” from “Myths and Legends of Our Own Lands” (1896), end with the last line of “The Nain Rouge” from “Legends of Le Detroit” (1884), and the text in between is based on other contemporary “Red” texts: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales” (1892 collection), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Round the Red Lamp: Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life” (1894), Leonora Blanche Alleyne’s “The Red Fairy Book” (1890), Stephen Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage” (1895), “The Grand Grimoire” also known as “The Red Dragon” (likely from the 1800s, claims to be from 1521), and Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” volumes 1-3 (1867-1894).

About Eric Millikin

Eric Millikin is a new media artist based in Baltimore, Maryland (previously Detroit, Michigan, and Richmond, Virginia). He comes from a working-class family, growing up in a mobile home in the woods of rural Michigan. His work has been featured in WIRED, USA TODAY, and The New York Times. He has recently exhibited in 20 venues within a year’s time, in museums and galleries from Detroit, Denver, and Dubai to San Francisco, Seattle, and South Korea. His most recent work has been included in exhibitions and screenings at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Charles University in Prague, and the Festival and Congress Centre in Varna, Bulgaria. His experimental visuals have won well over 50 international, national and regional awards, which includes interactive data visualizations for Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations, motion graphics for Emmy-winning documentaries, and a Society for News Design medal for newspaper front page illustration. Millikin is a first-generation college student and National Merit Scholar who earned his BFA from Michigan State University and his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University's Kinetic Imaging program. He is Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, Animation and Interactive Media at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.