Keller Center Director Sigrid Adriaenssens is leading by example. Her projects consistently push the boundaries of collaboration, nurturing intentional design, novel research, and artistic expression.
One example is Noli Timere, a large-scale collaboration between choreographer Rebecca Lazier, sculptor Janet Echelman, composer Jorane, and an engineering team that includes Adriaenssens. The performance features dancers moving within and around custom-designed net structures, dynamic textiles that deform, shift, and respond to the human body in motion.
The work grew out of the Princeton-based research initiative NODES (Net Topologies and Dance Explorations), co-led by Lazier, Adriaenssens, and Echelman, which investigates how flexible nets behave, evolve, and communicate force when set in motion.
“We collaborated to better understand how nets evolve non-linearly over time and how they dramatically change shape when interacting with human bodies,” Adriaenssens explains.
Rooted in rigorous research, these works not only produce striking art but also generate meaningful insights into how we advance material understanding. The resulting net designs reveal a profound command of form and force.
“By making equilibrium visible, these nets reveal beauty,” she says.
Read the full article Dance and sculpture defy gravity in “Noli Timer” on the wbur website.