International Forum on Artistic Research
17th Conference of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
Submission Number: 145
Submission ID: 195
Submission UUID: 0ad8d6c5-b084-4082-b815-ab6d5e4a1389

Created: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 - 01:25
Completed: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 - 17:59
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:14

Remote IP address: 176.113.74.87
Submitted by: ehill
Language: English

Is draft: No
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Given name Erin
Surname Hill
Email erin.lamontagne@pm.me
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'. Yes
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Title Sunrise Commitment
Format Workshop
Main language English
Abstract From April 17 2017 to April 16 2018 I told myself I would watch the sun rise every day; I called this decision Sunrise Commitment. For one year I woke up an hour before the sun was set to cross the horizon. During this hour I recorded my heart beat, photographed the horizon's shifting light and wrote on the state of my body and the state of the sky. Out of this practice came the book 'O' and the performance 'Sunrise Commitment', both presented in the context of my Masters at DAS Theatre (formerly DasArts, NL).

'O' is a self-published book and brings together the daily sunrise texts I wrote between 2017 and 2018, alongside lists of what I came to call Real Life Magic. Real Life Magic is a way of looking at the world and noticing those things that strike awe. Whether that awe appears out of a gap of understanding, from a moment of incomprehensibility, or a feeling of awe despite fully understanding what you're seeing. The lists of Real Life Magic were written both by myself and with my Master's colleagues through collective dreaming sessions that I facilitated.

For the International Forum on Artistic Research I propose to share my sunrise writing practice as a workshop. The 90 minute workshop will begin 45 minutes before the sun is set to cross the horizon and will end with a Real Life Magic collective dreaming session. With participants, we will create a collective chapbook that archives the state of our bodies and of the Galway sky on one morning between the 23rd and 26th of June 2026. Sunrise Commitment negotiates the themes of 'making seable and sayable' & 'exploring the ineffable'. It is a practice of looking and looking again at the same horizon--looking again at the same to notice transitions, gradients and slippage. What comes through is sensuous indeterminacy, through sleepy yet granular attention ones internal sensations and external experience simultaneously.



Image Screenshot 2026-02-24 at 12.31.23 PM.png
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Erin Hill is a dance artist, writer, and birth support practitioner. Hill’s work is rooted in daily practice, building relations with ecological protagonists such as the sun (Sunrise Commitment, 2018) and the weather (Deep Gazing, ongoing). Erin is one half of The Sisters of the Celestial Order of Nephology, co-created with lifelong collaborator Nina Vroemen under the name Horizon Factory. More recently, Erin’s practice is engaged by the nuances of beyond verbal communication in interspecies relationships, for which she is pursuing a PhD in Humanities at Concordia University. Erin holds a Master’s degree from DAS Theatre (formerly DasArts) in Amsterdam and makes home as a settler in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research I have shared Real Life Magic as a collective dreaming workshop in the Netherlands at DAS Theatre (2017, 2018), Festival for Live Arts Amsterdam (FLAM, 2019) and 4Bid Gallery (NL, 2019). However, I have never combined that workshop with the sunrise writing practice, so this would be a first for the International Forum on Artistic Research.
Additional information
Spatial and technical requirements This will be a very early workshop. The sun is set to rise at 5:08am in Galway on June 23rd. The workshop begins 15-20 minutes before sunrise, so around 4:25am. It might be quite cold outside, so there are two options: we do the workshop in an indoor space with a window that provides a good view of the horizon, or we do the workshop outdoors and request participants to dress warmly and provide cushions and blankets. In either case, providing tea, coffee and biscuits would be cozy.
Potential risks or ethical concerns One accessibility issue is that this is a very early workshop and some people will need to sleep. When I have presented the dance performance 'Sunrise Commitment', this is always a factor. However, it is also hard to anticipate who will join and who will sleep, and we usually have a pretty good turnout.
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