A series of parachute presentations, IfREX
On Thursday 15 April a day-long series of ‘parachute presentations’ was organised by the students. The idea, not dissimilar to pecha kucha, was for each person to give a 10-minute introduction to their work. The time constraint worked well, providing a set of appetisers, enabling the whole class to present projects, exhibitions and interests in one day. Leading up to the event, many students remarked that although they knew each other very well, and indeed Olafur had noted that the group had developed a certain intimacy, they were less aware of what sort of art everyone was engaged with. Further, for myself and other newcomers to the school, it was a great introduction.
I was invited to talk about my own work for 10-minutes and tried to provide an short overview of my research and why I am in Berlin, with the hope that it may be of interest to some! I found it difficult to know how to pitch my talk, as I wondered if what I had to say might be both obvious (we are interested in experiments at IfREX, nothing new in what you say) and confusing (why and how will you investigate these issues as a geographer). It was hard to gauge a reaction, but I had tried to provide a bit of time at the end for questions. Two came my way: (1) What is geography for you? and (2) What sort of data will you collect? My rather vague answer to the first question was to discuss how I see it as a point of departure for all sorts of different projects, all with an interest in space. On reflection, I perhaps should have stressed my interest not in what something is but in what something does. In this respect, geography enables me to examine the spaces of aesthetic experimentation and draw on work from a range of other fields. In response to the second question, I tried to explain how I think of generating materials rather than looking to extract data or evidence, as such. This might include all sorts of different things and would not necessarily be restricted to text and/or talk; further the techniques would be open to suggestion, flexible and experimental (in that they might not generate much or anything at all). My fieldwork diary, audio recordings, photos, videos, sketches would be just a selection of some materials that might be produced.
The students’ talks were interesting and stimulating, as well as wide-ranging. To list them all here, or to choose just the highlights would be a disservice to their richness. The day finished with discussions on how you might, as an artist, talk about your work. How to let your artwork do its own work, rather than your talk having to supplement it. Although these are questions that might ordinarily be posed in art schools, I have no idea (!), I found it interesting to think through them with regards to geography and my own work.
This post is tagged event, generating materials, IfREX, introduction, talks