Between Wheat and Pine Application for Nomadic Arts Festival
The Living Collective Chasing the Rainbow
Between Wheat and Pine Application for Nomadic Arts Festival Beatrice Jarvis The Living Collective Chasing the Rainbow Can creative choreographic material become social research resource? How is the experience of the landscape being translated into the actions and reactions of the body? How can a choreographer create a choreographic process, which enables dancers and non- dancers to actively deconstruct their experience of their environment? Will the outcome reflect the landscape, which the body is submerged in as stimulus for the process; or will the product, which emerges, become a personal narrative? How can a choreographer deal with systems of representation? How far can site specific performance become a social medium for the study of the political and cultural shifts of embodied terrain? “Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is like a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue . . .. ” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
How does one allude, reveal and conceal. The true light of colors, which we can accept, need no name. They journey to the cultivated wilderness, a fictional need of shelter, which acts as a guise to reveal the modus operandi of the function and the failure of the modern man. This is not art, nor basic shelter, nor necessary; yet this is ultimate. A seeking for our core, what have we lost, what do we imagine this return to nature can gain. ‘ Love in a hut, with water and a crust, Is - Love, forgive us! - cinders, ashes, dust; Love in a palace is perhaps at last More grievous torment than a hermit’s fast: - That is a doubtful tale from faery land, Hard for the non-elect to understand. Had Lycius liv’d to hand his story down, He might have given the moral a fresh frown, Or clench’d it quite: but too short was their bliss To breed distrust and hate, that make the soft voice hiss. Besides, there, nightly, with terrific glare, Love, jealous grown of so complete a pair, Hover’d and buzz’d his wings, with fearful roar, Above the lintel of their chamber door, And down the passage cast a glow upon the floor.’ 1
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Keats. ( 1884) Lamina. In ‘The Poetical Works of John Keats.’ http://www.bartleby.com/126/37.html
(Sabine Huschka. “Media-‐Bodies: Choreography as Intermedial Thinking Through in the Work of William Forsythe.” Dance Research Journal 42.1 (2010))
-‐A description of the proposed work (max. 150 words) -‐ Sweat lodge / ritual performance / embodiment / notions of home / life as art / live installation / performance / gathering landscape / developing experiments / removing comfort / deconstructing ideals / collaboration with landscape / the human form as archive / the body as site / notions of need and comfort / how to allow the body to become ingrained in landscape The goal of this performance installation is to uncover spaces of experiences and transformations of bodily states, which raise questions about physical and mental conditions. Constructing a simple dwelling place, a shelter to explore ideas of habitus guided by what it means to simply exist in a landscape. How far can performance and artistic occupation subvert or alter an experience / reality of the fabric of a site? This work will embody a meeting of minds, hands and bodies in dialog with natural resources and exploration of what it means to find home, to seek shelter, to make nest, to hide, to protect oneself against the elements. As a small focused collective we will settle in a site within the grounds of the festival; in a hand made construction which we will make using found materials. This will function as our home, our studio, a sweat lodge and an interactive space for improvisation, readings, sculpture and exploration of the body in landscape.
Approx. duration of the work and potential equipment needed. As a small focused collective we will need only a site within the grounds of the festival; this will house a small construction which we will make in the run up to the festival and will also function as the home to the site specific screenings and become the main focus for the installation… We are keen to make a series of performance and film works of the process of the festival which can then focus as springboard for discussion for the Warsaw show. The process and duration of the installation of the festival will be as follows; • Arrive (ideally a week or more before the festival commences) • Stake out site (find materials. we will bring basic things) • Settling exercises (score based) • Dissimilation of material & construction tasks (as artistic process / social sculpture) • First evening activity (film script and performance) • Documentary of different groups engaged in tasks • Documentary of construction • Documentary of life necessities NB 3#: All food will be cooked on wood fire. • Research conducted and performers briefed for final evening activities (as performance for camera/ non intrusive) (this will make a film for Warsaw) • Final day of construction and exercises • Rough editing & installation processes (Warsaw final showing) • (Festival starts) (The site will be an open hub to review materials and continue modes of investigation) • Series of talks/ film screenings/ performances… (This will happen throughout the festival) This will be an enactment by values of quality in activity; how do make shelter, how to do we develop a safe hold in which to shelter and create-‐ developed by exposure through the development of anthropological documentations -‐ of key concepts through conversation, social dialog is key to the success of this project. We will form a delicate dialog between space, place, time, body, materials and landscape. A meeting of minds, hands, bodies in dialog with natural resource and exploration of what it means to find home, to seek shelter, to make nest, to hide, to protect oneself against the elements. ‘The goal of performance installation is, therefore, to uncover spaces of experience and 2 transformations of bodily states that raise questions about physical and mental conditions.’ Constructing a simple dwelling place, a shelter to explore ideas of habitus guided by what it means to simply exist in a landscape. How far can a performance and artistic occupation subvert or alter the 3 experience / reality of the fabric of a site ? CATCHING RAINBOWS / Making spaces ‘ … if we listen to what language says in the word “bauen” we hear three things: 1. Building is really dwelling. 2. Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on the earth. 3. Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things and the building that 4 erects buildings.’
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(Sabine Huschka. “Media-‐Bodies: Choreography as Intermedial Thinking Through in the Work of William Forsythe.” Dance Research Journal 42.1 (2010)) Massiah programming refers to forms of pedagogy as the implanting of intricate systems of alters and behaviors which are stimulated by the encounter of these alters; Paulo Freire author of philosophies of pedagogy writes of an inhibiting force present in ‘limit situations’ in which generative themes which are not perceived, influence decisions. That encounters are guided by a greater network of interacting constituent elements, which have been put in place by powers whose predefined purpose in influencing individual action in limit situations is not perceivable without discernment. 4 Heidegger. M (1971) Building Dwelling Thinking. In Poetry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter, Harper Colophon Books, New York, 1971. 3
The process for this installation is multilayered, some of which will remain hidden. After receiving a brief orientation document, the artists will arrive up to (4) days before the final installation and editing period; and begin to construct a shelter which is pivotal to the work, from “found” materials in 5 the local area , constructed using various researched traditional techniques. NB 1#: This is not an architectural project; its target is not the construction of a perfect dwelling. This process will be recorded by movie cameras, audio and text and live sculptural installation using and working with materials found on site, exploring and heightening our relationship to landscape. The phases, and pauses in the process will be interspersed with different programmed activities, which seek to emphasize or bring out the objectives of this project through the conversations, which occur between the participants. NB 2#: The action captured on camera will not be scripted, but edited to reveal the natural interactions following anthropological documentary guidelines. This installation aims to unite a series of performance artists, installation artists, video artists, writers and thinkers to explore physically, spatially and intellectually the following concepts; notions of home, of security, of comfort, privacy, ideas of food, exchange economy, social conventions. The formation of the structure / sweat lodge forms a live base for further experiments with film and performance all which will be reflected and presented within the festival environment. Festival visitors will be invited into the structure where there will be a series of performances, sharings and dialogs as well as a functioning sweat lodge, which guests invited to take part in a ritual performance, which will happen in the forest. We are running this project in a few locations as an experiment and ideally wish to gather documentation from as many sites as possible to make a site-‐specific archive. This festival will offer us an opportunity to reflect upon the concept of creating work in landscape and then reflecting on the psychological and emotional responses as well as work created in a gallery environment away from the landscape in which it was created.
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We will have some materials supplied… and will liaise with the festival team to assess what is best to bring.
-‐A bio of the artist(s) (approx. 50 words) The living collective on land. On body. On Embodiment. On texture. On form. On sensation. On the void. On collecting. On Reflecting. On gathering. On Joy. Archive, experiment, create, return, bury, form, reflect, record, document. These bodies collect and gather, a living archive of sensation. Project facilitated by: Beatrice Jarvis Choreographer, visual artist and urban space researcher/creative facilitator. University of Kingston Beatrice is an urban space creative facilitator, choreographer and researcher. She utilizes key concepts of choreography and visual arts methodologies with the intention to develop, original doctoral research on the connections between choreography and landscape developing heightened socio-‐cultural responses to the urban realm. Her practice merges essential techniques in a sociological framework of critical perspectives, cultivating a unique stance point to practice based research. Beatrice is currently a visiting lecturer at various town planning and architecture departments in London and wider afield in Europe (LSBU & AAIS, The Bucharest National University of Arts) developing a platform for the conceptual and physical integration of urban planning, sociology and choreography leading to practical social creative implementation and curation. Beatrice is keen to create platforms social interaction using urban wastelands, conflict zones and areas of social and cultural transformation and reflections on urban habitation as a creative resource. Beatrice received distinction for her MA in Photography and Urban Cultures affiliated by Arts and Humanities Research Council within the Department of Visual Sociology at, Goldsmiths and now continues with her PhD at Kingston University within the Architecture department; fusing a strong mixture of practice, research, experimentation and exploration to create a unique approach to urban socio-‐choreographic research. Most recently her research has been profiled within dOCUMENTA (13), (Kassel) Pina Bausch Symposium, (London), The School of Art in Bucharest and various spaces in Berlin; including VITal, C|O, and Zentrum. She recently presented her research: ‘Das Duet des Leibes und der Stadt. Berlin. Verschieben Stadt’ at Annual Association of Geographers Annual Meeting: LA; exploring the position of the body as social and political archive. Her research has been profiled at The Playhouse; Derry, Bauhaus-‐Universität; Weimar, Birkbeck College; University of London, DRFI 4th International Conference 2012; Galway, Urban Photo Fest; London, Irish Association of Geographers: Annual Conference 2013: National University of Ireland, Galway. -‐-‐-‐-‐ Lead Artist -‐-‐-‐Dana MacPherson dances and choreographs mainly outdoors in rural locations. Dana was brought up and has continued to live and volunteer in various international eco-‐-‐-‐ communities. The focus of her choreography and dance performances is to develop and communicate educational methodologies through arts-‐-‐-‐led research that raise environmental awareness. She lives in Glasgow but originates from the Highlands & Islands. Currently she is focused on developing her ‘long distance dance’ technique that researches the impact of rural landscape on wellbeing through a mix of release-‐ -‐-‐based contemporary dance, free-‐-‐-‐running and contact improvisation. Her recently completed Master of Research at the Glasgow School of Art involved participatory fieldwork on the Isle of Orkney. She collected data through outdoors arts-‐-‐-‐based exercises, to answer the query: Can one map our experiential perceptions of natural landscape and if so, how can this be applied as a choreographic approach to social engagement? (Thesis title: Dancing Landscapes, Towards a Somatic Choreology). One of Dana’s on going projects is to setting up ‘The Nomadic Art School’; a mobile inter-‐-‐-‐disciplinary arts laboratory that travels locally and internationally to bring relief to areas of
social deprivation. The ambition: to utilize the arts as a tool for re-‐-‐-‐generation of the human spirit. Her motto: empowerment through education and self–expression. She currently volunteers with Depot Arts http://www.depotarts.co.uk/ (a Glasgow based arts charity that have been instrumental in supporting this application) and helps manage the not-‐-‐-‐for-‐-‐-‐profit arts and music festival Doune the Rabbit Hole http://dounetherabbithole.co.uk/ Supporting artists: Benjamin Bailey: Performance, technical direction, installation, writing, SHUNT Vaults, London Bridge / SHUNT Events Ltd (2008/9). : Secret Cinema DVD Launch party; Panache International Office Interior design commissions; Jerwood Space Project Space development project; Lighting Design / rigging / exhibition installation mentor for MA students of Central St. Martins. ART TECH MEDIA 2005 > 2009. Performing Arts Technician for Haringey Sixth form center. Kimbal Bumstead: http://www.kimbalbumstead.com/art/CV.html Kimbal Quist Bumstead (UK/NL) is a visual artist who works site responsively in and between performance installation, drawing and painting. Kimbal uses other people and their bodies as his working material, exploring fragmented relationships and [miss]communication within communities and amongst individuals. Recently he has become interested in using lo-‐fi technology as a means of generating and tracing journeys and relationships in urban and rural environments. Kimbal spends much of his time living nomadically – using his travels, and the encounters that he has with people he meets as a means of generating material for his performances. Recent shows include “Touch Village” A Foundation Liverpool, “This is Our House” BasementArtsProject Leeds, Busan International Performance Art Festival South Korea. OPEN International Performance Art Festival, OPEN Gallery Beijing,“Transit Station” Royal Academy of Art Copenhagen, ACT ART London, NeighbourHOOD ]Performance Space[ London, “Communi(cati)on of Crisis” Live Art Research Institute Athens, “Two Men in A Room” The Old Ambulance Depot Edinburgh and “Supermarket” Kulturhuset Stockholm. Recent collaborations include working with the artist Richard Taylor and choreographer Charlotte Spencer Kimbal studied Fine Art and Art History at The University of Leeds and the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, Poland. He has an MA in Performance and Theatre from Queen Mary University of London. He lives and works between London and Amsterdam
Potential link to website, images and/or video of your work For further examples of my current work please see the following links: Creative City life: http://beatricejarvis.net/ Urban Research, Workshop templates; Selected Writing: http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum Documentation: http://www.blurb.com/user/bj87 City as Studio: http://urbanorganics.cultura3.net/Resources/media/promo.mov http://cultura3.net/dominorratio/ http://www.egfk.org/current/beatrice-‐jarvis/ Specific Video works https://vimeo.com/90605654 https://vimeo.com/96830330 https://vimeo.com/96029210 https://vimeo.com/94426236 https://vimeo.com/94099702 https://vimeo.com/92736421 https://vimeo.com/91884252 Specific case study examples: Lest we should forget http://www.blurb.com/b/1273324-‐lest-‐we-‐should-‐ forget?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget ·∙ Northern Ireland Cartography Project: AHRC: CollectingTrails http://www.blurb.com/b/1518505-‐collecting-‐trails?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget ·∙ Heygate Estate/Elephant and Castle: http://vimeo.com/26177151 password: city http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum/docs/towards_embodied_methodology?mode=window&v iewMode=singlePage ·∙ Deptford Study for Steven Lawrence Centre: http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum/docs/exhibition_catalouge_practising_space/3 and http://www.practisingspace.com/events-‐and-‐exhibitions.php ·∙ Bucharest Study for local government AHRC: Dansul Objectul din Bucuresti LaBomba http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1015638/a8bd37a9fad73767cb13edef857dba7d