Archives

The Nomads

4 & 5 September 2010
Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Schizo-productive dérive

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You stand, watching the cars go by. You’re not sure where you are, maybe not even where you’re going. Perhaps you are with friends, or they could be strangers. Time passes. You change the space by being there, the space changes you.

Inspired by the dérives of the Lettrist and Situationist Internationals, a.a.s searched for the city beneath the city. Using a combination of I Ching readings and the Paranoid-Critical Method, and starting from the base at Castlefield, artists and co-participants explored randomly selected parts of central Manchester, to reveal hidden meanings.

Spending an extended period of time in one location can lend it new significance, and people may often develop spontaneous games that activate the site. During The Nomads we developed changed perceptions of two randomly selected sites during each outing and occupied those parts of the city for several hours.

The Changelings

28 & 29 August 2010
Live Event Cannon Hill Park
Participatory development throughout August 2010

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Trickster animals bring art and music to humanity, appearing in dreams and visions to guide us on fantastical journeys. The Changelings draw on such cross-cultural, animal-based mythologies, to call forth mythical beasts that could find a home in the parks and undergrowth of the city. In the way that shamans take on animal attributes, each Changeling represents a different kind of behaviour. These characters can appear for various purposes – sometimes acting as guides or guardians, sometimes testing our commitment to our aims.

The Changelings

The Storytellers

During one-day workshops with school pupils, we invented and developed stories about the museum archives collection at the Museums Collections Centre. These mythologies were then re-performed to camera, by existing Other Place participants

The Storytellers layered different accounts of a situation or location so that it was no longer obvious what is true. Students toured the archive searching for The Other Place and looking at things differently to how they might have on a usual tour. The aim was to form alternate fictions about some of the objects they came across.