About the project

AMPHIBIOUS TRILOGIES is a research through an extended choreography. The main aim is to artistically explore and monitor littoral spaces (between land and sea) via an extending choreography of related literal, limbic and liminal conditions, environments and articulations. Three subjects are set in motion; choreography, design fiction and sociology of the sea. They will be probed interconnectedly within three thematics/works: ‘island’, ‘pond’ and ‘passage’. Physical and remotely-sensed sea journeys, island hopping and pond wallowing are examples of research activities.

The sea is what connects and separates, what brings life and death, what represents trauma and hope. This is becoming painfully obvious today. Boats and immigrants to Europe. Climate change and the melting of the arctic oceans. Through this project we will test the limits of contemporary choreography and the power of contingency, in art based perceptions and projections of the future that address the significance of given and new knowledge of the sea.

 

The main research questions we will address are:
1) How might the thematic concepts ‘island’, ‘pond’ and ‘passage’ become manifest,
materialized, practiced and interconnected in littoral landscapes/zones?
2) What kinds of affiliations and tensions can be found within choreography, design fiction and sociology?
3) How might methodological approaches be developed between these affiliations and
tensions? How may these contribute to an understanding and phasing of an extended
choreography?
4) How might an extending choreography make accessible the shifts between land and sea to audiences?

Over a three year period a programme of fieldwork, seminars, presentations, workshops and ad hoc events will open up a reflexive space, culminating in the launch of three booklets linked during a performative event on the Oslo fjord presenting three works Island – Pond – Passage.

The project is led by Amanda Steggell, Professor of Choreography, Oslo National Academy of the Arts in collaboration with Andrew Morrison, Director of the Centre for for Design Research, Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Han-Jørgen Wallin Weihe, Professor of Social Work, Lillehammer University College.