Field Notes were one of eight international artists and curators selected to participate in Global City Local City, a laboratory platform coordinated by ANTI Festival. The labs were an intensive two-week period of experimentation, experiences, research and knowledge sharing in relation to the making of hyper-localised locally-responsive work.
Photo: ANTI FestivalCONTEXT
ANTI Contemporary Art Festival is held annually in Kuopio Finland, it began life in 2002 and now has an established year-round programme of artist residencies and cultural projects and events. The festival works with artists on projects that explore and explode urban space, with a focus on Live Art.
When the city hosts the festival, projects by artists from around the world inhabit the spaces of public life – homes, shops, city squares, business, forests, lakes – and directly engage communities and audiences in the making and showing of their work. The festival is free to attend.
When the city hosts the festival, projects by artists from around the world inhabit the spaces of public life – homes, shops, city squares, business, forests, lakes – and directly engage communities and audiences in the making and showing of their work. The festival is free to attend.
Global City Local City was a new international laboratory platform – initiated as a collaboration between ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio, Finland, Reykjavík Dance Festival in Iceland and The Map Consortium in the United Kingdom. It ran from May 2020 till May 2021.
The aim of the labs was to bring together artists and curators whose work relies upon the initiation of local collaborations, responds to local sites, or engages with local histories, situations or conditions. There was also an ambition that the GCLC labs would provide a platform for art making through experimentation, research and knowledge sharing –for a community to gather and share experiences, approaches, questions and perspectives in relation to the making of hyper-localised locally-responsive work.
The aim of the labs was to bring together artists and curators whose work relies upon the initiation of local collaborations, responds to local sites, or engages with local histories, situations or conditions. There was also an ambition that the GCLC labs would provide a platform for art making through experimentation, research and knowledge sharing –for a community to gather and share experiences, approaches, questions and perspectives in relation to the making of hyper-localised locally-responsive work.
ENGAGEMENT
Meeting to discuss the hyper-local online from locations around the world we all initially shared an online ‘Zoom’ space from with only small pieces of (mostly) white walls as backdrops. Nothing of our localities was evident. Also missing from the experience of a residency, lab or worskshop were those small informal moments of connection before and between sessions, whilst making coffee, sharing a meal or grabbing a drink
As a reaction to this and to the fatigue of being constantly on camera we tried a series of simple experiments. First asking the other participants to simply turn their sound off and their cameras out onto the world around them. We did this for a few hours as we each continued with our everyday lives, and for our small group it helped to created some of the missing sense of togetherness and a little understanding of each persons environs and routines.
When the festival opened to the public we decided to open up the invitation to everyone, not just those visiting venues in Kuppio, but artists and creatives around the world. Each member of the lab sent out invitations to their wider networks and over a three and a half hour period people dropped in and out of a mass zoom sharing their surroundings and creating a communal sense of presence without verbal communication. Over time some people began to respond to one another by echoing movements or actions and by sharing similar or corresponding views.
As a reaction to this and to the fatigue of being constantly on camera we tried a series of simple experiments. First asking the other participants to simply turn their sound off and their cameras out onto the world around them. We did this for a few hours as we each continued with our everyday lives, and for our small group it helped to created some of the missing sense of togetherness and a little understanding of each persons environs and routines.
When the festival opened to the public we decided to open up the invitation to everyone, not just those visiting venues in Kuppio, but artists and creatives around the world. Each member of the lab sent out invitations to their wider networks and over a three and a half hour period people dropped in and out of a mass zoom sharing their surroundings and creating a communal sense of presence without verbal communication. Over time some people began to respond to one another by echoing movements or actions and by sharing similar or corresponding views.
Photos: top Penryn, bottom Kuppio
EVENTS
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info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
