Main Hall, King's Pavilion, King's Pavilion, AB24 3FX
The University of Aberdeen
Description
This panel discussion brings together Aberdeen-based artists and writers who are responding to climate change and its impacts on our environment through creative approaches.
University of Aberdeen Interdisciplinary Fellow, Dr Rebecca Macklin, will be joined by sound artist Dr. Maja Zećo and curator Rachel Grant to discuss their Soundwalk series about Torry’s last remaining greenspace, St Fittick’s Park. They will also be joined by poet Genevieve Carver who has been collaborating with the university’s School of Biological Sciences on research into breeding fulmars in Orkney, and acoustic monitoring at North Sea windfarm sites.
Through site-specific and relational artworks, Maja explores the intricate intertwining of personal and collective narratives of identity and history. Maja's unique approach to her work involves the ‘Silencer’ performance in sensory impairment sound walking suit. The suit absorbs urban noise, enabling the wearer to experience silence while hidden binaural microphones record surrounding environmental sounds.
During this talk, audiences will delve into Maja's playful and thought-provoking creative process, which centres around site-specific and relational artworks, and the profound interplay between personal and collective narratives of identity.
Invited to present with Lucia Ruggerone the paper “Falling out of love with the UK: lockdown and Brexit for EU citizens living in the UK”. This was a seminar focussing on research that used visual methods.
The event was organised by Prof Wright and Dr Gawlewicz, University of Glasgow.
The PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON has established itself not only in Neu-Oerlikon as a place of performance art, but also as an important discussion platform in the city of Zurich. It has been positioned in the public space, with a view to exchange and dialogue between artists and the audience. The direct contact between art and people is also encouraged.
New experiences and lustful approaches to the understanding of performance art should be in the foreground. At the same time, a dialogue should make boundaries between the audience and artists disappear, but should also be a studio and laboratory. A laboratory for communication and acting studio in which the performance genre is presented, as well as discussed. The PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON should be accessible to a wide public and, unlike in culturally defined space, these performances in public space are exposed to very different groups and potential dangers.
Art in public space brings about and moves a – not quite everyday – possibility to look at the world in which we live with different eyes, to reflect on it and to discuss it. This also raises the cultural-political question of temporary artistic approaches and interventions. The PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU OERLIKON is also an important platform for performance artists not only from Switzerland.
More than 170 artists have performed at the PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON in the last eleven years.
Charlie Hackett and Lucia Ruggerone presented their findings to their research participants and discussants: Dr Paulina Trevena (University of Glasgow) and Prof. Justyna Pilarska (University of Wroclaw, Poland). The discussants presented their research on migration and gave some critical analysis on how they viewed the research on EU citizens living in the UK through Brexit and Covid
Take part in our discussion event at Old Torry Community centre, the event is free and open to participants of the Soundwalk Series led by artist Maja Zećo at St Fittick’s park.
Since October Maja has developed a series of soundwalks, these walks focused on listening to the environment and designed to immerse walkers in the sound of a place.
Through guided questions and scores specially designed by Maja. We have listened to the rich soundscape of the park; natural and manmade, loud and quiet. Explored the sounds we hear now and into the future, and reflected through notes, drawings and conversation.
The discussion session is a space to share reflections and continue the conversation in an informal setting with the project team and each other. Participants are welcome to bring along their notebook to share. The co-organisers will also share reflections and thoughts on the broader project ‘Living with Energy Transition’, with opportunities for questions and dialogue.
Lunch and hot drinks will be provided, a schedule outline and access measures are below. If you have any questions about this event or would like to know more about the project, please contact Rachel; rachelagrant1@hotmail.co.uk
Organisation:
The Soundwalks are part of a research project “Living with the Energy Transition”, co-organised by interdisciplinary practitioners: Gisa Weszkalnys, William Otchere-Darko and Rachel Grant (Fertile Ground). They are funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
For our next ONE WORK event, Maja Zećo will discuss her recent work In Search of the Sun (2021), which was developed during a residency at Aberdeen Art Gallery during the pandemic. The work is part of a body of research into creative ‘de-modernising’ strategies that encourage artists to reflect on aspects of existing public art collections. We recommend watching In Search of the Sun in advance of the discussion, available to view here for the month of March 2022.
In Search of the Sun draws on the sculpture Eastre (Hymn to the Sun) (1924) by JD Fergusson, a work from Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums’ collection. The film explores how the meanings associated with the figure of Eastre have changed significantly over time and geography, complicating JD Fergusson’s depiction of her as a Saxon goddess.
The figure of Eastre began as Inanna in Mesopotamia, mutating into Ishtar in Assyria, Oshtara in Germany and then, via the English monk Bede the Venerable became known as Eostre in eighth century Christian Northumbria. Eastre was originally understood as a ‘promiscuous figure of political power, martial prowess and sexual allure’ in her earliest incarnation and by the time her name was mentioned in England, she was being depicted as a goddess of fertility and spring.
In Search of the Sun can take the form of a live performance art work as well as a multichannel video installation. It is presented here, online, as a single channel video.
