12.10.20 Ben Parry presentation
As part of a group meeting with Ben he gave a presentation about his work.
He uses walking as a research method. He's part of Peripatopolis - IPSS The International Peripatetic Sculptors' Society:
'In towns and cities around the world, the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society (IPSS) organise playful adventures through urban territories that use action-research and performance methods as a form of intervention into spaces of ‘everyday life’. Fusing the Situationist tradition of dérive with Allan Kaprow’s invocation to reclaim the art of everyday life, the IPSS use the urban terrain as ‘raw material’ for spontaneous artistic responses that combine emotional, situational, dialogic and embodied response to place, identity and memory. By combining various peripatetic methodologies, the activities of the IPSS work to unshackle the chains of codified and conditioned behaviour to realise the possibility of free and spontaneous creation.' (Researchspace, 2018)
Practice as research produces new knowledge. Action research using walking performance methods. 'Playful adventures in urban spaces' - no tools, no plans.
The urban environment is the raw material. They document what they do with photos and film
Look at Allan Kaprow and the Situationists
(Can my spontaneous performances be part of my action-research? I love the idea that they have no plan when they set off to discover whatever they're going to discover. I definitely feel as if that's my approach, but I have been thinking that I need to PLAN. Maybe I don't? )
(Covid has made us more aware of our bodies in space in relation to other bodies. Self and Other, contamination anxiety.)
Peripatopolis = observation plus spontaneous activism.
What is derive? It's 'a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban societies' (Situationist International, 1958) The Situationists defined geopsychology. We are constrained by convention. It's a phenomenological method, based on senses and experience.
Research questions:
Consider 'The politics of small gestures' Hannula
What are our rights in the city? (Does it have to just be the city? Could it be a forest or the shore?) There is a sense of transgression in the work. The participants' bodies are 'disobedient objects.' ( I remember visiting the Disobedient objects exhibition at V&A a few years ago. I was interested, but it was set up like a museum display, so I found it less interesting than it might have been. Maybe look at disobedient objects in art?
Look at J.W Anderson's exhibition ' Disobedient bodies' at Hepworth Wakefield, 18th Mar -18th June 2017
He uses walking as a research method. He's part of Peripatopolis - IPSS The International Peripatetic Sculptors' Society:
'In towns and cities around the world, the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society (IPSS) organise playful adventures through urban territories that use action-research and performance methods as a form of intervention into spaces of ‘everyday life’. Fusing the Situationist tradition of dérive with Allan Kaprow’s invocation to reclaim the art of everyday life, the IPSS use the urban terrain as ‘raw material’ for spontaneous artistic responses that combine emotional, situational, dialogic and embodied response to place, identity and memory. By combining various peripatetic methodologies, the activities of the IPSS work to unshackle the chains of codified and conditioned behaviour to realise the possibility of free and spontaneous creation.' (Researchspace, 2018)
Practice as research produces new knowledge. Action research using walking performance methods. 'Playful adventures in urban spaces' - no tools, no plans.
The urban environment is the raw material. They document what they do with photos and film
Look at Allan Kaprow and the Situationists
(Can my spontaneous performances be part of my action-research? I love the idea that they have no plan when they set off to discover whatever they're going to discover. I definitely feel as if that's my approach, but I have been thinking that I need to PLAN. Maybe I don't? )
(Covid has made us more aware of our bodies in space in relation to other bodies. Self and Other, contamination anxiety.)
Peripatopolis = observation plus spontaneous activism.
What is derive? It's 'a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban societies' (Situationist International, 1958) The Situationists defined geopsychology. We are constrained by convention. It's a phenomenological method, based on senses and experience.
Research questions:
- What new knowledge is being produced?
- What are the intended outcomes?
- Is the research objects the collective action or the effect of the action on the participants?
Consider 'The politics of small gestures' Hannula
What are our rights in the city? (Does it have to just be the city? Could it be a forest or the shore?) There is a sense of transgression in the work. The participants' bodies are 'disobedient objects.' ( I remember visiting the Disobedient objects exhibition at V&A a few years ago. I was interested, but it was set up like a museum display, so I found it less interesting than it might have been. Maybe look at disobedient objects in art?
Look at J.W Anderson's exhibition ' Disobedient bodies' at Hepworth Wakefield, 18th Mar -18th June 2017
IPSS sidesteps/rewrites the politics of public spaces.
Small gestures have political outcomes. (Think about this in relation to my performances - They too are 'small gestures' in public spaces.) IPSS don't make conscious provocations, they have no rules, spontaneous. It's about PLAY. It's also participatory as Ben runs workshops, leading groups around a city and encouraging interventions. All the works belong to everybody. (My Wishing trees also belong to everybody... an accumulation of small gestures?) It's a collective walk performed as an ensemble activity. Sometimes a group makes 50-100 works in an afternoon. Sometimes they leave a trace of the encounter/dialogue, sometimes not. the person 'deriving' is a 'peripateur' who leaves traces/ antitheses in the 'unofficial city' (Wonderful language and terminology!)
Walking as research method -'Walking free as a performative act.' 'Drawing with walking through cocreation.'
Climbing into holes, getting dirty
Usually a group of 10-15 people. It's 'polite transgression'. Ethics- no one is obliged to do what they don't want to do.
Theoretical framework to Ben's practice:
The genealogy of walking
Peripatetic - associated with teaching in different spaces, in between ideologies and official discourses, liminal spaces.
Situationists - demand play and /or games
The every day is the material for making art
Small gestures have political outcomes. (Think about this in relation to my performances - They too are 'small gestures' in public spaces.) IPSS don't make conscious provocations, they have no rules, spontaneous. It's about PLAY. It's also participatory as Ben runs workshops, leading groups around a city and encouraging interventions. All the works belong to everybody. (My Wishing trees also belong to everybody... an accumulation of small gestures?) It's a collective walk performed as an ensemble activity. Sometimes a group makes 50-100 works in an afternoon. Sometimes they leave a trace of the encounter/dialogue, sometimes not. the person 'deriving' is a 'peripateur' who leaves traces/ antitheses in the 'unofficial city' (Wonderful language and terminology!)
Walking as research method -'Walking free as a performative act.' 'Drawing with walking through cocreation.'
Climbing into holes, getting dirty
- action oriented groups
- interventionist 'drifting'
- participatory method of observation
- a practical tool of investigation
- experimental platform for making
Usually a group of 10-15 people. It's 'polite transgression'. Ethics- no one is obliged to do what they don't want to do.
Theoretical framework to Ben's practice:
The genealogy of walking
Peripatetic - associated with teaching in different spaces, in between ideologies and official discourses, liminal spaces.
Situationists - demand play and /or games
The every day is the material for making art
Hannula, (2006) The politics of small gestures Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54d6681fe4b02fde3d6e646e/t/54f84951e4b0b65fe0ba0ea6/1425557841762/mikabook.pdf (Accessed: 17 October 2020)
Hannula, M. (2020) Mika Hannula Available at: http://mikahannula.com/ (Accessed 17 October 2020)
Parry, B (2018) 'Peripatopolis – performance methods of the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society.' In: Davis, S and Snepvangers, K, eds. Embodied and walking pedagogies engaging the visual domain: research, creation and practice. Transformative Pedagogy in the Visual Domain Series, 8 . Common Ground Research Networks, Champaign, IL, USA. Available at: https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/embodied-and-walking-pedagogies-engaging-the-visual-domain (Accessed: 15 October 2020)
Researchspace (2018) Peripatopolis – performance methods of the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society Available at: researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/11646/ (Accessed: 15 October 2020)
SSENSE (2017) JW Anderson's Disobedient bodies Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ddu-NWxe4 (Accessed 17 October 2020)
Hannula, M. (2020) Mika Hannula Available at: http://mikahannula.com/ (Accessed 17 October 2020)
Parry, B (2018) 'Peripatopolis – performance methods of the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society.' In: Davis, S and Snepvangers, K, eds. Embodied and walking pedagogies engaging the visual domain: research, creation and practice. Transformative Pedagogy in the Visual Domain Series, 8 . Common Ground Research Networks, Champaign, IL, USA. Available at: https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/embodied-and-walking-pedagogies-engaging-the-visual-domain (Accessed: 15 October 2020)
Researchspace (2018) Peripatopolis – performance methods of the International Peripatetic Sculptors Society Available at: researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/11646/ (Accessed: 15 October 2020)
SSENSE (2017) JW Anderson's Disobedient bodies Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ddu-NWxe4 (Accessed 17 October 2020)