Talk at the International English Library in Düsseldorf Thursday 18 Oct
While we are in that neck of the woods (see earlier post), we’re going back to visit our friends at the International English Library in Düsseldorf to give a talk about our work on Thursday 18 October at 6pm. Charge: 5 EUR, includes drink and nibbles. Please let them know if you’re thinking of coming.
Residency at PACT Zollverein
We will be in residence at PACT Zollverein this month between 16 – 25 October, developing new work based on our explorations of Togetherness/Apartness, originally started as part of our Motion Together research with Elizabeth Waterhouse.
Sophia in Georg Klein’s video installation
Soph is a performer in our friend Georg Klein’s video installation Fog at the Großer Wasserspeicher in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. The sound art festival he has co-curated and produced, Dystopie, runs from 21-30 September. Check out the web site for venues and times.
Performing for Ella Ziegler at Meinblau, Berlin on Sunday 16 Sept
We are delighted to be collaborating again with our friend Ella Ziegler for her day of performance and video work entitled Movement of Emotions at Projektraum Meinblau, Christinenstraße 18-19, 10119 Berlin this Sunday 16 September, starting at 8pm. As well as the piece Feigned Unconsciousness, which we have performed before in Berlin with the vibraphone player Morten J. Olsen, we will also be performing in the premiere of a new piece, Streitgespräch, featuring household appliances and text. We hope to see some of you for what should be an interesting evening for all concerned.
Urban Workshop in Berlin and a new project in Düsseldorf
This month we seem to be very busy with public space. Firstly, our workshop (Re)discovering the City is happening again 14 – 17 June as part of the Berlin University of the Arts and the Udk Studium Generale. We’ll be exploring and introducing artistic strategies to intervene in public space and urban environments.
We have also been preparing for the new commission called ‘The Day the Books Took Off for the Impulse Fesitval where we have made a small performantive installation (meant for 2 people at a time) in the International English Library. We are one of the five artist groups contributing to the Stadtprojekt which is called Wenn die Häuser Trauer Tragen (When the Buildings Carry Grief) which is responding to the fact that the last public building in central Düsseldorf is to be sold off. All the institutions are having to be rehoused and not everyone is happy about that. Upstairs in the library that has existed for the last 70 years we are using some of the culled books to make birds and reflect on their materiality and sancturary of libraries and their threatened status. All the tours are free as is the final farewell party on 24th June from 18.00 so if you are in the area do pop by
Knotting Time at Villa Merkel, Esslingen
Our new installation Knotting Time is coming together for the group show Networking the Unseen at Villa Merkel curated by Gretta Louw. If you are near Esslingen, do pop by on the 17th December between 11:00–15:00 where we will be in the gallery showing how to knot our data carpets. Related to the carpets we are also displaying pen plots of the time spent inside and outside over the years 2016 and 2015 and a video about the process of making the carpets with others.
The exhibition officially opens on 20th December and runs till 4th March.
Nonhuman Networks opening
Join us this Friday 29 September at 8.00pm where you can see the outcomes of our Swarm Cell City slime mould workshop at Art Laboratory Berlin. The exhibition features Heather Barnett und Saša Spacal and will run until 26 November. Opening times are Friday – Sunday 2-6pm or by appointment.
The Hidden Choreography video now online
We’ve uploaded our video so that everyone who didn’t make it to Depot Erbe in Freiburg this year can see what we made. You can find it at the bottom of the Hidden Choreography page. Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Swarm Cell City workshop with Heather Barnett at Art Laboratory, Berlin
We are looking forward to collaborating with the London-based artist Heather Barnett on a two-day workshop on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 September at Art Laboratory Berlin, Prinzenallee 34, 13359 Berlin.
The project invites the participants to view the city of Berlin by the nonhuman perspectives of the intelligent single-cell organism, the slime mould, Physarum polycephalum and GPS tracking.
After a day discovering and experimenting with living slime mould cultures under Heather’s expert guidance, on the second day, we will ask what it is to embody slime mould and how to adopt its techniques for spatial investigation onto the urban petri dish of Wedding.
We will develop our own ‘stigmergic’ rules (leaving traces in environment that affect the behaviour of others) as well as seeing whether we can all develop a sense of being one organism that explores its environment.
Dan and Sophia’s particular area of expertise with GPS will be used to track our excursions as slime mould across the urban space and after the workshop, animations of the group’s explorations will contribute to the final exhibition.
The workshop costs 20/15 EUR for both days which run from 1-5pm. Please register by sending an email to register@artlaboratory-berlin.org
What Will We Do When the World Ends – report
If you weren’t able to be in Berlin this Summer for our workshop at the UdK and Hybrid Lab, you can read a report of how it went here, written by a participant, our intern and master latch hook rug maker, Robin Sydney Willscheidt.