[-empyre-] Welcome Stamatia Portanova, Ashley Ferro-Murray, and Erin Manning to Critical Motion Practice

[Timothy Murray]

Now that the May Day weekend is past, we are happy to introduce this 
month's discussion on -empyre- of "Critical Motion Practice."  Many 
of you may recall the lively discussion we hosted in September 2007 
of "Critical Spatial Practice," which emphasized architecture, new 
technology, and tactical media.   We thought it might be interesting 
to return to the problematic of "critical practice" by reflecting 
specifically on the impact of "motion" this time around.

For this purpose, we have arranged a fascinating lineup of guest 
performance artists, choreographers, and theorists who will discuss s 
motion--both self-reflective and interactive--at the intersections of 
art, choreography, geography, architecture, theory, and activism. How 
might technological and critical approaches to movement and 
interactivity empower creativity, enhance artistic activism, and 
encourage artistic/performance practice and collaboration? The 
alignment of criticality with movement and cyber configurations of 
embodiment and space permits especially creative skins of networks, 
resources, and discussions whose resulting configurations range from 
texts and performances to sculptures and installations. The work of 
our guests reflects a broad range of performativity as it relates to 
the broader social paradigms of technology, culture, and art.

We open this discussion with this week's guests who will join us 
tomorrow, Stamatia Portanova (Italy/Canada) and Ashley Ferro-Murray 
(US).  They will be joined mid-week by Erin Manning (Canada).

Stamatia Portanova (Italy/Canada)  received her PhD from the 
University of East London, School of Social Sciences, Media and 
Cultural Studies (England). She is currently a post-doctoral fellow 
at the Concordia University of Montreal where she is working on a 
monograph on the relationship between choreography, digital 
technology and philosophy. She is also a member of The Sense Lab 
(Concordia University, Montreal) and of the editorial board of 
Inflexions, the online journal of the Sense Lab. Her articles have 
been published in La nuova Sherazade: Donne e Multiculturalismo and 
in the online journals, Frontiera Immaginifica, Fibreculture and 
Extensions: the Online Journal of Embodiment and Technology.

Ashley Ferro-Murray (US)  is choreographer who uses interactive 
performance technologies as a means for exploring dance and new media 
in our contemporary culture.
Ashley is a PhD student in the Performance Studies Program at the 
University of California at Berkeley with interests in the 
intersections of performance, philosophy, technology, and feminism. 
She is committed to experimenting with interfaces of software, 
hardware, and philosophy as they interact with the body and its 
politics.   http://ferromurray.net

Erin Manning  (Canada) is Research Chair and Professor of fine arts 
at Concordia University  (Montreal, Canada).   Erin directs the Sense 
Lab (www.senselab.ca), a
laboratory that explores the intersections between art practice and
philosophy through the matrix of the sensing body in movement.  In 
her art practice, she works between painting, fabric, and sculpture 
(http://erinmovement.com). Her current project, entitled Folds to 
Infinity, is an experimental fabric collection composed of cuts that 
connect in an infinity of ways, folding in to create clothing and out 
to create environmental architectures.  The next phase of this 
project will explore the resonance between electromagnetic fields and 
movement through the activation of the existent magents in Folds to 
Infinity.  her writing addresses the senses, philosophy, and 
politics, articulation the relation between experience, thought and 
politics in a transdisciplinary framework moving between dance and 
new technology, the political and micropolitics of sensation, 
performance art, and the current convergence of cinema, animation, 
and new media.  Publications include Relationscapes: Movement, Art, 
Philosophy (MIT, 2009), Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, 
Sovereignty (Minnesota, 2007), and Ephemeral Territories: 
Representing Nation, Home, and Identity in Canada (Minnesota, 2003).

Welcome, Stamatia, Ashley, and Erin.  We look forward to hearing more 
about your practice.  We  very much appreciate your willingness to 
kick off this month's discussion of "Critical Motion Practice."

Best,

Renate and Tim


-- 
Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
Co-Moderators, -empyre- a soft-skinned-space
Department of Art/ Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
Cornell University

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