FOUNDATIONAL CREATIVE RESEARCH
For artists as much as scientists, water in its endless movements and forms has long held a fascination. For most people groundwater is taken for granted and as a result, water resources and the ecosystems and landscapes they support are stretched thin. In some cases, the inhabitants of these landscapes are unaware of the slow degradation of the resource that supports them, but in others, people see, and feel at a loss for how to respond.
ROCK | WATER is a response to the degradation of water resources in the form of a performance research project investigating groundwater, love of place, and the joy of discovery, at the intersection of hydrology and dance.
Choreography: Lucy Fandel
Scientific advisor: Chloé Fandel
APPROACH
We work from the concept of soliphilia, the feeling of interconnectedness and stewardship that comes with intimate knowledge and love of a particular place. Soliphilia is the opposite of feeling powerless and hopeless in the face of destruction. It is common in scientists, who often fall in love with the places where they do fieldwork, despite commonly being mischaracterized as purely rational, unemotional outsiders. With this piece, we aim to nurture a sense of empathy towards both scientists and the landscapes in which they wander and wonder with movement, sound, and scenic design that evokes the poetry of underground landscapes and the flowing timeless quality of groundwater.
ROCK | WATER is part of a global conversation about stewardship of groundwater, and seeks to enable dialogue between scientists, artists, and the public. Lucy is the artistic director of the project, experimenting with choreography and aesthetic possibilities. Chloé is both a scientific advisor to the project and an important critical eye, bolstered by her experience with scientific illustration and visual art.
BIOGRAPHIES
Chloé is a Ph.D. candidate in hydrology at the University of Arizona, working on groundwater modeling in karst aquifers. She completed her M.Sc. in hydrology at the University of Arizona, and holds a B.A. in geological sciences from Brown University. Prior to graduate school, she served with AmeriCorps, did fieldwork for the U.S. Forest Service, and worked briefly for the oil and gas industry. Her current project, with Dr. Ty Ferré in Arizona and Dr. Nico Goldscheider at Karslruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, focuses on applying model ensemble analysis to better understand uncertainty in hydrogeologic modeling, using a small Alpine karst system as a test site. Chloé is particularly interested in exploring the intersections of science with policy-making and art. In parallel with her research, she leads overnight science field trips for high school students, and moonlights as a scientific illustrator.
Lucy is a dance artist and writer based in Montreal, who grew up between Boston and Nice, France. Often at the intersection of social, scientific, and artistic movement, her work has been presented in Montréal’s Nuit Blanche, Art Matters and the Festival International du Film Ethnographique de Québec, at ZH Festival and the Camden People’s Theatre in London, England with the interdisciplinary collective Daughter Product. She danced at Festival Quartier Danse with the collective As They Strike, and for Jenna Beaudoin and Chloe Hart. Lucy is also project coordinator for Mouvement Perpétuel (co-directors Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer), and the Performing Arts Research Cluster at Concordia University’s Milieux Institute, and co-organiser of the Montreal dance laboratory Nous Sommes L’Été.
Lucy Fandel 