Testing the formats and possibilities of performance-making, 10002 Compositions is simultaneously an investigation into abstract environmental design + a participatory experiment. Originally created in celebration of Lower East Side History Month, 10002 Compositions calls on the public to create choreographic compositions informed by community surveys. Participants move through a grid-like structure made of rope–generating and being part of the generation of many possible associations within a structure, neighbourhood, or nation.
Scenes, vignettes, and formations are created drawing on stories from the spaces around us for instruction and formation as the participants develop as units of reflection; of the arteries, governing pillars, walls and entry points that make up the places we live.
Residents of the LES are well acquainted with the impersonal trends of privatized spaces, issues of tenancy safety, rising costs of living and ultimately–displacement. In some ways, 10002 Compositions can be seen as a small, deliberate act of resistance and is meant to explore/encourage how: a) communication is inherent to the health of our communities and, b) small acts of nurturing these foundational relationships can strengthen opposition to the incessant commercialization of public realms. Building upon a philosophy of co-operative participation, and the street-level approach held by thinkers like Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl – each composition personifies how dynamic, flexible social fabrics can counter the structural rigidity of for-profit urban planning.
10002 Compositions requires participants to use their imaginations so that they can problem solve and work together. Just like the social ecologies of the places we live–collective imagining and movement can ensure the adaptive capacity, flexibility and resilience our communities need to thrive.
