FILMING AND FORAGING SCREENING - Available until Tuesday 1st august
| filming_and_foraging_screening_notes_-_google_docs.pdf |
film and forage symposium
This free online symposium was completed on Tuesday 18th July 2023, produced by Joanna Mayes, in collaboration with Hannah Fletcher and The Sustainable Darkroom.
To forage is to search widely for provisions, to hunt, collect, gather, search, scout in order to obtain supplies. It is to choose the path less trodden, the route of inconvenience. This is a route that all analogue practitioners are some distance along; as we seek out these complex, time consuming methods of making. Drawn to these weighty processes and methods of working, we will hear from 4 practitioners for whom foraging is a key part of their relationship with analogue film making. Whether that be foraging for footage, chemistries, processes or for their subject, join us as we delve into the use of foraging in analogue film making and cinema.
Presented with support from Arts Council England, Sustainable Darkroom and Mayes Creative
To forage is to search widely for provisions, to hunt, collect, gather, search, scout in order to obtain supplies. It is to choose the path less trodden, the route of inconvenience. This is a route that all analogue practitioners are some distance along; as we seek out these complex, time consuming methods of making. Drawn to these weighty processes and methods of working, we will hear from 4 practitioners for whom foraging is a key part of their relationship with analogue film making. Whether that be foraging for footage, chemistries, processes or for their subject, join us as we delve into the use of foraging in analogue film making and cinema.
Presented with support from Arts Council England, Sustainable Darkroom and Mayes Creative
FILM AND FORAGE SYMPOSIUM RECORDING - AVAILABLE UNTIL 1ST AUGUST 2023
Artists speakers
James Holcombe (also of Erehwon Film)
The Great Hollywood Forage
Title: A case study, incorporating research and documentation, of the discovery and restoration of a mid century 16mm table top 16mm contact printer (The Hollywood Junior)
About the Artist: James Holcombe makes films and performances colliding his knowledge of celluloid and it's (historical and contemporary) coming-into-being, with a healthy disregard for the means by which it does so. Recently he has found this a useful prism through which to view English public executions, as well as the development and failure of American sound on film technology. James runs the experimental DIY film laboratory in Frome, erehwon: @erehwon_film. He buys and sells vintage film stock, projection equipment and resources via @fromefilm
You can find him on: @erehwon_film / https://www.erehwonfilm.uk
Film: James will be sharing a digitised version of his Coronation film, printed with the Hollywood Junior
Laura Phillips (also of BEEF Bristol)
Title: Foraging the invisible: media archaeology in 5G networks.
Phillips often works with hand processed photochemical film & DIY artist labs as a political and artisanal process. For this talk she will talk about shooting with 16mm film in a 5g factory as a media archaeological investigation into telecoms infrastructure. Instigated by the landscape in mid-rural Wales, Phillips will talk about this film project which engages with workers in the industry, as well the legacy of access & communication infrastructure in Wales. The film raises key questions as to why there is not full 5g coverage in mid Wales as well as grassroots activism and artists ecologies.
About the Artist: Laura Phillips makes artworks using a mixture of photochemical processes, sounds & digital imagery. Working at the intersection of visual-music, expanded film and performance, her work explores obsolescence, precarity and collective histories. Salvaging and recycling digital & analogue media, she is interested in the ideas of the commons, ecology & information infrastructures. The outputs included films, writing, installations, podcasts, photography & printmaking. Improvisation & expanded film is a key part of her work and has closely collaborated with Viridian Ensemble: an interdisciplinary instrumentalists based in Bristol, who advocate for non-binary & women in experimental music and free improvisation. Her day job is in preservation of 16mm film.
You can find her at: @lauraphillips86
Julia Parks
Title: Experiments with the sea, salt & seaweed
I will talk about my initial experiments foraging seaweed on the Cumbrian coastline and using it as a material to develop a film. My experiments developed into a longer project which explored the historical connections between people & seaweed in Northern Scotland. I'll include examples of foraging for plants to develop film images with - but also focus on capturing the act of foraging for seaweed for use as food, fertiliser and kelp burning.
About the Artist: Julia is a Cumbrian artist filmmaker exploring the interrelationships between landscapes, plants, people and industry. She works with experimental documentary forms often using 16mm film, archival footage, poetry and song. Her recent film Seaweed explored the relationship between seaweed and people in Northern Scotland. Using archive film, contemporary voices and oral histories, she intertwined separate seaweed stories to offer a message about the consequences of over-extraction.
You can find her on: @juliaemilyparks / www.juliaparks.co.uk
Joanna Mayes (also of Mayes Creative)
Title: Around The Island in a year
Joanna will be talking about her year-long filming and foraging project, where she is working with the seasonal nature of plants growing on The Island, St Ives to create a work which reflects and contains information about The Island through its plant life.
About the Artist: Joanna is a film artist who explores the experience of being in a location at a particular time through the medium of film. Bringing her experience of musical improvisation into her practice, Joanna opens her work up to chance through hand processing and the use of organic materials, to create short film-poems that reverberate between abstraction and control. She represents place through a layering of approaches to materiality: analogue film responds to the light in that place and time, physical outcomes are often charged with atmosphere from the site through use of materials of the locality, such as seawater for processing and wild berries for tinting the film.
You can find out more about her work by browsing this website - for more information about her creative production/direction work please see MayesCreative.com
The Great Hollywood Forage
Title: A case study, incorporating research and documentation, of the discovery and restoration of a mid century 16mm table top 16mm contact printer (The Hollywood Junior)
About the Artist: James Holcombe makes films and performances colliding his knowledge of celluloid and it's (historical and contemporary) coming-into-being, with a healthy disregard for the means by which it does so. Recently he has found this a useful prism through which to view English public executions, as well as the development and failure of American sound on film technology. James runs the experimental DIY film laboratory in Frome, erehwon: @erehwon_film. He buys and sells vintage film stock, projection equipment and resources via @fromefilm
You can find him on: @erehwon_film / https://www.erehwonfilm.uk
Film: James will be sharing a digitised version of his Coronation film, printed with the Hollywood Junior
Laura Phillips (also of BEEF Bristol)
Title: Foraging the invisible: media archaeology in 5G networks.
Phillips often works with hand processed photochemical film & DIY artist labs as a political and artisanal process. For this talk she will talk about shooting with 16mm film in a 5g factory as a media archaeological investigation into telecoms infrastructure. Instigated by the landscape in mid-rural Wales, Phillips will talk about this film project which engages with workers in the industry, as well the legacy of access & communication infrastructure in Wales. The film raises key questions as to why there is not full 5g coverage in mid Wales as well as grassroots activism and artists ecologies.
About the Artist: Laura Phillips makes artworks using a mixture of photochemical processes, sounds & digital imagery. Working at the intersection of visual-music, expanded film and performance, her work explores obsolescence, precarity and collective histories. Salvaging and recycling digital & analogue media, she is interested in the ideas of the commons, ecology & information infrastructures. The outputs included films, writing, installations, podcasts, photography & printmaking. Improvisation & expanded film is a key part of her work and has closely collaborated with Viridian Ensemble: an interdisciplinary instrumentalists based in Bristol, who advocate for non-binary & women in experimental music and free improvisation. Her day job is in preservation of 16mm film.
You can find her at: @lauraphillips86
Julia Parks
Title: Experiments with the sea, salt & seaweed
I will talk about my initial experiments foraging seaweed on the Cumbrian coastline and using it as a material to develop a film. My experiments developed into a longer project which explored the historical connections between people & seaweed in Northern Scotland. I'll include examples of foraging for plants to develop film images with - but also focus on capturing the act of foraging for seaweed for use as food, fertiliser and kelp burning.
About the Artist: Julia is a Cumbrian artist filmmaker exploring the interrelationships between landscapes, plants, people and industry. She works with experimental documentary forms often using 16mm film, archival footage, poetry and song. Her recent film Seaweed explored the relationship between seaweed and people in Northern Scotland. Using archive film, contemporary voices and oral histories, she intertwined separate seaweed stories to offer a message about the consequences of over-extraction.
You can find her on: @juliaemilyparks / www.juliaparks.co.uk
Joanna Mayes (also of Mayes Creative)
Title: Around The Island in a year
Joanna will be talking about her year-long filming and foraging project, where she is working with the seasonal nature of plants growing on The Island, St Ives to create a work which reflects and contains information about The Island through its plant life.
About the Artist: Joanna is a film artist who explores the experience of being in a location at a particular time through the medium of film. Bringing her experience of musical improvisation into her practice, Joanna opens her work up to chance through hand processing and the use of organic materials, to create short film-poems that reverberate between abstraction and control. She represents place through a layering of approaches to materiality: analogue film responds to the light in that place and time, physical outcomes are often charged with atmosphere from the site through use of materials of the locality, such as seawater for processing and wild berries for tinting the film.
You can find out more about her work by browsing this website - for more information about her creative production/direction work please see MayesCreative.com
planned schedule - Tuesday 18th july 2023
16:00 - 16:15 = Intro
16:15 - 16:45 = Julia Parks
16:45 - 17:15 = Laura Phillips
17:15 - 17:30 = Break
17:30 - 18:00 = James Holcombe
18:00 - 18:30 = Joanna Mayes
18:30 - 18:45 = Break
18:45 - 19:15 = Filming and Foraging Screening Premiere
19:15 - 20:00 = In conversation
20:00 = close
16:15 - 16:45 = Julia Parks
16:45 - 17:15 = Laura Phillips
17:15 - 17:30 = Break
17:30 - 18:00 = James Holcombe
18:00 - 18:30 = Joanna Mayes
18:30 - 18:45 = Break
18:45 - 19:15 = Filming and Foraging Screening Premiere
19:15 - 20:00 = In conversation
20:00 = close
filming and foraging screening
Films selected for screening:
Clare Carter Sobremesa/Kitchen Memory Gyre
Thomas Keevil Alone in the Forest
Toby Parker Rees going off into mysteries
Izzy McEvoy Guide|2
Esmé Papa An Open Shore
Joanna Byrne Diane (wrapped in plastic)
Müge Yildiz Palms
Ann Steuernagel Motions of Bodies
Ellen Sampson Things Floating in the Hudson: 11th July 2019
Edd Carr Lepidoctora
Downloadable screening notes can be found above, below the screening.
There will also be films available for 2 weeks after the symposium as part of the online screening from our symposium speakers and call curators.
James Holcombe
Laura Phillips
Joanna Mayes
Kayla Parker
Clare Carter Sobremesa/Kitchen Memory Gyre
Thomas Keevil Alone in the Forest
Toby Parker Rees going off into mysteries
Izzy McEvoy Guide|2
Esmé Papa An Open Shore
Joanna Byrne Diane (wrapped in plastic)
Müge Yildiz Palms
Ann Steuernagel Motions of Bodies
Ellen Sampson Things Floating in the Hudson: 11th July 2019
Edd Carr Lepidoctora
Downloadable screening notes can be found above, below the screening.
There will also be films available for 2 weeks after the symposium as part of the online screening from our symposium speakers and call curators.
James Holcombe
Laura Phillips
Joanna Mayes
Kayla Parker