Mission
Our work is rooted in the exploration of Art as experience -- the notion that Art exists in the engagement between a viewer and a work.
All understanding of artwork comes from the contextualized performative engagement between a viewer and the work. By this maxim, all Art exists as performance. Following this idea, Experience Cult Research Group creates work which attempts to redefine the artistic engagement by highlighting the active experience of the viewer within the artistic encounter -- where both performer and spectator are potential viewers.
We are primarily a process oriented organization: rejecting the passive notion of viewership in relation to discreet artistic objects, we favor a continuous and active arrival of meaning through open artistic engagement. Informed by Jerzy Grotowski’s explorations of Psycho-Physical performance and the Paratheatrical encounter, paired with notions of collaboration and collective creation from Devised Theatre, Experience Cult produces work which is focused on the active experience of all participants. We aim to create and develop work designed to cause an awareness and dialogue with pedestrian modes of being, engaging in the process of producing Active Culture. This is used in conjunction with other artistic techniques to create productions, rituals, and installations which cause the participant to engage with immersive and impactful experiences. We focus on direct and embodied engagement as the artwork, looking to illuminate the everyday experience and broader social context of the participant and place their experience of Active Culture directly prepositional to Pedestrian Culture.
Our ultimate aim is to foster a continuous engagement with Active Culture. Each project, in whatever form it may manifest, is linked by the process of participation which it invites, and it is through this mode of engagement that Active Culture arises. We choose to engage with experience in unique ways for each project, so as to direct the arrival of a specific Active Culture. This ranges from blurring the lines between the spectator performer relationship, through performative action and architectural stimulation, to more immersive plays which allow for a more active and open viewership. Experience Cult aims to give experimental artists a platform from which they can explore art which directly engages with its experiential context.
Patton Small
Patton Small (he/him) is an artist, explorer, and a founding member of Experience Cult Research Group. He works both in the arts and social sciences. His research examines the relationship between embodiment practices, mystical experience, and communal meaning making. Patton has been involved in expeditions and research projects on four continents and presented artistic works across the United States. His work with Experience Cult focuses on the use of psycho-physical performance techniques in the creation of Active Culture. Patton possesses a B.A. in Theatre Arts, B.A. in Philosophy, an Interdisciplinary Concentration in Archaeology (Carleton College), a Certificate in Contemporary Performance (ICP Portland Oregon), and a M.A. in Performance Studies at Texas A&M University.
Brin Constant Gordon
Brin Constant Gordon (they/them) is a founding member of Experience Cult Research Group. They are a Dramaturg, Animator, and Pataphysician whose work and thinking is communicable at the syzygy of genre, subjectivity, the body, and play. In their explorations with Experience Cult, they focus on the ways in which we jam meaning making in our lives, and how we can constantly find new ways to resolve those contradictions. Currently based out of Los Angeles, CA, they work at a small Museum and dance often. They hold an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts, and Bachelors in Studio Arts and Cinema & Media Studies from Carleton College.
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Sasha Blinikova
Principal Collaborator
Sasha Blinnikova (she/her) is a Performer, Movement Facilitator, and Principal Collaborator with Experience Cult. She is delighted by the community-building, imaginative sparks, and silly times ECRG’s work creates. More formally, her interest is in Clown, Butoh, and Grotowski Image Visualization, as well as applying presence-expanding and paratheatrical techniques developed by the group as acting tools. She is based in MN, where she has extensive experience in Arts Administration and Theater Tech and is a Co-Founder of the performance group Virginia Twins. Sasha holds a B.A in Theatre Arts, and a Concentration in Cross-Cultural Studies (Carleton College), and has trained in movement and acting at the Moscow Arts Theater in Russia (via the National Theater Institute).
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Artemis Brown
Principal Collaborator