OCEANBODIES is a full-length movement-based multi-media performance and installation in the early stages of research. The piece brings these streams of inquiry together: The ocean and the body as evolutionary sites; and the ocean and our bodies as the sites of climate catastrophes brought on by compulsory expansion. Each stream of inquiry is also a deeply embodied practice and will be a short piece that stands alone. Current research has been focused on the first part: Our bodies and the ocean as evolutionary sites.

Our bodies and the ocean as evolutionary sites

Humans are infinitely evolutionary beings. Our bodies are a part of the great unfolding of first life in the ocean 4 billion years ago to the human form we now inhabit today. We hold the records of multiple attempts, pathways, failures, and re-emergence of evolutionary processes within our own cells.

Our bodies as climate catastrophes

Our bodies are the living record and the cost of human “progress” and consumption. The alternations in soil, air and water also alter our blood, bones, nerves and organs. Our bodies are where the climate catastrophe meets its pinnacle and … the potentials of resolving crisis. 

OCEANBODIES is a space and a practice of opening perceptual access points to this infinite memory, orienting to the ocean, and trusting the information that comes through. With a small collective of artists, we build a common language of structured time, where we deep dive into this memory together, and re-surface with our own findings of image, impulse, sensitivity, story/myth, emotions, and memory-flashes.  As a queer-ecology approach to research, we establish a nurturing space for artists to encounter embodied memories of this nature and form a sustainable support network within the process itself. The material for the performative piece evolves and is crafted from this place.

email me at jannameiring@gmail.com with your interests. I’ll be looking for artists, donations and volunteers along the way.