Building Collaborations with MacArthur
We 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 MOREOur 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 MORECan we tweet a movement? Workshop at Alphawood Gallery
This 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 MoreBecome 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 MoreMycelial Rehearsal Intensive Wrap-Up
Time 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
Mycelial: Street Parliament – A Year of Growth
From 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