Art Nature

Jennifer Monson live, indoors, at The Kitchen

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Wallace Heim writes: Tomorrow, at The Kitchen in New York City, the movement artist Jennifer Monson starts Live Dancing Archive, a week of live performances, video installation and a digital archive.

One of the first stories on the Ashden Directory in 2000 featured Jennifer’s project BIRD BRAIN Dance, a dance touring project following the migratory pathways of birds and grey whales in the northern and southern hemispheres. Jennifer’s work in the UKcontinued with Water Log, an outdoor movement project across the sands of Morecambe Bay. She returned to America and now is director of iLAND (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance), developing collaborative art and environmental projects.

The New Yorker previews her show:

‘For more than a decade, this esteemed improviser has done most of her dancing outdoors, following the migrations of animals and exploring the connections between dance and scientific research. In Live Dancing Archive, she reconstructs some of those outdoor experiences, attempting to reveal the traces a place might leave on a body. But the work is equally, if even more obliquely, about Monson’s history as a dancer, a queer performer, and an ever-questioning mind’.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.

The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

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Live Dancing Archive at The Kitchen

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From February 14 – 23, The Kitchen and iLAND, Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance, present the New York premiere of dancer and choreographer Jennifer Monson’s Live Dancing Archive, a visceral exploration of the dancing body as physical archive of experience and place.

The piece, which marks Monson’s return to The Kitchen after 15 years, comprises Monson’s first-ever evening-length solo performance, a video installation by Robin Vachal and an online archive. Performances will take place Thursdays through Saturdays, February 14 – 23 at 8:00 pm while the full video installation will be on view in the theatre Tuesday through Friday, 12–6pm and Saturday, 11am–6pm from February 15–23.

The video installation plays as repeating 4-hour loop with viewers invited to view to drop-in at any time for any length of time. Although the video can be viewed on it’s own, it was made in conversation with the performance and on-line archive. A daily viewing schedule for the video will be available at the Kitchen and online starting February 14th.

Monson’s new work proposes that the body has the possibility of archiving and revisiting multiple scales of experience. Specifically, Monson looks at how experiences of environment and ecological dependencies are registered through physical movement. Live Dancing Archive negotiates and explores what a queer ecology might offer for dancing bodies and rapidly shifting conceptions of place. Furthermore, the piece looks at how Monson’s navigation of her own queer, feminist and animal-like body has shaped relationships to cultural and social phenomena.

For more information, visit thekitchen.org.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Arts and Environment Symposium

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A two-day colloquium to facilitate dialogue about the role of art in environmental education and stewardship. Participants will look at bridges that have been built across the divide of the arts and environment and will image in others that might be created.

Saturday, March 19

6-7:30 p.m.: Arts and the Environment Colloquium Keynote Lecture. Museum of Art, Helmut Stern Auditorium – 525 South State St. Sponsored by: Office of the Vice President for Research, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of Dance, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Keynote Speakers: David Abram and Jennifer Monson

The public is invited to this event as part of a two-day Arts and the Environment Colloquium exploring the role of art in environmental education and stewardship.David Abram is an American philosopher, writer, and cultural ecologist and the award-winning author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, and The Spell of the Sensuous. Jennifer Monson is a professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and founder and director of iLAND- Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance.

8-8:30 p.m. Arts and the Environment Colloquium Multimedia Performance. Museum of Art, Apse – 525 South State St.

Sponsored by:  Office of the Vice President for Research, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of Dance, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Created by: Sara Adlerstein (UM School of Natural Resources and Environment), Evan Chambers, Jessica Fogel, Joseph Gramley (UM School of Music, Theater and Dance), and Keith Taylor (UM – College of Literature, Science, and the Arts)

Beginning in 2008, an interdisciplinary team of University of Michigan faculty members and students worked collaboratively to create a unique and multilayered performance based upon the element of water entitled Mapping the River. Taking the cycle of water from rain to earth to river to lake to ocean to clouds to rain as its overarching structure, and focusing on our local water source the Huron River as a central narrative, the work features live music, dance, video, and spoken word. At the Arts and the Environment colloquium, the team members will present an adaptation of Mapping the River specifically designed for the UMMA Apse space.

Mapping the River music is composed by Professor Evan Chambers, chair of the Composition Department. Professor Joseph Gramley, chair of the Percussion Department performs with his students. Writer Keith Taylor, Lecturer in English Language and Literature and editor of The Huron River: Voices from the Watershed, contributes text. Choreographer Jessica Fogel, Professor of Dance, creates choreography for the work, performed by UM dance majors. Video is conceived by all of the original team members including graphic designer Doug Hesseltine, Associate Professor of Art and Design, and filmed and edited by Emmy Award winning videographer Christie Vedjes. Sara Adlerstein, Associate Research Scientist in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, contributes scientific conceptual frameworks, and also her paintings of bodies of water, which are integrated into the video. Lighting design is by Mary Cole, Staging and Lighting Supervisor of the U-M Department of Dance, with costume designs by Suzanne Young.

Sunday, March 20: Building community and future planning for sustained activity and collaboration

  • 9-10 a.m. Opening session. Panelists include:
    • Joseph Trumpey (Associate Professor – Art and Design)
    • Robert Grese (Professor -SNRE)
    • Paul Webb (Professor -SNRE; director, PiTE)
    • Leslie Sobel (Local visual artist)
    • Laura Rubin (Director, Huron River Watershed Council)
    • Evan Chambers (Professor – Music, Theater and Dance)
    • Jessica Fogel (Professor -Music, Theater and Dance)
    • Keith Taylor (Lecturer – LS&A)
    • Sara Adlerstein (Associate Research Scientist – SNRE)
  • 10 a.m.-noon Breakout session: State of the Art: Where we are
  • 1:30-3:30 p.m. Breakout session: Envisioning the future: Where we want to go
  • 3:30-4:30 p.m. Summary session

Registration: artsandenvironmentcolloquium@umich.edu

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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iLAND – Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance

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River to Creek: A Roving Natural History is a participatory research project and art action that will draw attention to the geographic and ecological connections across the industrial landscape of North Brooklyn, from the wild empty lots at the end of Newtown Creek in Bushwick to the East River at the edge of Greenpoint. It is a collaboration between marine scientist/dancer Carolyn Hall, ecologist/visual artist Kathleen McCarthy and Clarinda Mac Low and Paul Benney, members of TRYST, a New York-based performance and art group.

In New York City we tend to look at each environment as separate in space-a park is separate from a river is separate from a built structure, a river stops at the riverbank, and each neighborhood is an isolated phenomenon, when all these environments are actually highly interdependent. The collaborative team will highlight the connections between the different environments and illuminate the geographic continuity lying under our built structures and transportation networks. We will study the natural history of the current environment over the course of 15 weeks, compare it to historical records, and present our findings. Our research will bring in the public as research partners, asking citizens to become scientists and artists and observe their environment using scientific, somatic and sensory methods-science research and movement research. We will have several public events during the research process:

  • July 17: Walk through the wilds of North Brooklyn, with an informal talk by a specialist in plants and botany.
  • Aug. 21: Paddle and boat ride up the Newtown Creek and around the East River and informal talk by a specialist in marine life.
  • Sept. 11: Bike ride through the environment with informal talk by a specialist TBA

For the presentation of our data, professional performers and scientists and general public will create events that will reflect what we’ve learned over the months of research-a dance on site, both performed and participatory; a kayak convoy that is both experiential (for the kayakers) and performative (for the invited audience on shore); a sound collage transmitted by radio along the route, a film of movement research in secret sites. Events will take place on the weekend of Oct 2 & 3.

Project Collaborators
We are a group of artist-scientists who are choosing to exercise both sides of our professional lives simultaneously. Carolyn Hall is a marine scientist who just received her MS in Marine Science from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, New York in December 2009. Her thesis dealt with marine historical ecology. Hall is also an accomplished dancer who has been recognized internationally for her work with several cutting-edge choreographers. Kathleen McCarthy is an ecologist who recently received her MS in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University, with a focus on freshwater ecosystems and the urban environment. Her thesis looked at amphibian life in storm water basins. She is also an award-winning visual artist who created work in public spaces for many years. TRYST is a collaborative group of artists who specialize in creating public interactions to create an unexpected set of circumstances. The two main TRYST collaborators on this project are Clarinda Mac Low and Paul Benney. In addition to her art practice Mac Low has been a researcher and science writer, mostly in HIV and medicine, for many years.

APInews: Mary Miss to Keynote 2nd iLand Symposium, N.Y.

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Landscape artist Mary Miss is keynote speaker at the second annual symposium by iLand (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance) in New York City. The March 26-27, 2010, symposium is titled “Connecting to the Urban Environment: Creating embodied and relational approaches to environmental awareness.” Mary Miss developed “City as Living Lab,” a framework for making issues of sustainability tangible through collaboration and the arts. Miss has collaborated with architects, planners, engineers, ecologists and public administrators on projects like creating a temporary memorial around the perimeter of Ground Zero, revealing the history of New York's Union Square Subway station and turning a sewage treatment plant into a public space. The event also features iLand Founder Jennifer Monson, choreographer, who will present her recent work on aquifers and waterways in relation to urban development.

via APInews: Mary Miss to Keynote 2nd iLand Symposium, N.Y..

Art Nature Dialogues: a review.

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Ideas are a bit like oxygen. The right amount allows us functionality;  too much and we get all high. Such is the feeling you get after a read of Art Nature Dialogues, wherein John K. Grande interviews a series of environmental artists.  There’s a spectacular array of materials and viewpoints, from the manure sculptures of Jerilea Zempel to the interventions of Betty Beaumont. What emerges is not only a concise study of environmental artists and their motivations, but an opportunity to examine the way artists describe their work.

When asked what brought them together as artists, for instance, Gilles Bruni and Marc Babarit , known for such works as The Stream Path, reply:

“The face of working as a pair, in situ and outside brings a fundamental social dimension to our work, firstly about ‘minimal ethnic unity,’ . . . Being two, we develop the minimal conditions of collaboration and codependance, of synergy, of respect of the sharing, of conflict and contract . .”

To be blunt: What? Not every artist is quite so over-articulate, but the language of the interviews ranges from the simple and practical to the etheral and other-worldly. I’d love to be able to draw a parallel here between the quality of an artist’s work and the words they use to describe it, but that parallel would be nothing but gaudy bauble-words.

That same lung-opening high you might get from The Stream Path is present in Spin Offs by Patrick Dougherty, or Mario Reis’ river paintings. It’s what makes the artists particularly relevant and exciting (despite, not because of, their habit of comparing themselves to Andy Goldsworthy). These artists have struck a chord, gone beyond the Land Art movement of the 70s (which, they will tell you, was limitied in its true connection to place), and articulated relationships, feelings and memes that speak to where we are now(-ish).

It’s all summed up very well in a quote from Hamish Fulton, an artist of long walks:

Art is essential in a healthy society. As they say, art is like oxygen. Whether we say art is profound, or worth investing in, sexy, or a rip-off and and rubbish, it doesn’t matter, because all those crazy and insulting and wonderful qualities all go to make up what we call contemporary art.

Go to the Green Museum

APInews: 2009 iLAND Residencies: Waterways and Strataspore

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iLAND (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance) has announced the recipients of its 2009 iLAB collaborative residencies: two collectives called Waterways and Strataspore. The New York residency program supports collaborations among movement-based artists and scientists, environmentalists, urban designers/landscape architects, architects and others that integrate creative practice within different fields/disciplines, culminating in public actions. Waterways is a collaboration among The League of Imaginary Scientists and Danish choreography collective E.K.K.O. Their research, surrounding the theme of water, takes place aboard the Waterpod, a floating habitat that is host to collaborations and artists, beginning August 15 at Brooklyn Bridge Park. StrataSpore is “a platform for collective knowledge about mushrooms” as the pivotal orientation point for exploring urban systems. Strataspore’s public work begins October 5 at Gabriel Rivera’s facade/fasad in Brooklyn. Details online.

via APInews: 2009 iLAND Residencies: Waterways and Strataspore .

APInews: iLAND Announces 2009 iLAB Residencies

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iLAND Announces 2009 iLAB Residencies

BIG CAAKe and the League of Imaginary Scientists + E.K.K.O have been awarded the 2009 iLAB residencies by iLAND, the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance. BIG CAAKe, a collaborative team including an artist/engineer/educator, a choreographer/cook, an artist/designer, an architect and a mycologist, will conduct “StrataSpore,” a project using mushrooms to develop dialogue about local New York City ecosystems and urban sustainability. The League of Imaginary Scientists and E.K.K.O., a collaborative team including an artist, a composer, an architect, an environmental researcher and a choreography collective, will develop “Waterways: fluid movements in a liquid city,” a project that examines water through environmental and sociological study and “transforms that information into choreographic actions that engage New Yorkers.” Get connected through the ongoing discussion on the iLAND Symposium blog.

via APInews: iLAND Announces 2009 iLAB Residencies .

Research in Art, Nature and Environment (RANE) Lectures

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University of Falmouth

The RANE ‘Comprehending Nature’ Lecture Series for 2009 will include:

Andrej Zdravic 
9 March
Slovenian film and sound artist Andrej Zdravic has lived and worked across the US and Europe. Inspired by music and nature, he has created over 30 independent films focusing on the energies and spiritual aspects of natural phenomena. This screening of his film ‘Riverglass’ will be followed by a question and answer session.

Linda Weintraub 
20 April
Linda Weintraub is a curator, educator, artist, and author of several popular books about contemporary art. She is currently writing the fourth book in her eco-art series that is titled Avant-Guardians: Textlets in Art and Ecology. This series is designed to highlight and accelerate the integration of environmental principles throughout university art pedagogy.

Entry to the events is free, but you need to reserve a place.

www.rane-research.org

 Go to the Ashden Directory