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  • About
  • Classes
  • Residency
    • Immersion 5.0
  • Projects
    • Journal
    • Archive
    • Conference
    • Clouds Festival
  • 2022 Kickstarter - Artist Leadership Training
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YOUR CART

ITERATION LAB
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April 24 - April 29
Krumville, NY
Tuition $300 
*includes food and lodging | tuition and travel subsidies available ​ 

The iteration lab is an interdisciplinary session aimed at exploring what happens when a performative structure repeats and evolves with each repetition.  Much like a scientist in a laboratory repeating an experiment but with slightly modified conditions, so too will our session function as residents will get the opportunity to repeat a structure of their choosing, supplementing, subtracting and modifying the structure as the session advances.  The iteration lab is short, intensive session lasting only 4 days, each of which will be spent performing our given structure and being participants in the structures of the other residents.
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What is a structure?  For this session a structure is anything that exists in space and time and can be repeatable.  It can be a performance, a conversation, a dance piece, a film scene, a movement practice, an immersive experience, an installation, a sculpture, or anything else.  It should be somewhat designed or planned, but the amount of design can be minimal at first. It must potentially involve all 8-9 participants of the session, but our roles can vary wildly.  It must last for only 30 minutes, and be able to repeat 4 times.

How will it work?  Each attendee will be responsible for coming to the session with a 30 minute structure already designed (or at least the first iteration).  We will arrive in on Wednesday evening and briefly share our ideas and introduce one another. On our first day (Thursday), each resident will enact their structure and also participate in each other resident’s structure.  At the end of the day, each resident will then deliberate about what elements within their structure they want to revise and adapt. For example: should the location change? Or perhaps the roles each participant has? Or perhaps the sequence?  The challenge is to adapt some aspects so the structure can bend and sway, but not too much such that the structure changes entirely. The events of day one will then repeat on Friday and Saturday. And then Sunday will be a final day of iteration.  Throughout the session, we will also experiment with ways of generating material to transfer the content of these iterative structural experiments into archivable content.

Who should apply?  ​Ideally anyone whose practice involves other persons in its devising, design and creation.  This is a great opportunity to test out an idea for a performance or scene. Alternatively it could function as an opportunity to hold a conversation, debate or structured dialogue.  Or perhaps there is a relational, social or somatic practice that you want to tinker with. People from all backgrounds are welcome to apply including musicians, curators, academics, directors, dancers, film makers, playwrights, performers, social practice artists, writers, activists, cultural mediators, and educators.
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The facilities: The Iteration Lab will take place in a small family farm near Kingston, NY.  Indoor spaces mostly include living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens – one of which is large enough to host somatic exercises or small performances.  Each resident will share a bedroom with 1-2 other residents. There are also ample woods, a large field, a creek, and an old church all of which can be used for this session.  

ITERATION LAB FACILITATORS 

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Aaron Finbloom

Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, performance artist, musician and co-founder of SMT.  Much of Finbloom's creative practice functions as an attempt to expand the scope of philosophy’s pedagogy via structured conversations, dialogical games, improvisational scores, contemplative audio guides and performative lectures.  He has led numerous workshops and performances at places including: matralab, Senselab, The Centre for Expanded Poetics, The Topological Media Lab, and EMERGE Residency Program, He holds an M.A. in Philosophy and Art from SUNY Stony Brook and is currently working towards a PhD in the Humanities at Concordia University.
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Elena Light

Elena Rose Light is a choreographer and performer originally from Southern California. Her choreography is rooted in the potential for somatic empathy to reorganize systems of thought and governance. Her work has been presented by Abrons Arts Center, Gibney, Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Movement Research at Judson Church, among other venues. Recent honors and residencies include the danceWEB scholarship at ImPulsTanz, LANDING mentorship, Chez Bushwick residency, and Hemispheric Institute EMERGENYC fellowship. She has also performed in the work of Bouchra Ouizguen, Tino Sehgal, Asad Raza, and Bruno Isakovic. She received a BA with honors in French and art history from Yale University, where she became enamored with experimental performance. Elena recently learned that her sun is in Aquarius, her rising sign in Scorpio, and her moon in Cancer.
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