Interview with Lee Brummer on the Role of the Encompassing Collective

Lee Brummer, co-founder and associate director of ilDance in Sweden, is a member of the iCoDaCo Encompassing Collective. In a talk we had with her, she reflects on the purpose of the encompassing collective, the tools and methods they use to guide the collectives, and the challenges that come with such a large-scale artistic research project. Enjoy and listen her views from the links below.

Questions:

1. The purpose of the Encompassing Collective is to guide the research residencies of all collectives and give them cohesive direction. Why is it important?

2. Research residencies are a crucial part of the iCoDaCo project. What is their intention and aim? What instant outcomes and long-term effects do you expect?

3. Before each residency, you provide all collectives with the same “starter” that includes topics to be focused on, certain actions to experiment with, and required outcomes. How and why do you choose these topics and research methodologies? How do you formulate the “starters” in order to keep the common course, and at the same time provide enough space for individual approaches?

4. Besides guiding the residencies, what other roles does the Encompassing collective have in the iCoDaCo project?

5. You communicate with all the 10 collectives almost solely virtually. In addition, all collectives have different artistic backgrounds and approaches, as well as ways of communicating and cooperating. Is this diversity and distance challenging for you?

6. The Encompassing Collective consist of 4 dance artists and researchers, besides you it is your colleague form ilDance Israel Aloni and two members of German SM Collaborations, Mila Pavićević and Sebastian Matthias. How did you manage to harmonize your approaches?