Then: 04/20/2025

Moving Matter: Organic Encounters

Moving Matter: Organic Encounters (MM:OE) is a SSHRC Insight-funded project that centers natural materials as guiding collaborative forces in the development of groundbreaking choreography, wearables, and material/object designs that emerge because of close interactions between moving/making human beings and moving/making earth matter.

A core issue in today's dance and design practices is the underrecognition of the creative agency of more-than-human matter. The movements (which we consider choreographies) and design patterns of growing, decaying, or naturally evolving organic materials are understudied as generative sites of dance and design invention. More "stable" and problematic materials, such as plastics, synthetics, or non-renewable textiles, are frequently chosen to control the outcome and longevity of dance wearables and design development. This is because material instability is typically framed as a liability in Western arts culture that borrows capitalistic and colonialist principles of control, force, and permanence.

MM:OE seeks to tip this perspective towards creative collaborations with organic matter that is constantly, naturally, and unpredictably changing. Over the next three years MM:OE will work with three distinct organic material progressions (soil-mud; seed-grass; bud-branch) that embody a breadth of naturally changing forms/designs and movements/dances, ranging from solid to viscous, strong to supple, and transforming significantly depending on the presence of water. Our intent is to develop an accessible template for our research approach that reflects a system of material-led creation emphasizing co-affecting creativity between humans and more-than-human matter - a Methodology of Encounters.

MM:OE brings together 2 Vancouver academic institutions, 6 professional artists, and student RAs in a team whose experience ranges from expert to novice. Led by Robert Kitsos (SFU) and Hélène Day Fraser (ECU), MM:OE draws on previous SSHRC-supported work: Kitsos' previous chapters of Moving Matter and Day Fraser's work with the Material Matters Research Commons: cloTHING(s) as Conversation, WITH Trees, Lab: Here//Too//For. Both Kitsos and Day Fraser have been learning from Indigenous practices of dancing and designing with guidance of more-than-human matter. Seeking to further expand understandings of what it means to move and make with organic materials they will work closely with creative consultant Tasha Fay Evans who will connect this project with her Coast Salish traditions. Other colleagues joining the effort include: Meagan Woods, (NYC) affiliate researcher, choreographer, wearable designer and writer; Peter Bussigel, ECU Associate Professor, Co-director Basically Good Media Lab;  Beau Han Bridge, videographer;  Robin Mitchell Cranfield, illustrator and graphic designer.

MM:OE's approach to dance and design research questions the Western canon prevalent in both fields.

The project reflects a joint human and more-than-human effort that responds to our planet's plea to work WITH rather than around earth matter.

Funding:

SSHRC Insight

2025 – 2028