Kinematic/Kinesthetic
Kinematic/Kinesthetic is an iterative, interdisciplinary project exploring the relationship between the disabled body and the machine through performance, visual art, engineering, and disability culture. Using an artistic and human-centered approach, the project develops speculative assistive technologies that move beyond medical models of correction, treating disability as a source of innovation and new movement possibility. In collaboration with engineers, disabled artists, and researchers, Extreme Lengths Productions creates experimental devices that are tested through embodied practice and sculpture– positioning artistic practice as a framework for reimagining access, mobility, and the future of assistive technology.
PROJECT TIMELINE
August 2022: Awarded Hewlett 50 Commission to kickstart project and partner with AXIS Dance Company
January 2024: Began prototyping hexapod mobility device with engineers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
September 2024: Began prototyping scissor lift crutch with engineers at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
July 2024: Awarded MAP Fund to support initial performance in partnership with AXIS Dance Company
May 2025: Initial performance at Exploratorium museum using hexapod and crutch devices
October 2025: Ben Levine awarded DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities project support to create interactive sculpture incorporating scissor lift crutch
January 2026: Awarded DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities grant to support material costs for continued hexapod development with CMU
February 2026: Awarded National Endowment for the Arts project support for Proximate Pulse duet performance with Ben Levine and Devin Hill incorporating motorized shoulder splint
April 2026: Awarded HumanitiesDC Community Culture & Heritage Grant, deepening interview process to inform the work, grounding in lived experience of people with disabilities
Fall 2026: Planned exhibition of crutch sculpture and HumanitiesDC-supported research
Spring 2026: Planned development of Proximate Pulse