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Moving Matter is a series of projects that began in 2022 with the support of a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, where materials became the starting place and equal collaborators in creative processes. Through this work, we are attending to the creative potency of more-than-human material.  Our research asks how can materials be equal collaborators, and what innovations emerge when we pay close attention to the dynamic, generative aspects of diverse materials, in a gesture that challenges our often human-centered approach to art making?

From 2022-25, Moving Matter has been led by interdisciplinary dance artist Rob Kitsos in collaboration with designer/dance artist Meagan Woods, filmmaker Beau Han Bridge and music collective Westport Sunrise Sessions.  With backgrounds in costume design, choreography and composition, our team of artists developed a methodology for material-led choreographic works including short film, installation, and live performance. We have collected a series of works from different material processes including linoleum, plastic wrap, wool, architecture and soil that have led to four short, experimentail films, the most recent of which received supported from the BC Arts Council.

In early 2025, our team received further funding from SSHRC, an Insight Grant, to work on a new series of projects- Moving Matter: Organic Encounters- with Vancouver designer and educator Hélène Day Fraser and graphic designer.  We will be working between two sets of teams from SFU and Emily Carr, including visual artists, dancers, sound and media artists on new methodologies for creative material processes. Organic Encounters will focus on natural materials (soil, rock, moss, tree, branch etc.) and include short films, installations, performance and an art book of the Moving Matter process.  
The methodology we have been developing is in process and always evolving as we work.  We think of this method as a flexible structure that can shift depending on the material and collaborating artists.  Kitsos and Woods published an article outlining each step of the process - “Moving Matter: A Methodology for Material-Led Collaborations” in the Theare, Dance and Performance Training Journal, in December 2023.

Through the Moving Matter research, we have had the pleasure of working with talented, generous individuals, including Tasha Feye Evans, Erika Latta, Lorainne Kitsos, Michael Meneer, Anna Wang-Albini, Sydney Bluck, Olivia Johnson, Alexandra Caprara, Brett Palaschiuk, Desiree James, Max Tyler-Hite, Irfan Brkovic, Winston Le, Kayla DeVos, Lily Walman and Uros Sanjevic.

Kitsos has experimented with material-led, collaborative processes in his work as a professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU.  Working with objects as points of departure in interdisciplinary collaborative projects, groups of students from dance, theatre, music and sound, visual art, design and film experiment with different modes of making and analysing new work. Many of these experiments focus on how to avoid creative habits and pre-conceived notions in order to stay attuned to the inventive trajectories that emerge directly from raw materials.  Scholars like Jane Bennet and Tim Ingold have been influential in these approaches to sensing the vitality inherent in all things around us and the notion of thinking through making.

Inspired by this research, Kitsos developed a website that collects tools for collaborative making across disciplines.  With the help of artists from a range of backgrounds, the site includes a list of adaptable exercises across categories of space, sound, improvisation, group, form, build/expand and inspiration.  



Material-Led method template (M-LMT)

These steps were used as a basic outline of our process with each material.  The framing terms below the template helped us organize our analysis along the way.  Variations of order depended on the materials and rehearsal processes.
  • STAGE 1 | EKPHRASIS: Vigorously study and describe the material. Before touching or moving it, observe the matter closely, devotionally. Compile an ekphrastic collection of descriptions.

  • STAGE 2 | CONTACT/KINAESTHESIS: Haptically engage with the material, noting its texture, mass, and feel on the body. Practice listening and following more than leading and deciding. Return to your ekphrastic writing and add new observations.

  • STAGE 3 | TRANSFORMATION: Explore how the material can change compositionally. Fold, stretch, freeze, burn, blow, drop, crush, slide, etc. Document how and if the matter alters its form under various conditions.

  • STAGE 4 | ROOT: Research the origins of the material- where on the planet is the matter derived from, how did it get here, what are the historical, political, and social contexts this material has found itself situated in, then and now? What are some of the cultural associations? How has it been used by other artists, designers, consumers?

  • STAGE 5 | DISTILLATION: Center around key terms/images/patterns that resonate or consistently resurface throughout the process. What ideas speak to the spirit of the material, to the rising interests of this collaborative process? Sharpen and refine the pathways that are most compelling to the team.

  • STAGE 6 | MATERIAL GENERATION: Explore, develop, and revise movement motifs and textile fabrications. Work back and forth between choreographic and wearables designs to emphasize an impacting approach across dance, body, and non-human matter. Consider other interacting material components, including sound, scenography, projections, lighting, location, architecture, landscape, and public engagement.


Framing Terms: for analysis at each stage above:
Vibration, Shape, Line, Surface, Texture, Scale, Anatomy, Weight, Patterns, Complexity, Depth, Active/Passive, Rhythm, Gesture, Resolution, Symmetry-Asymmetry, Repetition, Landscape, Arc





Contact:
rkitsos@sfu.ca

Screening:
Moving Matter (linolium short film) had its world preimiere at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City- Lincoln Center Feb 2024.  The same film screened at the Oslo Short Film Festival where it is nominated for best short film as well as screenings in Grece and Calgary.  

Vimeo trailer: Link


Publicatoin:
Moving Matter: A methodology for material-led collaborations: Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal Dec. 2023

Tool box:
Mappingcollaboration.com




Made possible with support from:
School for the Contemporary Arts,
Simon Fraser University

Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant

Cotext Frontal Artist Residency,
Arraiolos, Portugal  2023