Choreographing the Campus

As a 2020-22 Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and Research Affiliate in the Art, Culture, and Technology program, Adesola Akinleye investigates how dance-based research and creative collaboration across disciplines can create new techniques, lexicons, and conversations within urban design.

With a particular interest in how the city shapes our bodies, and how, in turn, we shape the city, Akinleye invites the MIT community to observe and engage with the micro-city where we live, work, and learn.

“We must understand ourselves as contributing to our belonging to the city, our belonging to the environment, which is possible through our ability to respond. We are not separate from city or environment, not separate from Place: we are a part of it all.” says Akinleye.

While in residence at MIT, Adesola Akinleye has identified a lexicon of worded-ideas, or common vocabulary, that stimulates trans-disciplinary communication. Participants are encouraged to use the lexicon as a prompt for reflection and response to the meaning-making of Places as they navigate the MIT campus.

By noticing how buildings, paths, shadows, fences, and the people around us impact our movements and how we impact them, we examine and even reconsider the meaning of this Place.

Films performers: Adesola Akinleye; Camera: MIT Video Productions

Related sites:

arts.mit.edu/choreographing-the-campus/

Funding: MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, the Art, Culture, and Technology Program at MIT, and Theatrum Mundi Fellowship, Middlesex University ACI