This studio is a performance-based experiment that applies choreographic theory, methods, and modes for landscape architecture research, analysis, and design to foreground landscape narratives on Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The island housed two nuclear reactors and was the site of the worst commercial nuclear accident in US history.
The studio speculates on how performance can make choreographic and landscape dynamics sensible and how performative actions might productively intervene in the face of crisis. It also proposes avenues of practice for landscape architects as researchers, designers, performers, and bodies.
The core of this studio is the belief that to engage landscapes requires us to engage our bodies, and to engage our bodies requires us to engage landscapes. As both are constantly changing and in constant movement, choreography is the primary source of theories, methods, and modes of design.
Based on a foundation of theory and practices established in a previous independent study, the studio unfolds in three research phases: deep mapping, choreographic scores, and documentary choreography. Each phase establishes a lens through which to study the landscape of Three Mile Island and provides material to craft into a final studio production.
The final 35-minute intermedial performance explores meaning-making in the face of crisis, archival gaps, and the simultaneity of too much and too little information. The piece includes original choreography, footage, and score combined with archival materials to open questions about official and unofficial narratives, the collection of evidence, and the bodily witnessing of landscape change.
