Biba Bell

This residency used Dead Horse Bay, a Brooklyn waterfront with an industrial history, as a context to explore and reflect on the environmental impact of site alterations engineered to meet human needs. Monthly public events, scheduled around the summer full moons included a combination of choreography and movement explorations, temporary site interventions, and multimedia documentation. Through environmental assessment, creative interplay, site interpretation and rituals, the collaborators created a forum for understanding and experiencing the effects of use, misuse, isolation and neglect along New York City’s coastline.

Collaborators: Choreographer Sarah White, Architect Angel Ayon, Visual Artist Gerald Marks

Project Website: deadhorsebay.blogspot.com

Dead Horse Bay, situated along Brooklyn’s southernmost waterfront, appears today as a place wedged somewhere in time between an industrial past, return to natural shoreline and an undetermined future. The Collaborators will use this site as a context to explore, reflect and ultimately discourse on the environmental impact of site alterations engineered to meet human needs. Their collaborative project will stem from their combined interests in understanding and interpreting nature, ecology, causality, evolutionary change, structural integrity, assigning value to experience, and examining cultural behaviors both current and historic.

Throughout the three-month residency period, monthly public events, scheduled around the summer full moons, will take place at Dead Horse Bay. Events will include a combination of choreography and movement explorations, temporary site interventions and multimedia documentation and representation. Through environmental assessment, creative interplay, site interpretation and traditional man-nature rituals the collaborators intend to create a forum for understanding and experiencing the effects of use, misuse, isolation and neglect along New York City’s coastline.

Dead Horse Bay – 3 FREE PUBLIC EVENTS

Saturday, August 16, 2008, 2:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 14, 2008, 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Sunday, October 12, 2008 12:30 PM to 7:00 PM

MORE INFORMATION contact info@ilandart.org or 212-375-8283.

Directions: take the #2 Train to the last stop, Brooklyn College/Flatbush Avenue. Transfer to the Q35 bus. Ask the driver to let you off at the “last stop before the bridge”. Signs will lead you down to our site on the water.

Collaborator Biographies:
Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D as part of the MFA program in Computer Art. He was a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked in computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich’s Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including San Francisco’s Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing & Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing & design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has designed award-winning projections and sets at the Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet. He created the 3-D glass-block mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train. In the last few years, he has been working extensively with dance imagery and dancers, creating stereoscopically projected sets. In 1974, Mr. Marks was an artist-in-residence at Floyd Bennet Field, soon after it became part of Gateway National Park.

Sarah White is a dancer, choreographer, video artist, and Alexander Technique teacher. Ms. White holds a BFA in dance from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, 1999 and an AmSAT recognized Alexander Technique Teaching Certificate from the Balance Arts Center, 2007. She has been performing and choreographing in New York City for the last 8 years. Her choreography and video art has been curated for shows and festivals in New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Kansas City. In addition to making her own choreography, she has had the pleasure of working as a dancer/collaborator in the work of such artists as Felicia Ballos, Alex Escalante, Flora Weigman, Jennifer Monson, Jessica Morgan, Juliette Mapp, Levi Gonzalez, Nancy Garcia, Rebecca Brooks, Meg Wolfe and others.

Angel Ayón, an Associate for Preservation at WASA/Studio A, is trained and experienced in architecture and historic preservation in both his native Havana and New York City. During his professional practice at the National Center for Conservation, Restoration and Museology in Havana, he conducted research and conservation work on several landmark-designated structures at Old Havana historic center; particularly at the Santa Clara Convent and the historic Plaza Vieja. While living in Havana, Mr. Ayón was an adjunct professor at the School of Architecture, where he taught and researched on environmental design for tropical sites. In New York City, his professional practice has included work on several award winning historic preservation projects throughout the city, including historic churches in Brooklyn, restoration of cast iron facades in SoHo and the Rehabilitation of the Biltmore Theater (all with Li/Saltzman Architects, P.C.). Mr. Ayón has been a leading advocator for the conservation of the historic Mount Morris fire watchtower in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Memorial Park since 2000. At WASA/Studio A, he has been the Project Architect for the ongoing exterior restoration of the Guggenheim Museum since the project outset in 2004. Mr. Ayón holds a professional degree in Architecture and a Masters in Conservation and Rehabilitation of the Built Heritage from the Higher Polytechnic Institute in Havana and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Conservation of Historic Buildings and Archaeological Sites from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York.

The Language of the Listening Body facilitated an intensive investigation of listening and moving in the urban soundscape and ecology through a two-week studio process with a core group of invited dance artists as collaborator-participants. The primary goal of the residency was to support an active, physical experience of the urban soundscape among participants and the general public. From their respective disciplines of dance and sound, collaborators Mohr and Nagai investigated a process that integrated auditory and kinetic awareness practices as the basis for experiencing the urban environment. The residency investigated how listening and moving interact and transform each other in distinctly different acoustic environments in New York City. A number of noteworthy special guests participated in the residency, including Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros and Barbara Dilley, originator of the practice of Contemplative Movement. Several specialists in the environmental field served as consultants including Arline Bronzaft (Mayor’s Council on the Environment, Noise Commission); and E.J. McAdams (NYC Audubon).

The Language of the Listening Body is a collaboration between Choreographer Hope Mohr and Composer and Acoustic Ecologist Michelle Nagai. The residency was held September 11-23, 2006 in NYC.Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence is hosting a web-based dialogue with Nagai and Mohr and the general public at http://movementresearch.org/publishing/?q=node/119The residency investigated an active listening and moving practice within the urban soundscape. The public was invited to participate in soundwalks on Saturday, September 16, 2006 in the Times Square area and Saturday, September 23, 2006 in Long Island City.Before each walk, iLAND artists introduced participants to a listening-based movement language. The group then embarked on a walk to explore listening and movement in public space. After the walk, participants had an opportunity to share their experiences in a facilitated discussion. These were free events open to the public.Grand Central Soundwalk Workshop, September 16, 2006, 1-3 pm; Bryant Park, Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain, Western entrance at 6th Avenue and 41st Street, New York City, NY.This soundwalk followed a route through Bryant Park and east through Grand Central Station. From there, we continued east on 42nd Street to 217 E. 42nd Street.The discussion with the participants and special guest Barbara Dilley, originator of the practice of Contemplative Movement, moderated by E.J. McAdams of NYC Audubon, followed the soundwalk. Location: Chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

Sounds

Click here to listen to the Grand Central Station Soundwalk discussion at Chashama (Audio by Michelle Nagai).

Click here to listen to the Grand Central Station Soundwalk discussion “Feedback” at Chashama (Audio by Michelle Nagai).

Long Island City Soundwalk Workshop, Saturday, September 23, 2006, 1-3 pm; The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, NY, 718-482-7069.

This guided soundwalk followed a route around the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, which features a diversity of sound environments, including industrial zones, the entrance to the Queens-Midtown tunnel, residential streets and a riverside park.

The discussion with the participants followed the soundwalk, moderated by Jennifer Monson, Artistic Director of iLAND. Location: The Chocolate Factory.

Videos

Grand Central Station and Long Island City Soundwalks
http://birdbraindance.org/ilandarchive/iLAND_video_LIC_soundwalk.swf
edited by Ryutaro Ishikane and Robin Vachal

The Language of the Listening Body
http://birdbraindance.org/ilandarchive/iLAND_video_iLab_2006_09_20.swf
Edited by Ryutaro Ishikane and Robin Vachal

PhotosClick here to view photos from Long Island City Soundwalk (Photos by Ian W. Douglas).

The residency with Mohr and Nagai facilitated an intensive investigation of listening and moving in the urban soundscape through a two-week studio process with a core group of invited dance artists as collaborator-participants. The primary goal of the residency was to support an active, physical experience of the urban soundscape among participants and the general public. From their respective disciplines of dance and sound, collaborators Mohr and Nagai investigated a collaborative process that integrated auditory and kinetic awareness practices as the basis for experiencing the urban environment. The residency investigated how listening and moving interact and transform each other in distinctly different acoustic environments in New York City.

A number of noteworthy special guests participated in the residency, including Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros and Barbara Dilley, originator of the practice of Contemplative Movement. Several specialists in the environmental field served as consultants including Arline Bronzaft (Mayor’s Council on the Environment, Noise Commission); and E.J. McAdams (NYC Audubon).

Participants:
Lead Artists: Hope Mohr and Michelle Nagai
Dancers: Biba Bell, Lise Brenner, Robbie Cook, Laura Hymers, Alejandra Martorell, Yves Musard, Rebecca Wender.

Collaborator Bios:
Hope Mohr has had an extensive performance career in the dance companies of Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn and others. An emerging choreographer, Mohr is currently working as a Guest Artist at Stanford University. She has taught movement to professionals, adults and children in many contexts, including London School of Contemporary Dance, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, the ODC School, and the Trisha Brown Studio. In addition to her dance career, Mohr has a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a longstanding commitment to environmental and social justice work.

Composer and acoustic ecologist Michelle Nagai has been organizing and leading soundwalks for family, friends and the general public since 2001. She is one of the founders of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology and an active participant in NYC’s sound-ecology-noise awareness community. In 2005, Nagai received a teaching certificate in Deep Listening from the Deep Listening Institute. Her solo work has been presented throughout the US, Canada and Europe and has been supported by the American Composers Forum, Harvestworks, the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, Meet the Composer and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Contact:
Michelle Nagai, Composer and Acoustic Ecologist
Email: mn@treetheater.org