It Leaks. Nose-deep in moss: dancing in the wetness, singing at the edges.

Wetlands have caught hold of me for the things they do to time and for their ecological position as fertile edge-lands of mud and water. Wetlands are unruly, leakey, vital places. Drawing from the horizontal growth structures of moss, and inspired by the muddy, rich biodiversity of wetlands, my approach is lateral, seeping sideways across mediums. How do I and the wetland make and unmake one and other? What happens to time within this relationship? To rhythm?

It Leaks joins the overarching ongoing research project Authorship, Ownership and Control: Dancer’s Role and Materials led by Professor Chrysa Parkinson. I am interested in considering how choreographic material and practices spill, sediment, grow, ferment, are gathered and transformed. I am also curious to consider: what do the terms authorship, ownership and control do within the context of a human-wetland intra-action? How can I cultivate practices of listening and reciprocity?

At this early stage I am working with a host of research questions to guide my work. These include those mentioned above and others, such as: In what ways are both performance scores and speculative fiction frames for the creation of temporary worlds? Worlds for proposing other forms of relation? On what scales can performance scores and movement practices shift perceptive systems? How are relationships to place and time explored through practices of scent making? What are the choreographic potentials of perfume? In what ways can singing be a way of listening? A relational practice beyond or before words? How can these scores for performance and movement practices be methods for cultivating response-ability to each other and to the the more-than-human? What role may poetic forms play in documentation in my own work, and in what was do poetic forms also play a role in documenting the works of other artists?

The research will take place in three parts that I am currently calling “Gathering/gleaning”, “Response-ability: getting muddy”, and “fermentation” or “crystallisation”. The work will include a series of meetings with others in the form of live performance, study circles, publications and perfume.

The Knowledge Foundation

Chrysa Parkinson

Christina Lindgren

2025 - 2031

Authorship, ownership and control: dancers roles and materials 

The Knowledge Foundation Jubilee Doctoral students