Symposium: Resonant Terrains
Thursday 10th October at 6pm until Saturday 12th October 2013
Symposium: Resonant Terrains
Festivals and Sites - platform for arts practice
6pm Thursday 10th - 6pm Saturday 12th October 2013
b-side multimedia arts festival invites you to join them on the rugged and inspiring Isle of Portland for two days of creative intervention and energetic dialogue within the vicinity and walls of HM Prison The Verne, a citadel dating from 1847 that dominates the island’s landscape and contributes to the beguiling atmosphere of this beautiful Dorset isle.
They will be asking the question: ‘If festivals are the new platform, and sites the new venues, what can they offer and what can’t they offer artists, curators and audiences?’
b-side invites you to Resonant Terrains, a symposium hosted at HM Prison The Verne, Portland, Dorset. We bring together artists, curators and other cultural professionals, in an enquiry into site based practice and the role of festivals in the changing landscape of arts provision.
The Symposium will be opened by Peter Heslip, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Council England.
Resonant Terrains will host sonic, sociable and subterranean walks, talks, performance lectures and discussion. Your artistic ‘guides’ will be Simon Ryder, Jez Riley French, Sue Palmer and Joff Winterhart, Frances Scott, Phil Smith, Neal White, Katie Etheridge your cultural compass bearings will be set by researchers Dany Louise and Alex Murdin.
The symposium takes place within the vicinity and walls of The Verne Prison, itself an intriguing historical site dominating the island’s landscape and contributing to the beguiling atmosphere of Portland.
In the UK we are making and curating artworks during a period of great economic and cultural change. And, like the dynamic coastline that Portland emerges from, the shifting and eroding artistic landscape demands that artists and organisations forge new paths through unfamiliar territory.
Finding a foothold on this rapidly evolving terrain, festivals and similar events are increasingly seen as the future. Many opportunities to make, show and produce artworks are in the context of the festival, within which ‘site responsive’ is both an aesthetic choice and a necessity.
But whilst festivals might host artworks that resonate with communities and the audiences who attend them, do they offer sustainable opportunities for artists, organisations and audiences? How can they support challenging and risk taking work? Do they have the capacity to embrace ever-changing technological developments? Who is benefiting? Can festivals become embedded as an effective part of the arts infrastructure or are they a fleeting answer to changes in cultural provision?
Symposium Tickets: £60 (inc both days, refreshments and delicious food).
