Download Pharmacophore: Architectural Placebo

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Pharmacophore
Harrison Atelier + Silas Riener
November 22
7:00pm - 9:00pm
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brief “teaser”
performance
opening
reception
Performances
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Limited, requires
reservation
two performances
per evening
reservation for
free seating is
required
Reservations
Seating
November 25-30
7:00pm, 8:30pm
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30 reserved seats
10 standing room
spots
Free tickets, contact
Erica Freyberger
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rsvp@storefront
news.org
212 431 5795
sidewalk space
Storefront for Art & Architecture presents Pharmacophore:
Architectural Placebo, the third installment in Harrison
Atelier’s (HAt) Pharmacophore series. Pharmacophore:
Architectural Placebo is conceived, dramaturged and
designed by HAt partners Seth Harrison and Ariane Lourie
Harrison, choreographed by Silas Riener and performed
by Merce Cunningham Dance Company members
Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, Jamie Scott and Melissa
Toogood. The production features lighting design by Aaron
Copp and Nick Houfek, and an original score by Loren
Dempster.
The installation and performance explore the cultural
and philosophical economy that surrounds medicine,
technology, and the human prospect in the 21st century.
Pharmacophore: Architectural Placebo typifies the
integration HAt seeks to make by combining expertise
from science and culture to create installations,
performance and architectural works that engage
formal and social issues.
A pharmacophore is the term scientists use to describe
chemical drug features that interact predictably with a
biological target: to kill a bacterium use an antibiotic
pharmacophore; to create an antidepressant use a
neurotransmitter modifying pharmacophore. But can
therapeutic action be perceived without the anticipation
of therapeutic effect?
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A placebo effect is a beneficial change in a biochemical
state, albeit temporary and unreliable, produced in
anticipation of therapy. The placebo effect results from
the reinforcement of two desires: the patient’s desire for
relief, and the caregiver’s desire to help patients and be
recognized for therapeutic success. Placebo effects are
augmented by marketing campaigns, social ambition,
quests for scientific success as well as the medicoinstitutional prompts of white coats, prescription labels
and instrumentation. Often the appearance of side
effects can trigger the placebo effect of an otherwise
inefficacious drug. Sometimes a placebo effect can
be caused by a diagnosis. Neither reproducible nor
verifiable, a placebo effect cannot be generalized,
but were a known placebo to demonstrate a reliable,
reproducible therapeutic effect across a population, it
would be renamed a drug and tested as such.
HAt developed two prior versions of Pharmacophore: a
ten-minute performance at Storefront in December 2010
with Catherine Miller and James McGinn; and a full length
performance at the Orpheum Theater (NY) in August
2011 choreographed by Catherine Miller, and performed
by Miller, Reid Bartelme, Jenna Fakhoury and Lonnie
Poupard with sound design by Loren Dempster.
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Pharmacophore Team
Pharmacophore: Architectural Placebo
Architectural Placebo
Opening
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The installation at Storefront, incorporating set and
costumes, evokes a hybrid pharmaceutical-cultural
landscape: both a medical waiting room with inflatable
“plants” and a radiological suite in which the audience
sits apposed to translucent glass. The installation
consists of 24 eight-foot, laminated glass and stainless
steel structures, arrayed along the back wall of the
gallery. Contoured seats are dotted with inflatable
forms that, when unfurled, become spatializations of
pharmacophores. The inflatable set pieces are used
as costumes and props, and audience members use
them as cushions. Because neighboring seats use the
same inflatable for back or arm support, each feels the
movements of the other, a reminder that the desires
fostering the placebo effect are socially-authorized and
shared.
The performance is intended to reconfigure the similarlyshaped “pharmacophores” into as many different,
individualized “placebo” forms as there are spectators
and performers present.
Direction & Dramaturgy:
Seth Harrison
Harrison Atelier (HAt)
Visual Design:
Ariane Lourie Harrison
Harrison Atelier (HAt)
Choreography:
Silas Riener
Performers:
Rashaun Mitchell
Silas Riener
Jamie Scott
Melissa Toogood
Sound Design & Composer:
Loren Dempster
Lighting Design:
Aaron Copp
Nick Houfek
HAt production:
Craig Shillitto
Carmen Fanzone
Jacob Dugopolski
Juliet Gamarci
Gabriel Harrison
Matthew Persinger
Karl Schmeck
Harrison Atelier (HAt)
is a New York-based multidisciplinary design firm
founded in 2009. The practice operates along a broad
spectrum defined by its
two founding members’ respective training and backgrounds.
Seth Harrison is a writer,
designer and life sciences
entrepreneur with MFA,
MBA, and MD degrees
from Columbia.
Ariane Lourie Harrison is a
critic at the Yale School of
Architecture since 2006,
and holds a PhD from
the Institute of Fine Arts,
NYU, and an M.Arch from
Columbia.
The HAt team has grown to
include: Craig Shillitto, an
architect with a B.Arch from
the University of Oregon
and an M.Arch from Harvard’s Graduate School of
Design, and Carmen Fanzone, a designer practicing
in architecture with a BS in
architecture from the University of Virginia.
The main thrust of HAt’s
work involves an engagement with living systems
and an exploration of the
natural processes of growth,
decay and regeneration.
HAt’s “ecological” orientation embraces a posthuman continuum — human,
animal, technology — in
architectural works designed for multiple species
and in performance works
that address aging, the
pharmaceutical complex
and industrialized agriculture.
www.harrisonatelier.com
Silas Riener
(choreographer and performer) has worked with
Chantal Yzermans, Takehiro
Ueyama, Christopher Williams, Jonah Bokaer, and
Rebecca Lazier’s TERRAIN.
In 2010 he premiered NOX,
a collaboration with poet
Anne Carson and choreographer Rashaun Mitchell,
with whom he continues to
develop new projects.
Riener joined the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company in November 2007. Riener graduated from Princeton University with a degree
in Comparative Literature.
He completed his MFA in
Dance at Tisch, New York
University.
Rashaun Mitchell
(performer) started dancing
at Concord Academy, MA,
and graduated from Sarah
Lawrence College in 2000.
He received the Viola Farber-Slayton Memorial Grant
from the Foundation for
Contemporary Performance
Arts in 2000. He has danced
with Pam Tanowitz, Chantal
Yzermans, Donna Uchizono, Risa Jaroslow, Sara
Rudner, and Richard Colton.
Mitchell joined the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company in January 2004 and
is currently on faculty at
the Cunningham Studio. In
2007 he received a Princess
Grace Award: Dance Fellowship. His choreography has
been presented at the Skirball Center (NY), La Mama
(NY), Mount Tremper Arts
(NY) and The Institute for
Contemporary Art (MA).
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About Storefront
Jamie Scott (performer)
studied dance in her hometown of Great Falls, Virginia.
She continued training in the
pre-professional division of
the Washington School of
Ballet and moved to New
York in 2001 to attend Barnard College, graduating
cum laude in 2005. She
joined the Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy
Group in 2007 and the main
company in 2009. Scott is
currently on faculty at the
Merce Cunningham Dance
Studio. She has danced with
the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance
Company.
Melissa Toogood
(performer) is currently a
member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
She began working with
Merce as a member of the
CDF Repertory Understudy
Group in 2005. A faculty
member at the Merce Cunningham Studio since 2007,
she has taught repertory
workshops in her native city
of Sydney, Australia, and
at the Cunningham studio in New York. Melissa
works with Pam Tanowitz,
Miro Dance Theatre, was a
founding member of Michael
Uthoff Dance Theatre and
performed with writer Anne
Carson. Melissa earned a
BFA in Dance Performance
from New World School of
the Arts, Miami, FL under
Dean Danny Lewis.
Loren Kiyoshi Dempster
(composer) uses a combination of computer, electronics,
field recordings, cello, improvisation, notated scores
and world music influences
to create and perform music.
Dempster has performed
with Dan Joseph Ensemble,
Trio Tritticali, String Power,
Spontaneous River and Left
Hand Path, among many
others. Dempster’s compositions for music and movement have been presented
at The Stone, Roulette, Issue Project Room, North
River Music, Wesleyan College and at Chez Bushwick,
a Bessie Award-winning
performance arts space in
Brooklyn of which he is a
founding member. He has
toured extensively with
Merce Cunningham, and
he played John Cage’s solo
cello work “One8” for the
dance “Interscape.” Ever interested in the relationships
between movement, space
and sound, Dempster creates or performs music for
many choreographers including Chris Ferris, Jonah
Bokaer, Project Limb and
Stochastic Ensemble.
Aaron Copp’s (lighting designer) travels as a lighting
designer have taken him
to hundreds of theaters in
more than 30 countries,
from opera houses in European capitals to tents in the
sand dunes of Rajasthan.
His recent projects include
lighting designs for Natalie
Merchant, Yo-Yo Ma, Philip
Glass and Laurie Anderson.
Copp designed the critically
acclaimed Kennedy Center
revival of “The Glass Menagerie,” directed by Gregory Mosher and starring Sally
Field. He has designed at
the Old Globe Theater in
San Diego and received a
San Diego Theater Critics
Award for Joe Hardy’s production of “Bus Stop.”
Copp has worked extensively in the dance world,
most recently receiving his
second Bessie Award for
Jonah Bokaer’s “The Invention Of Minus One.” Copp
had a long association with
Merce Cunningham, designing such pieces as “Ground
Level Overlay,” “Windows”
and “Biped,” for which he
also won a Bessie. He holds
an MFA from the Yale School
of Drama and a BA from SUNY-Binghamton.
Nicholas Houfek (lighting
designer) focuses his work
in dance and theatre with a
strong interest in new works.
Recent design work has been
seen at the Lincoln Center
Festival (SoPercussion and
Matmos, Varése (R)evolution
Part 1) Marvell Rep (Nora,
In the Shadow of the Glen,
Blood Wedding, The Dybbuk), Ian Spencer Bell Dance,
Olney Theatre Center (Farragut North, Call of the Wild),
Collaboration Town (The Play
About My Dad, THE MOMENTUM), Potomac Theatre
Company (Therese Raquin).
He has toured in the US,
Europe and Asia with dance
companies Martha Graham,
ARMITAGE GONE!, Elisa
Monte and Nai-Ni Chen, For
the The Deborah Hay Dance
Company he served as lighting supervisor; for the Lincoln
Center Festival as Assistant
Lighting Supervisor; and
for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Broadway
transfer of Glory Days, and
The New York City Ballet as
Assistant Lighting Designer.
He is a graduate of Boston
University’s Theatre Design
Program.
Since 1982 Storefront has presented the work of more than a thousand architects and artists
who challenge conventional perceptions of space - from aesthetic experiments to explorations of
the conceptual, social and political forces that shape the built environment. Storefront creates an
open forum to help architects and artists realize work and present it to a diverse audience in a program that includes exhibitions, public programs, publications, competitions and special projects.
In 1993, Storefront commissioned a collaborative building project by artist Vito Acconci and architect
Steven Holl. The project replaced the existing facade with a series of twelve panels that pivot vertically or horizontally to open the entire length of the gallery directly onto the street. The project blurs the
boundary between interior and exterior and, by placing the panels in different configurations, creates
a multitude of different possible facades. Now regarded as a contemporary architectural landmark,
Storefront’s facade is visited by artists, architects and students from around the world.
General support for Storefront is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
through the Warhol Initiative; public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties;
public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City
Council; by its Board of Directors, members and by individuals.
For more information, please visit www.storefrontnews.org or call +1 212 431 5795.
Director
Eva Franch i Gilabert
Director of External Relations
Kara Meyer
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Erica Freyberger
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Gjergji Shkurti
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Directors Council
Kyong Park (Founder), Sarah Herda, Joseph Grima
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Charles Renfro (President), Campbell Hyers (Vice President), R. Douglass Rice (Treasurer), Lauren Kogod (Secretary), Carlos Brillembourg, Madelyn Burke-Vigeland, Beatriz Colomina, Belmont
Freeman, Michael Manfredi, William Menking, Marjory Perlmutter, Linda Pollak, Artur Walther,
Mabel Wilson, Karen Wong
Board of Advisors
Kent Barwick, Stefano Boeri, Peter Cook, Chris Dercon, Elizabeth Diller, Claudia Gould, Dan
Graham, Peter Guggenheimer, Richard Haas, Brooke Hodge, Steven Holl, Steven Johnson,
Toyo Ito, Mary Jane Jacob, Mary Miss, Antoni Muntadas, Shirin Neshat, Hans Ulrich Olbrist,
Lucio Pozzi, Frederieke Taylor, Anthony Vidler, James Wines
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Closed
Sunday, Monday and Federal Holidays
Gallery Location: 97 Kenmare Street (between Mulberry
and Lafayette Streets).
Trains: 6 to Spring, N/R to Prince, B/D/F/M to Broadway
Lafayette.
Opening November 22; Performances November 25-30, 2011
Harrison Atelier + Silas Riener
Pharmacophore: Architectural Placebo