As a 2020-22 Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and Research Affiliate in the Art, Culture, and Technology program, [interdisciplinary artist-scholar and choreographer Adesola Akinleye] investigates how dance-based research and creative collaboration across disciplines can create new techniques, lexicons, and conversations within urban design.

With a particular interest in how the city shapes our bodies, and how, in turn, we shape the city, Akinleye invites the MIT community to observe and engage with the micro-city where we live, work, and learn.

“We must understand ourselves as contributing to our belonging to the city, our belonging to the environment, which is possible through our ability to respond. We are not separate from city or environment, not separate from Place: we are a part of it all,” says Akinleye.

While in residence at MIT, [Akinyele] has identified a lexicon of worded-ideas, or common vocabulary, that stimulates trans-disciplinary communication. Participants are encouraged to use the lexicon as a prompt for reflection and response to the meaning-making of Places as they navigate the MIT campus.

By noticing how buildings, paths, shadows, fences, and the people around us impact our movements and how we impact them, we examine and even reconsider the meaning of this Place.

The following videos were created to provide inspiration for possible responses and a methodology that participants may use, rather than a prescribed outcome.

Watch Adesola Akinleye’s responses to the MIT campus, inspired by the lexicon, as she encountered it in March 2022.

MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology