One of my enlightened Landscape Architecture students who is looking at the concept of ‘forgotten space’ in Gloucester referred me to this:

It is the ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore’ rant from the 1976 film Network. It is a brilliant piece of oratory, with a message that is completely of our times, and ends with a wonderfully choreographed sequence that shows the domino effect of public ‘demonstration’.

Coincidentally, whilst browsing through the recent edition of Variant magazine that I picked up during a recent meeting at Multistory, one particular piece caught my eye. I offer the following short extracts:

Mario Tronti said :

‘We have to start with disgust at the way things are before we move on to imagining how we’d like them to be.’

- which reminded me of the ‘I’m mad as hell’ chanting.

Also this:

‘Polly Toynbee wrote a great sentence about the savage cuts of the new austerity:

“The price of everything was laid out, but not the value of anything about to be destroyed.”

What does it mean for a symbolic relation to be too expensive, an unbearable burden? The image of the good life is too dear; something has to be sacrificed. The attempt to associate democracy with austerity – a state of liquidity being dried out, the way wine dries out a tongue – is fundamentally anti-democratic. The demand for the people’s austerity hides processes of the uneven distribution of risk and vulnerability. Democracy is supposed to hold out for the equal distribution of sovereignty and risk. Still, austerity sounds good, clean, ascetic: the lines of austerity are drawn round a polis to incite it toward askesis, toward managing its appetites and taking satisfaction in a self-management in whose mirror of performance it can feel proud and superior. In capitalist logics of askesis, the workers’ obligation is to be more rational than the system, and their recompense is to be held in a sense of pride at surviving the scene of their own attrition.’

And, finally, this:

‘The problem is that in their desperation people try to ride the wave of the forms they know,

even when there is no water beneath them nor air to float them.

The problem is that people do not feel that the world is a generous and patient space for them to be awkward in.

In the meantime they remember the good times…..’

Taken from ‘Affect + the Politics of Austerity’ by Lauren Berlant

As featured in Variant Magazine 39/40. http://www.variant.org.uk/

The artists met in December and, as a group, tested some of the emerging ideas and thoughts for their research projects.

Below are a series of images that best describe some of the activities:

Artists Meeting October 2010

‘Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we are going, but we will know we want to be there.’ Bruce Mau

Synopsis

On the 19th and 20th October we met to discuss, deliberate and debate the following broad range of issues:

i. What do we mean by ‘public realm’ + what exactly is ‘public space’?

ii. What is a ‘community’?

iii. What does ‘sustainable community’ mean?

iv. The value of artists’ engagement

v. The concept of ‘exchange’

vi. Masterplanning

As well as long topical discourse, the meeting encouraged participants to share their expectations, aspirations and proposals for the ARB programme.

The focus for the Action Research projects this year are:

David Boultbee – An exploration of, and experiments in ‘Human Weathering’.

Creative/Personal Inspiration: encounters with light + soundscapes

Laurence Payot –An investigation into ‘small actions for change’. Including the ritual of acting on a set of instructions agreed by others.

Creative/Personal Inspiration: Ritualised leaf sweeping

Theo Price – The Action Research represents a transition period. This is a time to reflect on democracy, exclusion and failure. A motivation, NOT for change, but for exploring process over product.

Creative/Personal Inspiration: Renzo Martens – Episode III – ENJOY (please) POVERTY

Elaine Speight – An exploration of emotional ties to places; an investigation/audit of perceptions of place-making through occupation and activity and the notion of ‘the sense of place’ that evolves as a branding exercise.

Creative/Personal Inspiration: Doreen Massey, social scientist and geographer.

Natasha Vickers – The shared (and possibly repeated) experience of a collective welcoming of the dawn. An exploration of the ritual and rhythm of a repeated experience.

Creative/Personal Inspiration: Walking through urban spaces

The group undertook an individual derive exercise through the landscape of West Bromwich as well as a creative ‘forced connections’ activity.

In October 2010 five artists were commissioned to participate in this years Action Research Bursary Programme co-ordinated by Longhouse.

They are:
David Boultbee – http://breadartcollective.co.uk/
Laurence Payot – http://www.laurencepayot.com/index.htm
Theo Price – http://www.theoprice.com (under construction)
Elaine Speight – http://www.plaitedfog.org.uk/
Natasha Vickers – http://natashavicars.blogspot.com/

Each artist is required to use the bursary to pro-actively discover new contexts for their work via the exploration of different approaches to socially engaged practice in the public realm.

In the spirit and rich tradition of past Action Research programmes all participating artists are encouraged to test their current creative practice through intensive investigation, reflection and understanding of what is meant by, and the reality of, the ‘public realm’. This is especially pertinent in the current climate of ‘Big Society’ and, in the context of slowing capital investment, a requirement for new forms of regeneration.

The artists have devised projects under the umbrella theme of ‘connections’ and are investigating how artists and cultural activity can make connections between people, people and place (physical and metaphorical), and between people and knowledge all relating to the current climate and context of regeneration and the public realm.

The artists are being mentored throughout the programme by Scott Farlow. They will meet regularly at Multistory’s office where they:

- Share research, ideas and thoughts on current practice,

- explore the public realm of West Bromwich, and,

- test and further develop their proposals.

Scott’s practice explores imaginative and participatory possibilities within the public realm context and elsewhere. Here is his Artist Statement:

‘What is it to be here?’

My creative practice is multifaceted and embraces the ever-shifting constructs of landscape and public realm, design, participation, sculpture, film, photography and sound. My work occupies and imaginatively contributes to the context and narrative of location and its associated thresholds, edges and connections.

My work is rich in immersive process and often undertaken in collaboration with other artists. I use dialogue, enquiry and exploration of places, spaces and people to elucidate and express perception, identity and meaning. What emerges can be temporary, mobile or permanent works, observations and spatial transformations.

I am currently a part-time lecturer on the Landscape Architecture programme at University of Gloucestershire and have lectured widely on my practice and in public art and community engagement.

You can see a recent film of mine at:

Scott Farlow January 2011