Dear All,
Happy Spring! Since my last dispatch the sun has come back and I have come out of hibernation. My body, sensing the change of seasons seems to need less sleep. It's a striking difference here, more so than any place I've ever been and fortunate too as life seems to be speeding up with the warmer, brighter weather.
While the first snow drops and crocuses were beginning to come out en mass my second project on Psychological Aesthetics and Ecology of the Mind was evaluated. Among other side projects (such as my daily thought drawings, automatic writing etc.), I worked with Anna, my fellow classmate again on Dartmoor National park. But this time we chose to work primarily with sound. Through experimentation with sound and conversation we created a participatory piece based on a Bronze Age settlement at the confluence of two rivers, what we call the Avon Dam settlement. Participansts listened on headphones to our sound pieces on the journey by car to and from the site, offering preparation and follow-up to the experience at the site itself. We provided pens for people and asked them to write or illustrate on the car windows the ideas from the sound pieces that stood out for them. We drove as close to the site as we could and then continued the rest of the way on foot in silence. In response to our invitation people brought items or ideas to share and "exchange" with the Bronze people who once lived there. Although it was a stretch for some people, the conversations that emerged from this exchange revealed a great deal about a multitude of things, identity, our assumptions about the past, time preoccupations, and the layering of stories about the past. It was a successful project I think, based on our experiences as creators and facilitators as well as those described to us by participants. It offered me a tremendous opportunity for growth. I learned the basics of sound collection and editing; basics of relational aestheics, and coordinating a journey to a site as an experiential art piece. I will create a little documentation DVD from the project which will become available at some point in the near future.
After just a few days rest and a weekend camping in Cornwall I plunged into the next module intensive on Social Ecologies. The material that we were offered was rich and very relevant to the project that emerged from the previous module. It is addressed issues of social engagment, conversation as an art practice, action research methodologies and questions about how to integrate activism and art. We were joined by two members of Platform, a London based arts collective (http://www.platformlondon.org/) I've always been stymied by addressing myself. It's great!
Chris was here until the end of March and we had a splendid visit; we even had fun on the trip to London to the airport despite our sweetly sorrowful parting . While in London we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and after Chris left I went to the Tate Britain. Both were overwhelmingly abundant with amazing works and incredible craftsmanship. At the Tate I came across an excellent William Blake exhibit. See his work in person made an impression om me, as he has become a sort of icon to me. His images have such a strong sense of the organic despite their often mythological subject matter. It was wonderful having him here, despite my absorption in my course work towards the end of the visit. He was (and now is from afar!) very supportive and understanding. At the beginning of the year we had more time to explore the area, take walks and discover fun new places. He found good work here as a carpenter and had steady work for most of his visit. I think he really enjoying his time here, getting to the know the place and it's people over the course of three months. By the end of his visit he knew many more people than I know and he did it in only half the time that I've had.
When I got back from London, I lept into action for our MA Arts and Ecology show at the Center for Contemporary Art in the Natural World (CCANW http://www.ccanw.co.uk/). I assisted in the curating process and it was an incredible learning experience. Having invested a great deal of time and effort into the show, it was very satisfying to have it turn out so well. I was very pleased and impressed with people's work. The opening for the show yesterday was well attended and accompanied by lovely blue skies and puffy white clouds, a treat to behold in this climate! I was grateful for the opportunity to show work there and be involved in bringing the show into form. The venue is a lovely spot in one of the few forests in this area. It is a plantation forest, but still evokes the mystery and environmental solitude created by tall trees and mossy ground.
NOW - today infact, Becky and Anna (fellow students) and Anna's husband Mark and I are setting out on an adventure by Land and Sea to Helsinki, Finland for an Art and Ecology conference. The conference is quite exciting, but the journey is now the highlight of the experience with the destination, merely the instigation for the trip. We will be driving through Holland, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia on the journey their. On the homeward journey we will be driving back through Scandinavia through Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Holland. In total the mileage is a little more than driving across the united states, however we will be going through at least 9 different countries along the way. We will take two and a half weeks for the adventure and plan to create artwork along the way. The Dartington Radio station has asked me to make some sound pieces/radio shows from the journey, so my sound recorder will be at my side for most of the journey. It should be quite an adventure!
Having reached the halfway mark on the course, I am beginning to look more seriously at what to do upon its conclusion. I've had some ideas, but they are still in the incubator and have yet to become concrete enough to describe with coherence. I will let you know when they have started to take form. Chris will be on the helitak fire crew in Wyoming again this summer and then plans to return to the UK in October, when my course concludes. We are slowly forming some world travel plans for the fall and I am hoping to set up a residency or two along the way to keep my art practice rolling.
I hope that you have spring in your steps these days!
Warmly,
Claire
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