iki nakagawa is an artist who practices videography as a means of witnessing, embodying, processing, and transporting ideas, actions and situations in which they thrive. She has been working as a professional archival videographer, and currently documenting stewardship actions around Hudson River Estuary including the works organized by the NYC Parks in her project thoughts for tomorrow and movements for today.
She works towards less extractive ways of documenting lives that she comes in touch with by exercising what she named “embodied videography.” Embodied videography is a cycle of three interwoven stages of immersive learning. The first stage is to quietly hear and see ideas and actions that she witness by simply being present with them. The second stage is to record what she witness from her gut: seeing, hearing, intuiting, and moving with the flow of ideas and actions that emerge as she hold the camera. The third stage is to sit with the footage over time, recognizing what was captured, and pruning the footage so that what was shared and embodied can be transported to evoke a sensual experience with new audiences. This process is relational and collaborative. Recordings are generated by the play between those who birth the ideas and actions, and herself, witnessing, responding to and recording them. she channels energies manifested in the footage to make editorial decisions. Audience members each find their own unique way of engaging with the work – drawing from their own lived experiences, histories and feelings.