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Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance

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Friday Score – May 1 2020

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A FRIDAY SCORE 🌥
This week’s offering is to be with the clouds… through windows or under the open sky…solo or with another…
Swipe for original text or slightly altered below.
with love, @jeniwavelength & @gatablanco .
.
Weather Sensing: Cloud Observation
 
Pick a location and watch clouds for seven minutes.
 
While continuing to watch the clouds, freewrite for another seven minutes.
 
Read your writing out loud to yourself or another.
 
From your writing, pick two phrases that will become instructions for a dance.
 
Perform your solo for five minutes with these instructions. Video it or if with another, have them witness.
 
Move in response to what you saw in your solo, or have your witness move in response.
 
Record or share observations and experiences.
 
If with another, change roles.
Follow along each Friday on Instagram and Facebook !

Friday Score – April 24 2020

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A FRIDAY SCORE
Today we have one for slippery Time – moving between past, present, future, and the unknown…
Swipe for text or read below.
With much love, @jeniwavelength & @gatablanco
.
.
Time in Three Trajectories

Select three trajectories to follow through space:

one driven by movement or a sensation you remember;
one driven by responses to the immediate perception of a sensation;
one driven by imagined movement or sensation in the future.

Travel along these trajectories in any order.

When you intersect with another body, change your trajectory.

At some point start moving backward and forward, retracing your steps.

You can choose to be outside of the trajectories at any point.
Any space outside of the trajectories is a space of dissipation or suspension, undoing or unknowing.

View this post on Instagram

A FRIDAY SCORE Today we have one for slippery Time – moving between past, present, future, and the unknown… Swipe for text or read below. With much love, @jeniwavelength & @gatablanco . . Time in Three Trajectories Select three trajectories to follow through space: one driven by movement or a sensation you remember; one driven by responses to the immediate perception of a sensation; one driven by imagined movement or sensation in the future. Travel along these trajectories in any order. When you intersect with another body, change your trajectory. At some point start moving backward and forward, retracing your steps. You can choose to be outside of the trajectories at any point. Any space outside of the trajectories is a space of dissipation or suspension, undoing or unknowing.

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Follow along each Friday on Instagram and Facebook !

Artists Reach Out: Jennifer Monson in Infinite Body

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Thanks so much to Eva Yaa Asantewaa for inviting Jennifer Monson to participate in this incredible series, “Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation.”

Read Jennifer’s response here: https://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2020/04/artists-reach-out-jennifer-monson.html

Check out other artists’ responses as well!

Friday Score – April 17 2020

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FRIDAY SCORE
During this time we’d like to offer a score a week to do solo or share with another. Continuing with “before” …
Swipe for original text or read shortened version below.
Much love to all,
@jeniwavelength & @gatablanco

Orientation Score

Stand and close your eyes. Notice the surface beneath your feet and how your body minutely adjusts its balance. Notice where your weight is falling through your feet. Sense how gravity is pulling you gently towards the center of the earth.

Shift your awareness to the surface of your face. What kind of light do feel on your skin? What air movement do you feel? Notice your breath’s movement as air passes through the lips and nostrils and fills the lungs, then passes back from the body – warmer and a bit more moist. Watch the movement of your breath rise and fall in your torso.

Once you have fully arrived, close your eyes and turn to face North. Open your eyes – how did you determine where North was? Consider your strategies for orienting yourself in this place.

Close your eyes again and turn to face your home. This is defined in any way you would like – where you are, where you were born, where your ancestors are from. Open your eyes and notice the direction you face and the paths that have brought you to this place.

Close your eyes again. Listen to a nearby sound. Even one inside your body. Take several minutes to fully listen to this sound. Then listen to the farthest away sound that you can hear – listen fully. Imagine the space between the near and the far sounds. What is in that space? Can you measure the distance? What does that space feel like?

Open your eyes. Look at an object quite close to you. Notice as many details as possible – color, shape, texture. How long has it been there? How long will it remain? What do you know and not know about it? Then look at a very faraway object and observe the same details. Sense the space between the objects – what is there? What does it feel like?

Start to notice movement and let it begin to move you through space – responding to your own movement or simply moving towards or away from movements, sounds, objects. Fully inhabit your movement in this place.

View this post on Instagram

A FRIDAY SCORE During this time we’d like to offer a score a week to do solo or share with another. Continuing with “before” … Swipe for original text or read shortened version below. Much love to all, @jeniwavelength & @gatablanco . Orientation Score Stand and close your eyes. Notice the surface beneath your feet and how your body minutely adjusts its balance. Notice where your weight is falling through your feet. Sense how gravity is pulling you gently towards the center of the earth. Shift your awareness to the surface of your face. What kind of light do feel on your skin? What air movement do you feel? Notice your breath’s movement as air passes through the lips and nostrils and fills the lungs, then passes back from the body – warmer and a bit more moist. Watch the movement of your breath rise and fall in your torso. Once you have fully arrived, close your eyes and turn to face North. Open your eyes – how did you determine where North was? Consider your strategies for orienting yourself in this place. Close your eyes again and turn to face your home. This is defined in any way you would like – where you are, where you were born, where your ancestors are from. Open your eyes and notice the direction you face and the paths that have brought you to this place. Close your eyes again. Listen to a nearby sound. Even one inside your body. Take several minutes to fully listen to this sound. Then listen to the farthest away sound that you can hear – listen fully. Imagine the space between the near and the far sounds. What is in that space? Can you measure the distance? What does that space feel like? Open your eyes. Look at an object quite close to you. Notice as many details as possible – color, shape, texture. How long has it been there? How long will it remain? What do you know and not know about it? Then look at a very faraway object and observe the same details. Sense the space between the objects – what is there? What does it feel like? Start to notice movement and let it begin to move you through space – responding to your own movement or simply moving towards or away from movements, sounds, objects. Fully inhabit your movement in this place.

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Follow along each Friday on Instagram and Facebook !

Friday Score – April 10 2020

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A FRIDAY SCORE
During this time, we’d like to offer a score a week to do solo or share with another. We begin with “before” …

Arriving Score

Take time to consider these questions through writing [share if you would like]

A sense of place – what is one thing you know, observed, or learned about this site/place?

A sense of practice – what are some of the methods of research that you use?

A sense of time and space – how did you arrive at this place (historically, actually, metaphorically)?

 

Follow along each Friday on Instagram and Facebook !

Jun 29 – Jul 3: Jennifer returns to TicTac Art Centre

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We’re so excited to return to TicTac for another workshop and performance!

Registration: https://tictacartcentre.com/2019/11/11/systems-scores-practice-by-jennifer-monson/

SYSTEMS/SCORES PRACTICE/PROCESS
by Jennifer Monson

We will investigate how we make scores out of the systems that we live in, observe and are attracted to. In this work, a score is an open structure that creates improvisational choices for a particular context. We will create systems for movement that can be layered into performance scores. This will be our practice. How does the practice influence our approach to performance? How do we observe and shape this process? How can our practice of making scores help us to observe the possibilities in movement and choreographic systems? We will work on presence, states of moving and scales of sensation and time. We will perform our scores daily.

Dates:
Mondays till Fridays
June 29th – July 3rd

Times of this workshop:
10:00 – 13:00 and 14:30 – 17:30

Performance on Thursday July 2nd
by Jennifer Monson
Time 20:00
Duration: 20 to 60 minutes
Entrance fee is a 5€ minimum contribution.

Price of workshop:
300 Euro
Registration fee of 80 euro required (as part of the 300)

A score for the solstice

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For a full reflection on 2019, read our latest newsletter here.

16 // Leading and Following
For two people, switching between leader and follower

As the leader, take the follower by the hand and walk towards a space and/or object that compels you.

Rest together, observe the space/object. Move on when you both are ready. Switch roles and start again.

Do this several times, taking time to rest. Notice how resting changes the way you absorb the space/object.

If you are in a space with other people, create an encounter with a stranger – either to talk about the space/object or to rest with you. You may do this as a pair or on your own.

OR

Describe your interests and observations directly to the space/object itself.

To complete the score, give something to the space/object that will nurture it for a while.

En Español

16 // Llevar y Seguir:
Para dos personas, cambiando del líder y seguidor. 

Como el líder, lleve al seguidor por la mano y caminé hacia un espacio u objeto que le fascine. 

Descansen juntos, observen el espacio/objeto. Que continúen cuando ambos estén listos. Que cambien de rol y empiecen de nuevo. 

Háganlo varias veces, tomen tiempos para descansar. Fíjense en cómo los descansos cambian la forma en que absorben el espacio/objeto. 

Sí están en un espacio con otra gente, que creen un encuentro con un ser extraño- que hablen sobre el espacio u objeto o que descansen juntos. Usted puede hacer esto acompañado o solo. 

O

Describa sus intereses y observaciones directamente al espacio/objeto en sí. 

Para cumplir la partitura, dé algo al espacio/objeto que lo nutrirá por un tiempo. 

 

Press from ‘ditch’

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Thanks to all who came and supported ditch!

See below for some of the press we got for this work – The dawn is truly miraculous !

River to River dance festival — the dawn worked its miraculous transformations – Apollinaire Scherr, Financial Times

At water’s edge: Jennifer Monson / iLAND presents ‘ditch’ – Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Goings On About Town: River to River Festival – Brian Seibert, The New Yorker

6 Dance Performances to See in NYC this Weekend – Brain Schaefer, The New York Times

 

June 23-28: ‘ditch’ premieres at LMCC River to River Festival

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LMCC presents the 18th annual River To River Festival, Downtown New York City’s completely free summer arts festival, from June 18-29, 2019.

Performances and events celebrate artistic and creative diversity in all its forms throughout spaces in Lower Manhattan. This year’s festival encourages the discovery of what arises when we all slow down.

All events are free and all are welcome.

ditch explores the interactions among the forces of gentrification; the history of community activism, especially in response to Hurricane Sandy; the current pressure of development that exacerbates income inequality; as well as the ecological interactions between the life at the edge of the island in the Lower East Side. The choreography is developed from the rhythms, tones and spatial inflections of movement generated by flows of people, the traffic, weather and water along the river’s edge. ditchaccesses and creatively explores the embodied knowledge that signals both danger and safety. How do we sense impending disasters? How do we seek safe havens?

Exploring the possibilities of signaling through murky territory and dense movement, the choreography asks questions such as: What appears as a beacon? What is an orienting feature in an unstable system? The piece investigates squeezing and tightening as both a generator of movement and as choreographic strategy. The work aims to emanate an urgency and disquiet that drives the performer and viewer towards unexpected openings.

For more info and to rsvp, click here:

Performances at Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport Museum:

  • World Premiere: June 23 at sunrise, 5:30am
  • June 26, 7pm
  • June 28, 7pm

Plus! an iLANDing Workshop, Pier 35 East River Esplanade:

  • June 23, 11am, Pier 35
    (Closest entrance at Rutgers Slip)

Composer and sound artist: Jeff Kolar
Performers/dancers: Courtney Cooke, Madeline Mellinger, Kaitlin Fox
Costume designer: Susan Becker
Lighting designer:  Ben Demarest

July 29-Aug 2: Jennifer Monson at TicTac Art Centre in Brussels!

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SYSTEMS/SCORES PRACTICE/PROCESS
by Jennifer Monson

for full registration info visit:
https://tictacartcentre.com/2018/12/31/jeniffer-monson/

We will investigate how we make scores out of the systems that we live in, observe and are attracted to. In this work, a score is an open structure that creates improvisational choices for a particular context. We will create systems for movement that can be layered into performance scores. This will be our practice. How does the practice influence our approach to performance? How do we observe and shape this process? How can our practice of making scores help us to observe the possibilities in movement and choreographic systems? We will work on presence, states of moving and scales of sensation and time. We will perform our scores daily.

Times:
11.00 – 17.00

Price:
250 Euro

Registration fee of 80 euro required (as part of the 250)
Performance: TBA
Time: 20.00

Performance: Date in negotiation
Solo Improvisation by Jennifer Monson
Time: 20.00
Duration: 20 to 60 minutes

This workshop is also part of the Special Summer Package of 4 weeks of Improvisation coached by 5 different dance artists of 5 different continents. If you want to book this package, it costs only 800 Euro (or 960 Euro with daily lunch included).
www.tictacartcentre.com/2019/03/31/summer-package/

IN KINSHIP: Archives & Performance Fellowship – due Apr 10

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hi ILAND!

See below a fellowship opportunity from our friends at Open Waters!

For more info: http://openwaters.org/fellowship

ABOUT THE ARCHIVES & PERFORMANCE FELLOWSHIP

What possibilities emerge when we look at social repair and environmental care as public, creative acts? The Archives & Performance Fellowship is a year-long opportunity with stipends for four Fellows that follows the tradition of Wabanaki Guiding, connecting Native and non-Native people to place through experience, language, and story. Fellows will experiment with research and performance approaches to understand stories and histories of the Penobscot River and watershed. They will collaborate to create new work, inspired by their learning, that addresses ecological recovery and social justice. Fellowship activities will be led by Penobscot Nation partners and will center indigenous knowledge and experience.

The Fellowship year will include a regular check-in schedule, workshops and skill-shares, two intensives that immerse Fellows in research and performance methods, and a public performance and/or presentation of work created. This work may take many forms including but not limited to narrative play scripts, research papers, multi-media and video-based performance, spoken word, movement-based work, music and songwriting, cross-genre journals and/or any combination of forms and formats. Fellows will receive a $1500 stipend, dramaturgical/research support, connections with the broader In Kinship community, photo and video process documentation, and space to present their work.

The broad goal of this project is to activate potential for richly layered research, cross-discipline dialogue, and creative process to shift public understanding of our shared environments and histories. It is driven by a desire to understand how the (hi)story of the Penobscot River is preserved and told and, at the same time, to work against linear, progress-based narratives of the river that represent the past as something static that is disconnected from the present and future.

Ridgewood Reservoir receives wetland delineation!

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Dear Friends,

In 2007, I started a year-long project at the Ridgewood Reservoir in collaboration with thread collective, a Brooklyn-based architecture team, and dance artists Mariangela Lopez, Maggie Bennett and Charlotte Gibbons and composer Kenta Negai.

Our research included visits to the site with Mike Feller, Chief Naturalist of the Natural Resource Group of the NYC Parks Department; Andrew Greller, Professor Emeritus, Biology at Queens College; John Waldman, Professor of Biology, Queens College and Uli Lorimer, Curator of Native Flora, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, as well as members of the Brooklyn Bird Club including, bird census coordinator Heidi Steiner, Steve Nanz, Rob Jett and Al Ott.

We became intimately knowledgeable of the unusual rare ecologies thriving in this 60-acre bit of urban wilderness as well as the ways that the communities engaged with and enjoyed the area.This influenced the choreographic research that resulted in fall, spring and summer performances. The attention this project brought to the reservoir instigated a community of neighbors and others committed to conserving this special area as the site became hotly contested for different kinds of development.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that this month the Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed that the majority of the area has received wetland delineation.

This was the final part the battle to save Ridgewood Reservoir. We now have wetland protection as well as protection under the National Register of Historic Place. Parks has been persuaded to preserve Ridgewood as a wildlife sanctuary and has initiated the first step toward that plan.

If you are interested you can see the results of some of our research here as well as a video of the fall performance of iMAP/Ridgewood Reservoir. http://www.ilandart.org/dance-project/imap-ridgewood-reservoir/

Here’s to art as a transformative cultural and political force!

yours in creative collaboration,

Jennifer Monson

Special thanks to the MAP Fund and NYSCA for believing in this project and funding it!

Jan 19-25: Jennifer Monson teaches workshop with MELT @Movement Research and MoMA

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iLANDing – researching context and aesthetics through embodied score techniques

Dates:

  • 1/19 1-4pm, 122 Community Center
  • 1/20 1-4pm, MoMA
  • 1/22 6-9pm, MoMA
  • 1/23 6-9pm, MoMA
  • 1/24 3-5pm, MoMA
  • 1/25 3-5pm, MoMA

Registration: click here
Cost: $150

Description: This workshop will use the framework of the iLANDing scores to research some of the art works in MOMA’s collection. What happens when we propose that the artwork itself is an ecological system that we inhabit? What kinds of movement emerge from this investigation? What new conceptual possibilities between performance and visual art are activated through this embodied process of the score? The art work becomes performance, the performance becomes the artifact, everything is experienced through movement. We will start by working with the iLANDIng scores outdoors then bring that experience into the museum to research particular artworks. From that we will create performance events as artifacts of this exchange of the resonance between movement, form, scales of sensation, time and experience -locating new aesthetic value in artistic frames for inhabiting our world.

The materials explored in this workshop will culminate with a public manifestation at The Museum of Modern Art, in conjunction with Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done. Participation in the workshop does not require you to participate in the manifestation at MoMA.

Location (venue, city, state, country): 122 Community Center and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

[Photo: Performers Jennifer Monson and Mauriah Donegan Kraker in bend the even at Chocolate Factory Theater, Photo by Ian Douglas]

Dec 1-2: Jennifer Monson teaches a workshop at Movement Research – “Immediate minutes/ Minuets”

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December 1 – 2, 2018
Location TBA
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Cost: $75

Jennifer Monson teaches a workshop at Movement Research!

Description:
We will start with performing instantaneous 2 minute dances for each other. Responding with various approaches to language – descriptive, poetic, non–verbal, structural, etc., we will hone our intentions as they evolve in the act of performance. Over the two days we will expand the time frame and generate material that can be used towards future research, performance and pleasure. What is performed both for witness and dancer? Is it an act, a task, a relation, a perception? How to we communicate, obfuscate, shape, clarify, and stir up mystery? We will animate different spaces of performance and dance through our research together.

For more info and to register: https://movementresearch.org/event/9046

Oct 29-30: Jennifer Monson in Montpellier, France

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Full Flyer here: INVITATION COLLOQUE ADD

Jennifer Monson heads to France next for ENSAM’s Architecture Dance Design Conference!
See a rough translation from their website:

MONDAY OCTOBER 29: BODY IN MOTION, SHARING WORKS AND A  CONTEXTUALIZED ARCHITECTURE: WHAT SENSIBLE APPROACH?
RESTITUTION OF EXPERIENCE AS RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGY

TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER:
AT THE CROSSING OF THE DISCIPLINES, INTERROGATE THE SPACE GENERATED AND SHARED. PERFORMANCE SPACE AND EPHEMERAL COMMUNITY OF GESTURES:
WHAT ARE THE RECIPROCAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DANCE, ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN?

SYMPOSIUM
ENSAM, in partnership with ICI-CCN, La Sapienza and the French Institute of Rome, organizes the Architecture Danse Design conference.
This symposium puts in conversation several disciplines around theory and practice, research and creation, pedagogy and transmission, and retraces the experiences of the organizing institutions in connection with the resident artist.
Guest sessions led by: Emmanuelle Huynh, Jennifer Monson, Mathias Fish – choreographers, Francesco Careri, founder of Stalker, collective of architects, Alix de Morant, lecturer in theatrical and choreographic studies at the Paul-Valéry University Montpellier 3.
Free RSVP at: ADDreservation@montpellier.archi.fr

Oct 20-22 : FEVERISH WORLD at University of Vermont

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FEVERISH WORLD (2018-2068): Arts and Sciences of Collective Survival will be a three-day symposium and convergence intended to catalyze the building of bridges between the arts and the sciences, and between academe and the broader community, to help prepare UVM and the Burlington region for the next 50 years of anticipated “feverishness.” (Fill in your own blanks about the likely sources of that feverishness–climate and ecological changes, resource wars, movements of refugee populations, clashing political paradigms, and so on.)

FEVERISH WORLD will include panels and roundtables, keynote talks and conversations, as well as public art and music performances, a “tent city” encampment of TentWorks installations, a parade, and more. Among the featured speakers and artists will be
– anthropologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour, whose Burack Lecture on “The Politics of Gaia” will take place on Monday October 22 at 4 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel;
– Brazilian sculptor Nele Azevedo, whose Minimal Monument ice sculpture will be installed on the back steps of City Hall Park on Sunday October 23;
– painter, sculptor, and installation artist Torkwase Dyson, whose art works will be exhibited at Williams Hall (and potentially the new Cohen Building) and whose Molly Ruprecht Talk will take place on Monday October 22 at 7 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel;
– environmental philosopher and jazz musician (known for his recordings with animals) David Rothenberg, whose keynote talk will take place on Sunday October 21, with a musical performance on Saturday evening;
– Burlington City Arts artist-in-residence Pauline Jennings, who will lead a performative urban wilderness walk/game on Saturday October 20;
– eco-artist and engineer Natalie Jeremijenko, director of the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at New York University, who will be in residence at the Green House Residential Community for the week leading up to and including Feverish World;
– UVM composer David Neiweem, whose church bell compositions will be heard at various sites and times over the three “feverish” days;
– Abenaki historian and archaeologist Frederick Wiseman, who will speak on the history of this land on Sunday October 21;
– Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, co-hosts of the award-winning public radio program “To the Best of Our Knowledge”;
– Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord, artist and eco-arts theorist Linda Weintraub, ecology and religion scholar Bron Taylor, musicians including cellist Anne Bourne, Rural Noise Ensemble, Metamorph, Pantet, and others.

The event is being organized by a group of UVM faculty and Burlington and area activists working under the auspices of the EcoCulture Lab, with generous support from the Gund Institute for Environment, the UVM Humanities Center, the Rubenstein School and the Steven Rubenstein Professorship, the Dan and Carole Burack Lecture Fund, the Molly Ruprecht Fund for Visual Arts, and from UVM departments and programs including Environmental Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Global and Regional Studies, Art and Art History, as well as the Fleming Museum, Champlain College, Burlington City Arts, the McCarthy Art Gallery at St. Michael’s College, and the Shelburne Institute.

A partial list of speakers and guests can be found here (others are still being confirmed):
https://ecoculturelab.net/speakers/

A tentative schedule of events (to be updated with more detail in the coming weeks) can be found here:
https://ecoculturelab.net/program/

Feverish World will be free and open to the public, though select events, as well as roundtable paper access, will require pre-registration

If you are interested in volunteering or in coordinating classes with any of the visiting artists or programs, please contact us at ecoculture@uvm.edu.

Jennifer Monson – special guest @ TicTac Art Centre in Brussels in August 2018!

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JENNIFER MONSON/SCORES AND SYSTEMS FOR PERFORMING IMPROVISATION
09:15-11:15am, Mon-Wed, Aug 13-15

FROM THE 12TH-19TH OF August 2018 David Zambrano and Mat Voorter will finally open TICTAC Art Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

From Sunday 12 until Sunday 19 August 2018, we will be celebrating the opening of TicTac Art Centre with a non stop of daily art activities:

  1. Master Classes by Marlon Barrios Solano, Jennifer Monson, Yoshiko Chuma, Terence Lewis, Archie Burnett, David Zambrano, Horacio Macuacua, Enano, and TimSon.
  2. Performances:  Every evening will be improvisational performances by a selection of a long list of invited artists. The performances will be announce on the same day each day on the website and Facebook page of TICTAC ART CENTRE.
  3. Exhibitions by local and international visual artists will be presented throughout the TicTac Art Centre spaces. 

More info: http://tictacartcentre.com

URGENT: Please attend a meeting July 9, 10 or 11 on NY storm surge barriers

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From John Lipscomb and our friends at Riverkeeper:

(Full post here)

Fast-tracked Army Corps proposals threaten the future life of the Hudson.

Outer harbor GatewayThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering six different plans for massive offshore barriers and/or land-based floodwalls intended to “manage the risk of coastal storm damage” to New York Harbor and the Hudson Valley. Several of these alternatives could threaten the very existence of the Hudson as a living river.

Click here to read our new blog post with more information.

If you live anywhere near the shorelines of New York City, New York Harbor or the Hudson up to Troy, your community will be forever affected by this decision.

Anyone who cares about the life in the Hudson River needs to become informed and involved, now.

Please attend one of these meetings, just announced:

• Monday, July 9, 3-5 p.m., NYC: Borough of Manhattan Community Center in Tribeca, enter at 199 Chambers St, New York, NY 10007, between Greenwich St. and the West Side Highway. The session is in the Conference Room-Richard Harris Terrace, on the main floor.

• Monday, July 9, 6-8 p.m., NYC: (duplicate session) at the Borough of Manhattan Community Center in Tribeca, enter at 199 Chambers St., Manhattan, between Greenwich St. and the West Side Highway. The session is in the Conference Room-Richard Harris Terrace, on the main floor.

• Tuesday, July 10, 3-5 p.m., Newark: Rutgers University-Newark Campus, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 2nd floor, Essex Room. Entrance is at 350 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Newark, N.J.

• Tuesday, July 10, 6-8 p.m., Newark: (duplicate session) at Rutgers University-Newark Campus, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 2nd floor, Essex Room. Entrance is at 350 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Newark, N.J.

• Wednesday, July 11, 6-8 p.m., Poughkeepsie: Hudson Valley Community Center (Auditorium room), 110 South Grand Avenue, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

This process is being fast-tracked, and it’s an outrage. The Army Corps gave only 12 days’ notice for meetings on an issue that will take many years to resolve and could change the river forever.

The six alternatives are under consideration as part of the New York – New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries (NYNJHAT) Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study, affecting more than 2,150 square miles. We all know that sea level rise and more frequent, intense storms require action and planning. But there is a difference between creating more protective, resilient shorelines over time, and installing massive, in-water barriers that threaten to change the ecosystem forever. Offshore barriers will choke off tidal flow and fish migration – the very life of our river.

Riverkeeper is working on an information piece to tell you what you need to know. Please mark your calendars and stay tuned.

See Riverkeeper’s letter to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting scoping comment period extension.

May 21: Circus Amok’s Benefit – Monday of 1000 Stars!

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Monday of 1000 Stars!!
Benefit Flyer
A Benefit for Circus Amok’s 2018 Parks Tour !
Monday May 21
7:00pm Doors
7:30pm Performancesat Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street, NYCPerformances by:

Rev Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir!
Cathy Weis!
Monstah Black
Becca Blackwell
Ashley Brockington
Machine Dazzle
Patricia Hoffbauer
Jennifer Miller
Jennifer Monson
Nicky Paraiso
STREB
David Thomson
….and special surprise guests!

CLICK FOR TICKETS:
$50 general admission
or Join the Center Ring Host Committee for extra perks!

All proceeds go to support the 2018 Parks Tour September 1-16 !

 

March 5th: Public Meeting for Ridgewood Reservoir

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Ridgewood Reservoir Public Meeting

Monday, March 5th, 2018 @ 7 PM
Redeemer Lutheran Church – 6907 Cooper Ave, Glendale, NY

Join us to make your voice heard to protect the Ridgewood Reservoir’s unique ecology. The NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will be holding a public meeting to discuss the proposed Ridgewood Reservoir wetlands delineation. NYC H2O encourages all Ridgewood Reservoir neighbors and enthusiasts to attend this meeting and speak in favor of the wetlands designation.

DEC has found that “The majority of the western basin (Basin 1), as well as the majority of the southern half of the western basin (Basin 3) contain forested wetlands that are seasonally flooded. The majority of central basin (Basin 2) contains open water, surrounded by emergent wetlands…” The comment period on the wetland designation starts today and will close on March 22nd. A copy of DEC’s The Ridgewood Reservoir Wetlands Report is available for download here.

Comments should be emailed to kenneth.scarlatelli@dec.ny.gov or mailed to:

Regional Administration, Region 2
47-40 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11101-5401
Attn: Ken Scarlatelli

Source: NY State Department of Environmental Conservation
Map of the Ridgewood Reservoir

 

bend the even premieres in February 2018!

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bend the even

Chocolate Factory
(tickets now available at the link above!)
February 20-24, 2018
8 pm

Mauriah Kraker and Jennifer Monson in a recent showing for bend the even, January 2018. Photo by Ryutaro Ishikane.

We just finished a two- week residency at the Chocolate Factory – such a generous and generative space to work and big thanks to the amazing team of Brian Rogers, Sheila Lewandowski and Madeline Best. We are preparing to open bend the even in one month, February 20 – 24 at 8 pm at the Chocolate Factory. Get your tickets early!

The work continues to shift, and expand. I am learning something about time, about stillness and a sense of quiet that is full of movement, sound and light. We are narrowing in on the ways in which the mediums press into each other and create a friction that emanates an uncanny animacy in the space. It was a pleasure to share a work in progress on January 13th alongside a beautiful solo of luciana achugar’s. The two of us have been in conversation with each other about the how we make work, our overlapping concerns, themes and differences. That conversation will be public through the Chocolate Factory website in February.

bend the even is a collaboration with myself, Susan Becker (costumes), Elliott Cennetoglu (lighting), Regina Garcia (scenic design), Jeff Kolar (composer), Mauriah Kraker (performer), and Zeena Parkins (composer),   It culminates a year long process researching varying scales of light, sound and movement generated before and during dawn. The work accesses new frameworks for emanating presence and animacy through the three mediums of sound, light and movement leaving the audience at the edge of perceptual comprehension. Undoing hierarchies of value between viewer and performer, bend the even explores containment and relinquishing through ever-narrowing parameters. This work allows for the possibility that movement disappears and leaves only sensation, an emanation that is experienced through the skin and ears, not so much through the eyes. In bend the even this asks the viewer to release what might be tangible about the experience in preparation for what is newly emerging.

If you are in NYC, I would love to see you there. Be sure to get your tickets soon and stay tuned for more on the work– including spotlights on our collaborators– in the next month!

Yours always in creative collaboration,

Jennifer and the iLAND Team

Colin Gee responds to in tow!

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A little over a year ago, in tow premiered at Danspace Project. This work continues to feed new processes, teaching, and collaborations. Jennifer has had several conversations with performance artist and writer Colin Gee about in tow over the past year. These conversations have led to the beautiful essay you’ll find below. He brilliantly gives voice to some of the larger philosophical questions of the work.

Please read it with care: ColinGee_intowResponse_2017

 

BIRD BRAIN Dance is Live!

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We have also recently reconstructed the www.birdbraindance.org website. This project happened from 2000-2006 and was the foundation of iLAND. It remains an important archive of environmental research and performance. Thank you to Jason Woofenden for his hard work and generosity in making this website available to the public again!

BIRD BRAIN was a multi-year navigational dance touring project that followed the migratory pathways of birds and gray whales on their journeys across the north and south hemispheres. The project investigated the navigational habits of these animals and their biophysical and metaphorical relationship to us as fellow travelers in the world. BIRDBRAINDANCE.org now exists as an archive of these migrations filled with journals from dancers, photos, videos, and information on the animal migrations.

Announcing A Field Guide to iLANDing

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I am tremendously excited and proud to announce the publication of A Field Guide to iLANDing by 53rd State Press. It is such a pleasure to hold this pocket-sized book of scores in hand after the years of hard work that went into creating it.

I can’t wait to share it with you all. This book is the result of deeply stimulating collaboration and holds the creativity and brilliance of our entire iLAND community. I hope it will guide you into your own adventurous creative research with urban ecologies and beyond.

Books are available for $15. If you’re able to donate a bit on top for added support to iLAND’s upcoming projects, we’d be so grateful.

The book is accompanied by a redesign of our archives that include information about past dance projects, residencies, symposiums, and iLANDing laboratories. These archives hold additional information about all of the projects represented in the book. Once you activate the scores in the field guide, you can view detailed documentation on our website about each of the collaborative projects as a companion piece to your own research. Thank you to Julia Handschuh for this beautiful reorganization of the iLAND archive!

We have also recently reconstructed the www.birdbraindance.org website. This project happened from 2000-2006 and was the foundation of iLAND. It remains an important archive of environmental research and performance. Thank you to Jason Woofenden for his hard work and generosity in making this website available to the public again!

All of these projects were made possible with financial support from the Doris Duke Impact Artist Audience Development Fund and we are deeply grateful for their support.

And as always, we offer our heartfelt gratitude to all of the folks that created and participated with such risk and enthusiasm to generate this delicate and innovative approach to collaboration, especially the iLAND Board and the iLAB Residents.

Next week, we will be announcing re-runs of IN TOW TV and sharing a thoughtful and provocative essay about in tow written by Colin Gee.

So please – buy a copy of A Field Guide to iLANDing, crack it open and start collaborating! We look forward to following your discoveries and insights into dancing with our urban ecologies.

With Love and In Collaboration,
Jennifer

Bonus Episode! Season 1, Episode 16: Video Perspective

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, Val Oliveiro, Angie Pittman, nibia pastrana santiago. The score put the perspective and movement of the video frame in relation to the perspective of the performers looking at the “horizon set up”. Perspective is everything. Scoring and editing by by Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 16: Video Perspective

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 15: Bells Long

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, Val Oliveiro, nibia pastrana santiago. Score is an experiment of trajectory and rhythm. Score and editing by Jennifer Monson, Valerie Oliveiro and Zeena Parkins.

Click HERE to watch Episode 15: Bells Long

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 14: Time + Tone | Tide Score A

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: nibia pastrana santiago, Alice MacDonald. The video score uses a phrase of movement choreographed to a portion of Zeena Parkin’s “Tide Score” and re makes the rhythm through editing layers and speeds. Scoring and editing by Valerie Oliveiro. Music by Zeena Parkins.

Click HERE to watch Episode 14: Time + Tone | Tide Score A

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 13: Time + Tone | Tide Score B

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: nibia pastrana santiago, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, Valerie Oliveiro. The video score uses a phrase of movement choreographed to a portion of Zeena Parkin’s “Tide Score” and re makes the rhythm through editing layers and speeds. Scoring and editing by Valerie Oliveiro. Music by Zeena Parkins.

Click HERE to watch Episode 13: Time + Tone | Tide Score B

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 12: T | I | M | E

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, Val Oliveiro, nibia pastrana santiago. Score is an experiment of video / linear time. Score and editing by Val Oliveiro. Music by Zeena Parkins.

Click HERE to watch Episode 12: T | I | M | E

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 11: Perspective | Tone

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Jennifer Monson and nibia pastrana santiago. The score is influenced by the ways the “set up” shifted one’s approach to perspective as well as how the space between objects carries tone. Video score by Jennifer Monson with editing support by Val Oliveiro. Music: Captiva Pieces by Zeena Parkins.

Click HERE to watch Episode 11: Perspective | Tone

IN TOW TV Season 1, Episode 10: Flipping the Firmament | Flesh

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Another early experiment with a score of flipping the firmament and following the texture of flesh in the image. Scoring by Jennifer Monson with assistance and guidance from Val Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 10: Flipping the Firmament | Flesh

IN TOW TV Season 1, Episode 9: Composite | Line

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: All collaborators. Sound: Jennifer’s Graphite Line. Material from video documentation addressing experiments or evidence of line from all of the in tow residencies. Edited by Val Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 9: Composite | Line

IN TOW TV Season 1, Episode 8: OUT-OUT-IN-IN-IN-OUT-OUT-IN-OUT-IN

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers; Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson,Val Oliveiro, nibia pastrana santiago. The editing score was based on a spatial pattern derived from diagrams of the tides at Captiva Island. High tide and low tide marks indicated in and out points. Movement from outside the frame into creating an image was used for OUT. Movement that started in an image and changed it was used for IN. Edited by Jennifer Monson and Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 8: OUT-OUT-IN-IN-IN-OUT-OUT-IN-OUT-IN

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 7: In Out Cut 5:3

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson,Val Oliveiro, nibia pastrana santiago. A 5:3 rhythmic sequence was used to edit each clip in shorter and shorter increments. Edited by Jennifer Monson and Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 7: In Out Cut 5:3

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 6: Drawing Overlay

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers: Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, Valerie Oliveiro, nibia pastrana santiago. Drawing a memory of a performed score in the dark. Vision, line and memory are collectively explored. Drawing in many ways. Edited by Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 6: Drawing Overlay

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 5: Shrugs with balls-5:3

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers Alice MacDonald and Valerie Oliveiro. Working a 3 against 5 rhythm with balls. In the tv version the 5:3 rhythm is created with forward and reverse. Edited by Jennifer Monson and Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 5: Shrugs with balls-5:3

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 4: Fabric | Time Experiment

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

 

Performers; Susan Becker, Alice MacDonald, Jennifer Monson, nibia pastrana santiago. Using Susan Becker’s fabric length with holes we continued our experiments with connecting and disconnecting line. The tv version is three separate time frames sequenced on top of each other. Edited by Jennifer Monson and Valerie Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 4: Fabric | Time Experiment

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 3: Nibia Line B

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

This score is based on creating and continuing line. Dancers include nibia pastrana santiago, Alice MacDonald and Jennifer Monson. Edited by Monson and Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 3: Nibia Line B

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 2: Nibia Line A

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

This episode is based on creating and continuing line. Dancer is nibia pastrana santiago. Edited by Monson and Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 2: Nibia Line A

IN TOW TV – Season 1, Episode 1: Kaleidoscope

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IN TOW TV Season 1 is comprised of fifteen 1-5 minute episodes that will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting on May 19 and finishing on June 21st. 

This episode is based on a score of timed sections with the shortest section in the middle of the video and the longest sections at the edges of the video. The sections alternate between running forwards and backwards. Dancers nibia pastrana santiago and Jennifer Monson. Edited by Monson and Oliveiro.

Click HERE to watch Episode 1: Kaleidoscope

Process Workshops with Pier 35 Festival Commissioned Artists

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Photo from June 1 Workshop with Tatyana Tenenbaum and Andy Luo

The Pier 35 Festival is happening in June 2018 in partnership with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council. This project is supported by a Building Demand for the Arts Implementation grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. These workshops are supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
[Read more…] about Process Workshops with Pier 35 Festival Commissioned Artists