Bodies in Movement
2023
IOTA Institute is embarking on a new creative research stream into the interventionist quality of bodies in movement through familiar expressions of dance and performance art. "Interventionist" refers to the performance methods artists use inside and outside the institution of dance, to disrupt and expose existing expectations around embodied movement. We consider small acts such as blinking, breathing, or collective bodies in motion through public space as examples of ‘movements’ that can be documented, scored, and presented as new forms of art. Here, artists, choreographers, curators, and collaborators use technology to bring the experiential movements to a viewer by creating knowledge exchange around performance strategies, studies on the body that enter the realm of bio art (using biofeedback sensors), interventionist public art, choreography for art video production as a form of dance dissemination, and visual artworks using a health devices to perform analysis of bio-electrical activity in the body.
This project is made possible due to the support of Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia.
Amanda Dawn Christie
As a former contemporary dancer, many of Amanda Dawn Christie’s works involve reframing and reclaiming value for technological systems as well as human bodily systems that are different, disabled, breaking down, and/or otherwise deemed unworthy of maintenance by dominant cultures. Her most recent project involves collaborating with plasma physicists at HAARP to create radio transmission artwork related to space science. The artist is now preparing to move from space science to medical technology as her focus shifts from electromagnetic waves in outer space, to electrochemical neurotransmissions inside the human body, as a means to investigate bodily relationships to medical research and technologies.
Brendan Fernandes & Home Ex
Brendan Fernandes is entering into a mentorship with I’thandi Munro and the Home Ex art collective. Munro is conducting research in the creation of art videos for dance and wearable sculpture worn during dance performances and this mentorship supports the collective's direction in choreographing movement with the use of props.
Jacinthe Armstrong
Jacinthe Armstrong from the Dance Collective SiNS (Somewhere in Nova Scotia) is working with IOTA as a mentor for project planning, consciously integrating an artistic/curatorial approach into the administrative work of contemporary dance.
They are particularly inspired by IOTA’s innovative approach to facilitation and dissemination of artistic research and production, tailored uniquely to each artist/group and addressing pressing socio-cultural issues, hoping to see if these similar threads could be applied to the support of dance professionals.
Germaine Koh & Lou Sheppard
In their research partnership, Germaine Koh & Lou Sheppard are they are looking into public art and how it intervenes and directs body movements within a public space.
Sarah Prosper & Jeanette Kotowich
Sarah Prosper & Jeanette Kotowich are embarking on a fluid movement-based mentorship. In Jeanette's words, "We are two artists, asking ourselves and each-other questions about our independent indigenous dance practices. Sarah and I met one year ago, and we instantly fell in love with the Spirit generated between us. This is a fortunate opportunity for us to deepen our artistic connection and look to the future of our bodies in movement. All my relations.”
