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

 

                                                                                                               1  Keats.  (  1884)  Lamina.  In  ‘The  Poetical  Works  of  John  Keats.’  http://www.bartleby.com/126/37.html  2  (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  transformations  of  bodily  states  that  raise  questions  about  physical  and  mental  conditions.’2    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  experience  /  reality  of  the  fabric  of  a  site  ?3    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  erects  buildings.’  4    

                                                                                                               2  (Sabine  Huschka.  “Media-­‐Bodies:  Choreography  as  Intermedial  Thinking  Through  in  the  Work  of  William  Forsythe.”  Dance  Research  Journal  42.1  (2010))  3  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.  

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  the  local  area5,  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.          

                                                                                                               5  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&viewMode=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