News

Building Collaborations with MacArthur

Building Collaborations with MacArthurWe are THRILLED to finally make this announcement! The MacArthur Foundation has awarded a new partnership between Erica Mott Productions and Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble the prestigious MacArthur International Connections Fund. The $50,000 grant will allow us to continue our international collaboration with Ezzat Ezzat Contemporary Dance Studio in Cairo, Egypt, as well as build a new local collaboration with Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble, to expand our work for our immersive installation performance Mycelial: Street Parliament ... READ MORE

Our 3Arts campaign ends this week!

Our 3Arts campaign ends this week!Our 3Arts funding campaign for Mycelial: Street Parliament is 70% funded, but ends in four days. CAN YOU HELP? Mycelial: Street Parliament is a unique collaborative project that pairs Egyptian and American dancers, composers, technologists and new media artists to create an interactive installation performance that examines civic participation and social movements in the digital age. Guided through and around the performance by a custom mobile app, the audience will navigate four large moveable video screens, a movement-reactive sound score and choreographies ... READ MORE

ELEMENTAL at Palmisano Park

ELEMENTAL at Palmisano ParkELEMENTAL: Spectacles of Earth, Air and Water premieres Thursday - Saturday Oct 5-7 at 7:30pm in Palmisano Park (27th St & Halsted Ave). All performances are FREE and open to the public through Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks. (In case of poor weather, a rain date is set for Sunday October 8th at 7:30pm). Through the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks, the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events’s 50x50 Neighborhood Arts Project and the 11th Ward Alderman Patrick D. Thompson, Erica Mott Productions presents Elemental: Spectacles of Earth, Air and Water, a community-driven performance event ... READ MORE

Trials and Trails at Steelworkers Park

Trials and Trails at Steelworkers ParkThis Saturday, Sept 30th at 7:30pm, Erica Mott Productions will mount their lauded Trials and Trails from their Cowboys and Vikings Trilogy at Steelworkers Park (87th and the lakefront in Chicago) for a third year in a row through Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks. We're honored to be joined once again by the Horace Mann Marching Mustangs! The one-night-only show is FREE and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there! This year there is NO SHUTTLE service from downtown to the show. So how can you find us? ... READ MORE

Can we tweet a movement? Workshop at Alphawood Gallery

Can we tweet a movement? Workshop at Alphawood GalleryThis Sunday, Sept 17th from 11-3pm, Erica Mott Productions will activate Alphawood Gallery (2401 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL) with a special interactive movement technology workshop and discussion. Based on research into GIFs and emojis as the 'lingua franca' of the internet and the role of social media during recent social movements, we ask: can we tweet a movement? Working with motion-capture technology developed for Mycelial: Street Parliament, we will guide Alphawood Gallery attendees in creating and recording embodied movement tweets responding to the current exhibition Then They Came For Me ... Read More

Cowboys and Vikings Go Marching On

Cowboys and Vikings Go Marching OnFor the third year in a row, Erica Mott Productions will partner with the Chicago Park District to mount our lauded Cowboys and Vikings: Trials and Trails at Steelworkers Park as part of the City of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks series. In addition to performances by our friends the Horace Mann Marching Mustangs, we are also excited to share the weekend with Chicago’s favorite punk rock marching band: Mucca Pazza! This special shared weekend will be Fri Sept 29 & Sat Sept 30 at 7:30pm at Steelworks Park (87th St at the lakefront) ... Read More

Become a part of our Mycelial Network!

Become a part of our Mycelial Network!Mycelial: Street Parliament is a performance and cultural dialogue project taking root through a series of one-to-one creative exchanges between American and Egyptian composers, computer programmers, dancers, data scientists and new media artists. Although many of my projects have been cross-discipline, Mycelial takes me into new territory by working cross-culturally. It’s an exciting extension of my practice, fueling new ideas for my art work and my work as a citizen AND it's requiring more resources and support than I have ever needed before. So in the spirit of our namesake "mycelium", I am building a larger network of support ... Read More

Mycelial Rehearsal Intensive Wrap-Up

Mycelial Rehearsal Intensive Wrap-UpTime flies when you're having fun! Three weeks ago, our Egyptian dance collaborators Ezzat Ismail Ezzat and Mounir Saeed arrived in Chicago for Mycelial: Street Parliament's second development and rehearsal intensive. Our first exchange took place last March in Cairo, Egypt, through the support of the US Embassy and Department of State.

Through hours of rehearsals, we developed and refined deep listening, dynamic partnering sequences, vigorous choreographies, motion-responsive sound score, interactive video and participatory mobile app ... Read More

Erica Mott named 11th Ward Artist for 2017 Year of Public Art

Erica Mott named 11th Ward Artist for 2017 Year of Public Art

In a kick-off event at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen on Thursday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel named Erica Mott as one of the awardees of the 50×50 Neighborhood Arts Project. From nearly 270 applicants citywide, Erica was selected to collaborate with 11th Ward Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson to create a neighborhood public performance spectacle at Palmisano Park in Bridgeport. Utilizing the park’s unique landscape and history as a … Read more


Mycelial: Street Parliament – A Year of Growth

Mycelial: Street Parliament - A Year of GrowthFrom Cassis to Champaign, from Calgary to California, from Cairo to Chicago, Erica Mott's newest project Mycelial: Street Parliament is taking root.

‘Mycelial’ is derived from the word 'mycelium' – the vegetative part of a fungus that consists of a mass of branching, thread-like filaments. These threads form extensive communication networks, connecting forest root systems and transmitting vital nutrients to keep entire ecosystems alive. Scientists lovingly refer to this network at the "wood wide web" ... Read More