
THE MAYA PROJECT is a somatic-based artmaking methodology that can be employed to create video installations; practice-based investigative workshops; live performances in virtual space, galleries, and cinema spaces; and full courses or guest lectures.
In this iterative work, dancers act as both camera operators and movement practitioners, using multiple cameras to practice new ways of looking and creating imagery that are centered in the bodies of the subjects. Especially true with womxn, this practice is a radical act of participating in how we are being seen and foregrounding our bodily experiences.
The methodology includes an in-depth tuning score in the style of Lisa Nelson that brings all practitioners into alignment with one another and the space. This tuning score acts also as a training procedure, in which practitioners bring their somatic experience into conversation with the camera frame.
Participants engage in discussion and physical inquiry that considers the camera as a tool of archive, composition, communication, and inclusion/exclusion.The Maya Project is a practice of actively questioning the effects of human relationships with recording technology through the lens of bodily experience, agency, and emergence. Dance improvisation is utilized in this process as a way of privileging the moment of occurrence as opposed to an end product, which is complicated by incorporating the camera (a tool intended to be used to make a revisitable product) into the ephemeral act. Collaborators in this work are participants with the camera frame, as opposed to subjects of the camera frame, an act of democratizing the traditionally singular role of framing/capturing footage.
Theoretical inquiry looks to: gaze theory; feminist tech; somatics and social justice; cyborg theory; visual perception; feminist unboxing; improvisation theory; emergence; framing theory
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The Archive
In a tribute to the project’s ongoingness, all iterations of The Maya Project have been archived with descriptions, letters and/or numbers. Here is how to translate the archival names of each piece of this work:
The Maya Project_4_S_VisibleTime_1 translates (moving backward) to:
The 1st performance
of the “Visible Time” vignette
on the 19th (S=19th letter of the alphabet) gathering
in the 4th series of devising,
of this iterative art work, The Maya Project.
One-off sessions of The Maya Project like a workshop, installation, or single performance, include a description of that event: eg, The Maya Project_Virtual Lecture_Orientation
In addition to the iterations, all cameras used in The Maya Project have also been archived with a letter. In some cases, the cameras used are included in the archival name: eg, The Maya Project_4_E_1_D, which is the footage from only the Camera dubbed ‘D’ during this iteration.
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PUBLICATION and PRESENTATION
- “Nurturing Counterspaces: The Role of Artmaking in Building Identity-Affirming Communities” for the Dance Studies Association Conference, 2022
- “Considering the Power of the Camera in a Post-Pandemic Era of Screendance” in The International Jouurnal of Screndance, 2021
- The Maya Project Guest Lecture for “The Practices and Politics of Looking” course by Gina Osterloh at The Ohio State University, 2019
- The Maya Project Research Presentation for the graduate research forum in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, 2018
THE MAYA PROJECT WORKSHOPS
- The Maya Project Workshop: Point-of-View, Representation, Power for Big Ten UniDance Hub Series, Rutgers University, 2021
- The Maya Project_Virtual Lecture_Orientation at the University of Southern Mississippi, 2020
- The Maya Project_Virtual Lecture_Acts of Framing at the University of Southern Mississippi, 2020
- The Maya Project Workshop: Consent, Point-of-View, Representation, at The Ohio State Univeristy, 2019
- The Maya Project Workshop: Power_Group Forms Composition, at The Ohio State University, 2019
LIVE PERFORMANCE
- The Maya Project_2_G_2:Witnessed, 2018
performance for Cinema Expanded exhibition curated by Roger Beebe; Hopkins Hall Gallery, OH
INSTALLATION
- The Maya Project_4_Installed, 2020
The Maya Project_4_Installed is a video installation with four simultaneous projections of four separate iterations of each of four dance-with-camera vignettes. Each vignette is the performance of an improvised score with two cameras, intended to show two moving perspectives of the same happening. - The Maya Project: Relics 2_C, 2_D, 2_E, 2018
single-channel video, part of Cinema Expanded exhibition curated by Roger Beebe; Hopkins Hall Gallery, OH
ITERATIVE PERFORMANCE PROCESSES
- THE MAYA PROJECT_5_SOLO, 2022
- THE MAYA PROJECT_ 4, 2019
- The Maya Project_4_T_Preserving A Moment_2
- The Maya Project_4_T_Creating A Sensation_2
- The Maya Project_4_T_Visible Time_2
- The Maya Project_4_T_Personality_2
- The Maya Project_4_T_Preserving A Moment_1
- The Maya Project_4_T_Creating A Sensation_1
- The Maya Project_4_T_Visible Time_1
- The Maya Project_4_T_Personality_1
- The Maya Project_4_S_Preserving A Moment_2
- The Maya Project_4_S_Creating A Sensation_2
- The Maya Project_4_S_Visible Time_2
- The Maya Project_4_R_Preserving A Moment_2
- The Maya Project_4_R_Creating A Sensation_2
- The Maya Project_4_R_Visible Time_2
- The Maya Project_4_R_Personality_2
- The Maya Project_4_R_Preserving A Moment_1
- The Maya Project_4_R_Creating A Sensation_1
- The Maya Project_4_R_Visible Time_1
- The Maya Project_4_R_Personality_1
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Preserving A Moment_2
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Creating A Sensation_2
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Visible Time_2
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Personality_2
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Preserving A Moment_1
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Creating A Sensation_1
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Visible Time_1
- The Maya Project_4_Q_Personality_1
- The Maya Project_4_P_Preserving A Moment_2
- The Maya Project_4_P_Creating A Sensation_2
- The Maya Project_4_P_Visible Time_2
- The Maya Project_4_P_Personality_2
- The Maya Project_4_P_Preserving A Moment_1
- The Maya Project_4_P_Creating A Sensation_1
- The Maya Project_4_P_Visible Time_1
- The Maya Project_4_P_Personality_1
- The Maya Project 4_O_2
- The Maya Project 4_O_1
- The Maya Project 4_N_2
- The Maya Project 4_N_1
- The Maya Project 4_M_2
- The Maya Project 4_M_1
- The Maya Project 4_L_1
- The Maya Project 4_K_1
- The Maya Project 4_J_1
- The Maya Project 4_I_1
- The Maya Project 4_H_1
- The Maya Project 4_G_1
- The Maya Project 4_F_1
- The Maya Project_4_E_1
- The Maya Project 4_D_1
- The Maya Project 4_C_1
- The Maya Project 4_B_1
- The Maya Project 4_A_1
- THE MAYA PROJECT_ 3, 2019
- The Maya Project 3_G
- The Maya Project 3_F
- The Maya Project 3_E
- The Maya Project 3_D
- The Maya Project 3_C
- The Maya Project 3_B
- The Maya Project 3_A
- THE MAYA PROJECT_2, 2018
- The Maya Project_2_G_1
- The Maya Project_2_F_2
- The Maya Project_2_F_1
- The Maya Project 2_E_2
- The Maya Project 2_E_1
- The Maya Project 2_D_1
- The Maya Project 2_C_1
- The Maya Project 2_B_1
- The Maya Project 2_A_1
- The Maya Project_1, 2018
- The Maya Project_1_J_1-3_Excerpts
- The Maya Project_1_I
- The Maya Project_1_H
- The Maya Project_1_H_3
- The Maya Project_1_H_2
- The Maya Project_1_H_1
- The Maya Project_1_G_2
- The Maya Project_1_G_1
- The Maya Project_1_F_2
- The Maya Project_1_F_1
- The Maya Project 1_E_2
- The Maya Project 1_E_1
- The Maya Project 1_D
- The Maya Project 1_C
- The Maya Project 1_B
- The Maya Project 1_A_1
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Contributors to The Maya Project include:
Practice Sessions: (2022)
Momar Ndiaye
Second Working Group: (2019-2020)
Davianna Green
Yildiz Güventürk
Dian Jing
Laura Patterson
First Working Group: (2018)
Brianna Johnson
Claire Melbourne
Katherine Moore
Workshop Participants: (2018-2019)
Hailey Armdaeng
Victoria Bell
Sarah Bodony
Jacqueleen Bordjadze
Demetra Chiafos
Sophie Claman
Jacqueline Courchene
Isaiah Harris
Caitlyn Higley
Taylor Hurd
Ishmael Konney
Abby Koskinas
Andrew Johnson
Brianna Rhodes
Miranda McGovern
Meledi Montano
Andrea Moses
Laura Neese
Michaela Neild
Maxi Riley
Sydney Samson
Jaquie Shoshaki
Michelle Sipes
Kylee Smith
Sophia Smith
Molly Stanton
Eddie Taketa
Sarah Wagenmaker
Additional Guidance:
Norah Zuniga-Shaw
Susan Kozel
Ginah Osterloh
Dani ReStack
Dave Covey
Artistic Support:
Bita Bell
Emily Craver
Josh Anderson
Sean Corey
Jeremy Stone
MFA Project Committee
Professor Daniel Roberts
Dr. Harmony Bench
Dr. Roger Beebe
Additional Collaborators:
Dreama Cleaver
Chris Cogell
Jazelynn Goudy
Kaiya Gordon
Lynn Kim
Laura Rodriguez
Kat Sauma