The Changing Room is an interactive installation that draws a conceptual link between the birth of American democracy and the present threats to civic freedoms. Rooted in the historical metaphor of the “body politic,” The Changing Room interrogates how freedom is enacted and how citizenship is embodied or disembodied. What began as a promise of unalienable rights has curdled into hollow self-absorption, filtered through social media, algorithmic manipulation, and a pervasive culture of surveillance.
This project is a collaborative venture involving several Portland based creators who each bring specific skills to the effort and a passion for the overarching message. Marilys Ernst is a video editor and projection specialist who will build and install the "exercise" mirror and shoot the video. Jordan Isadore is a colleague in the dance community who creates his own work, dances for others and teaches at Dance Church; he will choreograph and perform the coaching and dancing sequences. Alex Meyer is a scenic designer, most interested in producing environments undefined by expectations or norms, who will design and build the booth with its interactive components and curtain. Katherine Longstreth makes dance, installation and video and is doing archival research, writing text and editing video.
We are thrilled to be part of the 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artist’ Biennial curated by TK Smith, The Price of the Ticket and to have received a grant from PICA’s Precipice Fund.
Recursive dance (a prequel) is solo performance created during the New Expressive Works Residency, which premiered December 2024, at New Expressive Works, Portland OR.
Focusing on the idea of transparency, Katherine Longtreth’s solo, Recursive Dance, sheds light on opaque contracts, the challenge of originality, the impossibly ephemeral nature of dance and the role of play and self doubt in the creative process. While Longstreth’s alter ego, Dr. Kate Long, tries to access her authentic choreographic voice, the tech company, Evolve, tries to hack her creative process in order to further develop their generative AI programs.
“...throughout the solo, Longstreth navigates her artistic practice under careful watch of tech company Evolve, which seeks to capture data on her process to further its generative AI products. Recursive dance is a multi-layered, carefully curated work, at times delightfully human and at others ominous, with the sensation that you’re watching a specimen in a petri dish.”
Elizabeth Whelan, December 9, 2024, Oregon Arts Watch Review
Let’s Dance is a solo performance created during the Alembic Artists Residency, which premiered March 2024 at Performance Works NW, Portland OR.
Equal parts academic lecture, conversation, and somatic investigation, Let’s Dance explores the role of dance in our culture, authenticity in the creative process, the neurochemistry of embodiment and what it means to know something in your bones. Using video, text and movement, Katherine Longstreth, along with collaborators Marilys Ernst and Jen Mitas, wonders what a future fully entangled with AI might mean for the physical self.
”Long delivered a lecture in dialogue with a “robot” collaborator, ITA (voiced by Jen Mitas), which stood on a pedestal nearby. With ITA’s “help,” Long delivered a lecture called “Your Brain on Dance,” sharing different clips of dance videos on the TV screen. As her lecture progressed, Long found herself in a verbal kerfuffle with ITA, who seemed to have slipped around its “regulations. ITA began asking Long intrusive questions about what it means to be embodied.”
Hannah Krafcik, April 14, 2024, Oregon Arts Watch Review
I am working on a project about AI which is taking several different forms. In March 2022, I wrote a piece for Oregon Arts Watch and I was interviewed by Lauren Wingenroth for Dance Magazine in August 2023. I am grateful to have the space, structure and support of the PWNW Alembic Residency to develop a performance piece concerning an imminent future fully entangled with AI.
The 10th Alembic Resident Artist Cohort, JmeJames Antonick + Patsy Morris, Emma Lutz-Higgins and Katherine Longstreth, will share the work created during the residency in a series of performances at Performance Works NW, Friday, March 28- Saturday, March 30 at 8:00PM & Sunday, March 31, at 2:00PM (Sunday’s show will be live-streamed.) Tickets available here:
https://pwnw-pdx.org/2024/02/21/march-28-31-alembic-artists-in-performance/
For complete credits of Let’s dance, please scan this QRcode
In March 2019, Subashini Ganesan, Jen Mitas and Katherine Longstreth co-produced The Field Network’s National Conference which took place over three days at Studio Two in Portland, Oregon.
Fieldwork for Artists of All Disciplines
6 Alternating Saturdays 2:00-5:00pm at Studio 2 - 810 SE Belmont, Portland OR
October 7, October 21, November 4, November 18, December 2 and December 16
Fieldwork is a peer-to-peer forum for artists of all disciplines to show work and exchange feedback. Facilitated by Katherine Longstreth & Jen Mitas Cost for 6 sessions is $60, scholarships possible. Studio 2 has sprung wood floors, speakers, a video projector and screen.
For more information or questions email pdx@thefield.org
In May 2017, Katherine and Jen Mitas are running a 4 session Fieldwork group at Shout House with dance, theater, performance and digital artists. They will offer more sessions in the fall, email if you are interested pdx@thefield.org
35 dance students from DaVinci School for the Arts toured Marginal Evidence and took class with Katherine. This is a page from one student’s dance journal.
Katherine taught several classes at Reed College as part of her fall 2016 artist in residency.
Reed College presents Katherine Longstreth’s
Marginal Evidence: a visual installation about the act of choreography.
Installation open: October 24-November 5 daily @ noon-7 pm
Reception & artist's walk-through: Thursday, November 3 @ 6:00-7:15 pm
Final artist's walk-through: Saturday, November 5 @ 4pm
Reed College, Performing Arts Building (map): PAB Massey Performance Lab - on the 1st floor.
Free and open to the public.
Marginal Evidence was created with the collaborative support of filmmaker Dicky Dahl and composer Loren Chasse. The exhibition was originally presented at University of Oregon White Box, and funded by the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the Oregon Arts Commission. It is presented at Reed College with support from the Mellon Foundation and the Weitkamp Fund.
White Box at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Portland
is pleased to present Marginal Evidence (an interactive experience of dance-making),
a solo exhibition by Katherine Longstreth.
October 1 - November 14, 2015
White Box is open for regular viewing, Tuesday - Saturday | noon-6:00 p.m.
White Box | University of Oregon in Portland School of Architecture and Allied Arts
24 NW First Ave, Portland
503-412-3689
whitebox@uoregon.edu
MARGINAL EVIDENCE EVENTS
Opening Reception, October 1, 2015 | 6:00-8:00 p.m.
First Thursday, November 5, 2015 | 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion, Saturday, November 7, 2015 | 3:00 p.m.
The White Box will host a panel discussion with paleontologist Theodore Fremd, artist Sara Huston, and Mark Johnson, a criminalist with the Portland Police Bureau. Q&A will follow.
For Marginal Evidence, choreographer, Katherine Longstreth collaborated with film-maker, Dicky Dahl and composer, Loren Chasse to create an interactive installation which reveals the usually invisible aspects of dance-making. Click below to watch video previews of the 4 channel video installation that is part of Marginal Evidence.
March 18 & 19, 2015 students from the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences will perform Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream under the direction of Vana O’ Brien, with music by Laura Frizell and dance by Katherine Longstreth.
Katherine is pleased to be one of 13 Artists to receive a Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission.
Katherine is delighted to have received full funding for her upcoming project, Marginal Evidence, from the Regional Arts and Culture Council and will be sharing an advance peek at that work this month at the Fertile Ground Festival’s 2015 New Work Preview.
Monday, January 26, 2015, 6:00pm
Artists Repertory Theatre: 1515 SW Morrison Street - FREE
Please join her and other local art-makers for an hour-long conversation to learn about some of the most provocative new performances coming in 2015.
Katherine is knee-deep in her new project, Marginal Evidence and is thrilled that it will be installed in the White Box at the University of Oregon in Portland September 26 through November 14, 2015
Katherine is currently researching and developing a new project, Marginal Evidence.
For the month of May, Katherine is at the Arbor School for Arts and Sciences for an intensive dance residency. A group of middle school students will be performing their own and her choreography at a Gala at the Portland Art Museum celebrating Arbor’s 25th year.