Brunel Seminars 011: Aviva Rahmani “Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism”

Wednesday March 2nd Aviva Rahmani
“Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism”
4pm Gaskell Building 048


The Centre broadcasts selected Performance Research Seminars live from the Brunel Drama Studio - making them available to anyone in the world interested in the subject. Johannes Birringer and Marlon Barrios Solano are co-producing the talks and discussions as live webcasts webcast live on dance tech net TV . The partnership between the Centre and dance-techTV, is an experiment in collaborative video broadcasting (the channel is dedicated to interdisciplinary explorations of the performance of movement. The channel allows worldwide 24/7 linear broadcasting of selected programs, LIVE streaming and Video On-demand).

Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism is a methodology conceived by ecological artist Aviva Rahmani, to use body knowledge to see the global in the local. Based in current environmental restoration theory and practical experience, it combines science, performative means and discussion to identify where and how people can intervene in sites of serious environmental degradation.

Aviva Rahmani, ecological artist and Affiliate, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder, received an Arts and Healing Network 2009 award for her work on water. In 2009, she began performing workshops about her theoretical approach to environmental restoration, "Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism," beginning at the Survival Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark. Her new media project on global warming, Gulf to Gulf (2009- present), fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), tracks the global impact of extractive industries. Previous ecological art projects have resulted in the restoration of a former dump site to a flourishing wetland system (Ghost Nets), linking 35 hectares of migratory bird fly zone habitat and helped catalyze a USDA expenditure of $500,000 to restore an additional 13 hectares of critical wetlands habitat (Blue Rocks) in the Gulf of Maine. Internationally known, exhibited and published for her installations, remediation earthworks and environmental art activism, she has over 40 years collaborative experience with scientists. Rahmani received her Masters from the California Institute of the Arts working with Allan Kaprow and is a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, UK.


The Centre broadcasts selected Performance Research Seminars live from the Brunel Drama Studio - making them available to anyone in the world interested in the subject. Johannes Birringer and Marlon Barrios Solano are co-producing the talks and discussions as live webcasts webcast live on dance tech net TV . The partnership between the Centre and dance-techTV, is an experiment in collaborative video broadcasting (the channel is dedicated to interdisciplinary explorations of the performance of movement. The channel allows worldwide 24/7 linear broadcasting of selected programs, LIVE streaming and Video On-demand).