“Only as we begin to notice and to experience, once again, our immersion in the invisible air do we start to recall what it is to be fully a part of this world.” David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous.

Mutable Spirals of Ascension is a dance for camera work that follows two dancers as they navigate Shanghai’s bustling streets, urban forests and massive industrial sites in search of connections to wild. The video seeks to identify and dissolve barriers between human and wild in the Anthropocene where we are increasingly more likely to navigate urban jungles comprised of concrete and glass than an old growth forest and its streams; where we are more likely to touch manmade, inanimate materials than the constantly changing and sensing textures of nature; where we are more immersed in the scent of gas and smoke than grass and bark; and, where we spend more time making eye contact with our own digital image than we do with our neighbors.

Director: Jessica Gomula
Choreography and performance: Pauline Jennings in collaboration with Calvin Aham
Music Composition: Sean Clute
Cinematography: Allen Hahn
Costume consultant: Amy Nielson
Assistant Editors: Julia Tavares, Gemima Segura, Christopher Benson