Higher ED (Ecology + Dance) researched the effects of the urban heat island through weather observation, movement scores, and DIY aerial mapping strategies with kites and weather balloons developed by Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS). The collaborators utilized these tools to better understand and articulate the physical interrelatedness of climate, weather, built environment, and the body. They developed a wind-determined performance practice that grew throughout the following year.
Jessica Einhorn
Jessica Einhorn calls herself both a dancer and scientist. She has been dancing all her life, formally studying at Ballet Workshop of New England and Miami City Ballet. In her professional career, she has danced with Thang Dao Dance Company, a contemporary ballet company in New York City, SalsaCraze, a Latin dance group based in Miami, FL and currently performs with Nimbus Dance Works, a contemporary company in Jersey City, NJ. In the science sector of her life, she has earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from The New School. Jessica has worked in community energy consulting with the Win-Win campaign and in community agricultural education at GrowNYCʼs Greenmarkets. She currently works with a great team at TreeKIT, helping to implement tools to assist city dwellers in measuring, mapping, and collaboratively managing urban ecosystems.
Adaptability + Flow
This symposium focused on the phenomena of New York City’s waterways and weather systems, particularly the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the city and the role of interdisciplinary strategies to create flexible responses to large-scale phenomena. Presenters included Liz Barry, Jessica Einhorn and Lailye Weidman of Higher E.D.; Rebecca Boger, Damian Griffin and Paloma McGregor of Follow the Water Walks; professors John Waldman and Victoria Marshall and research scientist Philip Orton. Performances by Paloma McGregor and Meredith Ramirez Talusan.
Moving into the Out There
Presenters and participants included New School professors Ivan Raykoff, Philip Silva, Danielle Goldman, Neil Greenberg, Victoria Marshall, and Robert Sember; PARK collaborators Kathy Westwater, Seung Jae Lee and Jennifer Scappetonne; iLAND board members Elliott Maltby, Kate Cahill, Carolyn Hall and Julia Handschuh, Jennifer Monson; choreographer and improviser Susan Sgorbati, social scientist at the U.S. Forest Service, Erika Svendson; artist Kyle deCamp. Performance created by Athena Kokoronis. Workshops by E.J. McAdams; Liz Barry, Jessica Einhorn and Lailye Weidman of Higher E.D.; and Clarinda Mac Low of River to Creek.
Overview
Moving Into the Out There is iLAND’s fourth annual symposium on dance, movement, and the environment. The two-day event in the heart of New York City brings together dancers, choreographers, designers, ecologists, advocates, and scientists for interactive panel discussions, field workshops, and networking opportunities. This year’s symposium features an in-depth review of PARK, an environmental performance project at Fresh Kills Landfill supported by the 2011 iLAB Residency. Moving Into the Out There will also highlight iLAND’s recent efforts to synthesize insights and discoveries from the past seven years of iLAB collaborative residencies. Detailed event descriptions are attached.
Moving Into the Out There is an open forum for exploring new methods of understanding urban ecosystems through innovative collaborations between practitioners of movement, dance, science, and environmental management. iLAND cultivates a deeper engagement with urban environmental issues through its cross-disciplinary approach, and the annual symposium invites the general public to experience and explore recent works emerging from the iLAND community. Moving Into the Out There features the work of iLAND’s 2011 iLAB Residency, opening up the results of that collaborative experience to a wider audience for discussion.
Throughout the Symposium, participants share in the process of searching for shared language and collaborative processes that cut across the arts and sciences, focusing on dance and the body as primary mediators of experience, imagination, and knowing. Through Moving Into the Out There iLAND aims to generate conversation about collaborative practice throughout communities of art and science, instigating new ways of understanding and intervening in contemporary environmental problems – particularly those related to over-development and climate change.