Wednesday 12 March 2014

Shake February 2014 sharing

 Another February half term. Another Shake Intensive.

This Shake was perhaps one of the most free-flowing organic Shakes we’ve had. The discussions were epic with Adam Cooper provoking us to think about policing when we are aware of our rights as citizens, while Mark Fisher’s discussion was a historical journey through social justice with an understanding of how capitalism and equality have evolved and conflicted over time. We were left asking so many questions to help us re-imagine. Esther Stanford’s (PARCOE)  talk on reparations was mind blowing, educational and so enlightening, opening pathways to how we think about the damage done through colonialism in the light of constructive repairing beyond the money. “There are some things money cannot heal.”  said Heritier.
The poetry created by our Shakers was reflective, moving, soul searching and invigorating. Our poets found a lot of voice through music with the help of Marcina. Best to let them speak for themselves. Here is a recording of three of you Shakers – Heritier, Orla and Zareen.


Heritier has a powerful vocal and his poem is translated by Selina Nwulu, one of our Shake participants from 2010 and now a strong poets and activist in her own right.




Orla’s piece, has a timelessness about it asking the listener to put themselves in her shoes how would they feel about the world they live in - 
 “I want to get lost on purpose…”




And Zareen, writes a hit with a great hook and a strong lyrical flow – 
“Hold on and not be broken,
intertwining, diving, rising, trying here
out in the open.”


Well done all. Will be posting more of February 2014 Shake poems soon!
Zena

Art of Nature - by Grainne and Orla

As part of Shake! continuity Orla and Grainne attended a training weekend on the art of nature. Here are some of their reflections on the weekend.

The Art of Nature event featured many artists and environmental activists who discussed their own projects. These projects really blurred the boundaries between art and environmental activism demonstrating how artists do have a role very much beyond art for arts sake.  
         
Below are some of the highlights of the weekend and projects you might be interested in:
 Shelly Sacks had given a talk about “The university of the trees”. This encouraged the use of alternative thinking such as using intuition and experiential learning to bring people together to discuss ideas and question our concepts of knowledge. After the talks there was time to split into groups and discuss issues further or to go outside and practice the 'University of the Trees' concepts. We were given free reign to how we did this.  so she proposed to the group that she was going to have a wander outside to find a tree and welcomed members of the group to join her as a place to discuss and think about some questions. As It was a sunny day and I was getting tired sitting indoors I joined her groups:

The questions:


·       What are the key issues regarding the relationships between people and nature?

·       How do social cultural things relate to nature?

·       How do we build a knowledgeable active population to protect nature and ourselves?

Some of us stayed behind in the meeting room where we transformed the space into an interactive sculpture using the chairs and paper.
 The tree our group chose, in a playground, just outside Greenpeace HQ. The tree had two basketballs lodged in its stumpy branches, had been chopped back quite a bit, but still stood tall through the close approaching tarmac.


It was an interesting experience going out together to find a tree, once we had found a tree and put the banner around it we all felt a different connection to the space and each other. Passers-by also stopped for discussion. We all noted how we noticed the other trees nearby from the space a lot more now and felt better connected to the nature in the area. When asked how I felt I mentioned that in a forest the trees act as a network, helping each other out and I had heard that if a tree becomes weak the other trees help it out through their connections to each other and build it back up through the forest network. This relates to everyday life, and the tarmac and the fences around this tree are disconnecting it from the other trees and sometimes we can become disconnected form each other in built up areas too. The stronger connections we have with each other the stronger we become, and we can learn form nature that way. When we came back into the building and into the room with everyone else,
it seems artists don’t like being kept sitting on chairs for too long! it drives them a bit crazy! - Some of the group had responded with an art installation involving all the chairs in the room and ripping up sheets of paper! It certainly ended the day on and ice-breaker ready for the next day! :)



   Clive Owen- Soil Culture

   Clive’s talk was very useful! I (Grainne) am working with an not-for-profit community interest group LESS in Lancaster at the moment on a game they have got funding to develop / which is a social, experimental game that aims to get people engaging more with their environment, each other, and thinking about their everyday choices in a playful, yet eco/ethically minded way.In Clive's talk he spoke about a project “Games people Play” which was a series of activities and exhibitions put on by ‘Soil Culture’ and ‘The Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World’. He said how “Games can tell us a great deal about human nature” He gave some great examples of games that are all ready out there that get us to question our everyday choices and ethics:

·     PaulaOwen- Eco action trumps

·     Evoke– social network game “10 week crash course in saving the world” 

·     Phonestory – an educational app that shows the dark side off where your phone came from 

·     FeeRice – Play to help world hunger


He also discussed sport and our emotions in sport – territorial control, attachment to a team, triumphs, despair, confidence, and anxiety. He showed some Photography by Newsha Tavakolian that emphasise sport emotion.
There was a lively discussion after his talk and lots of focus on the gaming side of his talk. It was pointed out that there is a big “generation of gamers at the moment that we need to tap into”. There was also a quite amusing heated debate about the game ‘Candy Crush’, one group member was discussing how her teenage son wastes so much time on the game, another group member fired back that she doesn’t see why it is a problem for people to play Candy Crush if they want too, especially on a tube journeys where time is wasted anyway and she felt that sometimes games are a good tool to disconnect us from ourselves and society.