Workshop
Posted on Jan 31, 2008 in workshop | Permalink
For me, the most valuable part of the my time in Alexandria was meeting and working with the folks at ACAF as well as the students who participated in the 5-day workshop. The objective of the workshop was to introduce students to a way of thinking about Alexandria as both an object of research/art and a site in which to locate their art. It was important for me to challenge their usual processes when thinking about creative projects. We also looked at the work of several contemporary artists who use a range of approaches in addressing site and place and the urban environment.
The workshop dealt with three modes or strategies for addressing the city as a place to make work in and about: Collection, Intervention, Performance.
John R. Stilgoe’s Outside Lies Magic set the tone for the workshop and guided us as we walked and looked and talked around Alexandria:
Go outside and walk a bit, long enough to forget programming, long enough to take in and record new surroundings.
Flex the mind, a little at first, then a lot. Savor something special. Enjoy the best-kept secret around—the ordinary, everyday landscape that rewards any explorer, that touches any explorer with magic.
The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over the centuries, the built environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sounds and smells and glimpses neither artificial or crafted—all of it free for the taking in. Take it, take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes a theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic.
Our first day was spent doing just what Stilgoe suggests: slowing down, paying attention, wandering, exploring. Along the way, each of us selected a site in Alexandria that held some interest for us, and we visited each, talking about their significance. We became conscious of the subtle networks and patterns that organize the city. We considered the meaning of walking through spaces both private and public; we (some of us) faced the consequences of unintentional trespassing; we marveled at the power and threat that taking pictures can pose in this post-9/11 era. Walking through Alexandria gave shape to our conversations, and as we walked and talked I think we experienced something of the pedestrian histories I am/was thinking about often.
The students: (top left to right) Monsour, Moushira, Mohamed, (bottom left to right) Abdalla, Lamia, Omar, Aya
More:
Workshop Project 01: Collection
Workshop Project 02: Intervention
Workshop Project 03: Performance