Movement Lab Barnard: a history
origin- narrative
I came to Barnard in 2016 on a new interdisciplinary line in the Department of Dance. Previously I had been the Artistic Director of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, an eighty acre historic site in Staten Island, where I was also the Curator of the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. During my first year at Barnard, I designed a new course called Composition: Screendance, taught a full course load, and sat on a search committee, among other professional services. I also continued working as the Curator at Newhouse while the executive director searched for a new candidate and premiered my documentary Un Dia Kada Momentu (2016).
When I came to Barnard, the Movement Lab and the Milstein Center that now houses it had not yet been built. Former Provost Linda Bell invited me to develop the project by joining the committee for the Milstein Center. The committee included Provost Bell and current directors of the Design Center Karen Fairbanks and Media Center Director Melanie Hibbert, among others. We met weekly with builders, architects and stakeholders to envision and materialize this larger space and its component parts.
Designing a new mission and vision for the Movement Lab was an interesting challenge, the space was low and oddly shaped. I started problem solving. I figured having a compact space would be better than not having any space at all, so what could I create in a space with limitations? What should the shape and purpose of the new Movement Lab be? In searching for the answers, I did what I love to do, creating something out of the resources and possibilities available.
At its inception, the Milstein Center was envisioned as a hub for research, teaching and learning. Thus, it would house the library and multiple interdisciplinary centers, including the Movement Lab, the Digital Humanities Center, and the Center for Engaged Pedagogy, which would be independent of departments yet integral to the college’s educational mission. The mandate of the Milstein Center was to break the silos that can exist between departments and decrease the isolation that can be common in academia by fostering collaboration, interactive learning, and dynamic interdisciplinarity. It was to be a place where everyone could learn and explore.
With this overarching purpose in mind, my vision for the Movement Lab became clear: it would need to become a flexible space centering dance, movement in the broadest sense, and new technologies where many different people could learn, create, and be. On the level of architecture and design, we needed to install a sprung floor for dancers’ safety—which would make the space even more compact—and on the ceiling we would need to install a grid for lights, projections, and more. However constrained we might be by the space and budget limitations, there would be technological growth driven by students and new developments in the field. The space would welcome all students, departments, and faculty from any discipline to experience, explore, and develop new ideas centering movement with technology at its center.
In those early days it became clear that the blueprint of an artist residency program I created at Snug Harbor called Performing Arts Salon Saturdays (PASS), would be a good fit for the Movement Lab with some tailored adjustments. Both organizations had space, a commitment to arts, and a limited budget. At Snug Harbor, the program partnered artists with community members. At Barnard, artists could work alongside students and faculty. PASS was a successful program that engaged a broad community, received significant funding and partnerships, and is now in its tenth year. I could see the same for the Movement Lab. Creating a residency program where artists work alongside community members in exchange for research, space, and knowledge sharing was a proven strategy.
PASS was inspired by a series of artists’ salons I had hosted across living rooms in St. George, my neighborhood in Staten Island, for over ten years. The Living Room Salons, as they were called, with dinners and arts, cultivated our creative community. Now that I had created PASS, the question was, how would this idea evolve and take shape at Barnard?
It became MeMoSa, short for the Media Movement Salon, a collaborative student-and-artist residency that built on both PASS and the Living Rooms Salons by combining collaboration with the intimate sharing of work and process. Both invited and other Artists submitted research proposals to the Movement Lab. Those we selected, had to be able to work with students and Student Artists in Residence (SARs, or SAIRs these days) in exchange for space and resources. Although we have a limited budget, this collaboration has proven valuable to many artists, including high-profile artists at the forefront of their creative and intellectual fields, such as Kate Ladenheim, LaJune McMillian, Nona Hendrix, Francesca Harper, Rashuan Mitchell and Silas Riener. In turn, the artists raise the profile of the Movement Lab and Barnard College. Our contracts stipulate that artists’ credits must acknowledge the lab with the following phrase: “This work was developed in part, during a residency at the Movement Lab Barnard.” Thus the Movement Lab has been recognized in works exhibiting at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, and New York Live Arts, to name a few of the prominent venues where we have been able to demonstrate the innovation, collaboration, and unique interdisciplinarity of the Movement Lab and Barnard College.
The development of the Student Artist in Residency program was integral to the conception of MeMoSa and the lab as a whole. SAIRs come from all the departments and are a representation of the interdisciplinarity we cultivate. The lab’s focus on movement and technology draws a fair share of students from the Computer Science Department, many of whom are pursuing dual degrees. SAIRs are not paid, do not receive course credit, and typically work for one or two semesters. Many SAIRs have gone on to pursue graduate programs to further their research and technical skills or to work with the lab’s artists in the field, and in either case developing meaningful careers.
The Stillness Lab is another program I developed early in the lab’s history. This popular weekly event invites anyone from the Barnard community to enter the space, take time away from phones, relax, and let their creativity be. In addition, the Stillness Lab offers an accessible entry point into the lab that facilitates outreach and engagement to a broader community. Over the years other initiatives have developed, including semester-long classes in the dance department, course collaborations with other departments, and installations, but MeMoSa, the Stillness Lab and the residency programs are the cornerstone of our ecosystem. We host many semesters long cources all from the dance department, and work with different departments for other course collaborations.
In 2018, when the Milstein Center opened, I was able to hire one staff member, one who I had to share with the Sloate Media Center. I knew I needed not just a technological person but an all-around person. I was very fortunate to be able to hire Guy deLancey, who is now our Associate Director. Guy has a background in just about everything. He is an award-winning producer, editor, cinematographer, photographer, light and set designer as well as an actor. When I oriented him to the Movement Lab’s vision, he was able to implement it, working to get the right grid, lights, projectors, and software. We also designed the unique seating we would need for the space, the cushions, the benches, all of it. Guy with his patient demeanor has become a mentor to many of the lab’s students. He is the person who can do it all and he trains those who use our space in technology and much more.
In 2019, after our first year working together, Guy’s position became full-time and the now-defunct Post-Baccalaureate program granted us one recent alum who would be solely dedicated to the lab. The Post-Bacc program was a big help across the board, but particularly because with such a small staff we simply needed more people to maintain the space on evenings and weekends to keep up our collaborations and programming. Over the last six years, we have created a stable work environment where all can grow, where ideas are discussed openly, and decisions are made horizontally whenever possible.
After seven years of dynamic development and despite fewer available resources, the Movement Lab is well-positioned to expand and deepen its vision. Having laid its foundation in dance, movement, and innovative technology, as well as the paperwork, rules and regulations, and having assembled a talented resourceful staff, it is time for me to step down. After seven years, I am proud of the work we have done, what we have been able to create, and the support we have had from Barnard.
I am fortunate to have a thriving and busy artistic career outside of Barnard. I also love teaching. I look forward to dedicating myself to students and to supporting the Movement Lab in other ways. I am clear that the Movement Lab is not my space. It is a space I designed for students and for the Barnard/Columbia community. I always understood the lab’s purpose and its role within the larger mission of the college as an ecosystem conversation with other ecosystems within and outside of academia. The movement at the heart of the lab has always been a dialogue: from the campus to the real world and back. This is how we made a real difference.
Recently I was invited by the Doris Duke Foundation to be part of their think tank, which took place this May, a fully funded convening at the Ohio State University, as part of their larger Performing Arts Technologies Initiative. Through this think tank DDF is partnering with a few key individuals and institutions (us) to provide a venue for sharing knowledge around specific high-impact areas of innovation, including Extended Reality (XR) Performance and XR Previsualization developed at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at Ohio State University under the leadership of Norah Zuniga Shaw, Professor of Dance, artist, and director for performance and technology projects, and an advisor on the Movement Lab during the final stages of its development.
I hope to continue to create new opportunities for the Movement Lab, connecting it to a wider network of similar centers around the country. Professor Zuniga Shaw and I have been envisioning such a network for many years and we are excited that the Doris Duke Foundation is now funding us to explore these possibilities in the form of the convening. Although I will not be the director of the Movement Lab, my work will open pathways in the wider ecosystem of innovative centers both inside and outside the academy. It will connect to many previous endevours in my career, from NYC to Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. More on that another time.
Meanwhile, excited to welcome Professor Kadambari Baxi as the new faculty director.