In March I came to the end of a two year project, The New Immortals, which had culminated in an exhibition which I curated and in which I showed new work along with nine other artists. This marked the end of a period of intense activity during which I had managed to think about little else. With a determination to pause and take stock, I crossed through my diary to allow myself a cooling off period, time to catch up with neglected work, home and family, time to take stock and think about what to do next rather than rush straight in to something new. Just at that moment when the ink was drying on the lines through the empty diary pages, came the opportunity to apply for the Brighton Festival Collidescope residency – an amazing opportunity to spend time with artists from across a range of disciplines (I’m the only visual artist) and, as the brief said, engage “intensively” with the Festival.
Last night we had our introductory meeting. There are nine of us artists plus two facilitators, dramaturg Lou Cope and Greenhouse Project Manager, Richard Kingdom. Together, between now and 29th May, we’re going to spend a good deal of our waking hours watching, listening, taking part in and talking about almost 40 Brighton Festival events from site specific theatre to a debate about Brexit, from Lou Reed’s “Drones” to Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Brighton Festival Chorus performing ” The Dream of Gerontius”. One of the most exciting things for me is the prospect of going to so many events which I have not chosen for myself – the opportunity for chance encounters, new experiences.
As well as going to the events, we’ll be meeting twice a week as a group to reflect on our experiences, to talk about our own work and… to see what might happen. There is no requirement for an “outcome” – this purely developmental process is completely open, allowing for exchange of knowledge an ideas – the perfect breeding ground for new collaborations, new partnerships and new ideas.
As Lou said, this is a process that will change us. It is intense, probably exhausting and maybe a bit daunting. But is going to be quite an adventure.
