Susanne Cockrell

Susanne Cockrell is an artist and educator who lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her social and documentary projects consider the ways people live into specific places over time, amplifying the emergent choreography of landscape, shared experience, and participatory actions in shaping collective and civic life. Early research in experimental dance, environmental studies, and eastern philosophy continue to shape her craft with an attention to ephemeral encounters and poetics of daily life. Fieldfaring Projects, in collaboration with Ted Purves from 2002-2017, asked questions about systems of critical exchange, collectivity and farming in the urban landscape through the lens of informal social economies and rural aesthetics. This body of work over 15 years was directed toward ways that people come together in social and public contexts. She is an Associate Professor in Social Practice at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Her projects have received support from the Center for Sustainable Creativity, Czech Republic, Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts SF, Center for Cultural Innovation SF, Creative Work Fund SF and Creative Capital Foundation NYC. She has an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in Film, Video, Performance and BA from Burlington College in Dance/Movement and Transpersonal Psychology.