Field Studies (Symbiosis) Performance and Q&A

Field Studies (Symbiosis) looks at forest ecology from a variety of perspectives, beginning with an aerial overview of the Canadian Boreal Forest and moving through the dynamic processes that shape the landscape, including wind, water, pollination and the hidden forest communication channels of the micro-rhizomes in the soil. Three multidisciplinary artists collaborated over nine months and completed a weeklong residency at PEM to produce this 30-minute performance-based installation. Their project engaged the natural world through deep investigations of the land, siting filming in the wild and collaborating with natural scientists.

Artist Fernanda D’Agostino’s monumental projections activate the front wall and stage of the auditorium. Composer Lisa DeGrace’s soundtrack interweaves immersive sounds from nature and beyond. A live performance by movement artist Laura Kathrein intertwines movement, sound, images and the forest’s unseen worlds to create an embodied field study that gives voice to the forest itself. In this symbiotic exchange, Field Studies translates hidden languages and opens onto the possibility of a world where all living beings are recognized as our sacred relations.

Stay after the performance for a reception with Kakawa Chocolate House’s co-founder Bonnie Bennett, who will serve samples of different drinking chocolates and share Kakawa’s strategies for supporting sustainable cacao production and agroforestry.

Onscreen Performances:
Jaleesa M.Johnston, Laura Kathrein, Lisa Kusanagi
Photography:
Camera 1, Fernanda D'Agostino, Camera 2 Brian Foulkes, Camera 3 Osmani Tellez, Camera 4 Harry Dawson
Underground Timelapse Photography, Volvox and Carteria Microscopy; Wim Van Egmond
Fire Footage; US Forest Service Archives

PEM Presents is made possible by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation and the Lowell Institute. Additional funding for this project is provided by Oregon Arts Commission, Ford Family Foundation, and PAMCUT. Community support came from Sound Stage Support; Somerville Media Center, and Ecological Advisory: Somerville Growing Center.


About our collaborators


Fernanda D’Agostino
Fernanda D’Agostino is a new media artist focused on experimental installation, immersive video projection and public art. Her work engages themes of movement and growth as catalyzed by phenomena of the natural world, alchemical transformation, complex networks and human engagement with non-human communities. Her internationally exhibited installations incorporate sculpture, architecture, interactive video, projection mapping and sound in novel ways. She is an active member of the CETI (A Creative and Emergent Technology Institute) Lab community, based out of Portland State University, where the focus is on lifelong learning and collaborative, interdisciplinary innovation in creative and emergent technologies.

Laura Kathrein
Laura Kathrein is a Boston-based movement artist, community arts organizer and educator whose interdisciplinary practice centers on embodiment, environmental awareness and collaboration. Through dance, movement analysis and site-specific improvisation, Kathrein explores how bodies respond to natural systems, fostering environmental empathy. Collaboration is central to her work, which frequently engages musicians, visual artists and both human and animal movers. Kathrein’s work includes iEMBODY, a series of movement video installations inside PEM’s Art & Nature Center. From 2015 to 2020, she developed Miracle of Movement, a five-year daily practice integrating embodied research, environmental engagement and community participation. She holds a Master of Education in Community Arts with a specialization in Environmental Arts from Lesley University. Her training includes ballet and modern dance techniques, contact improvisation and circus arts.

Lisa DeGrace
Sound composer Lisa DeGrace creates spatial environments that express a “sonic perfume” of people, land and spirits. Her soundscapes are created from field recordings in the natural world, MIDI manipulations of those sounds, her voice and live instrumentation. She creates spatial soundscapes developed from layers of found sounds, vocals and instrumentation. The majority of DeGrace’s work, which has been shown throughout the United States, has focused on live performance collaborations with video artists and contemporary dancers, centered around themes of consciousness, spirit, ancestors, earth, death and transformation. More recently, she has also built solo sound projects focused on grieving and memory.