DIY: 2016 – Stephen Hodge ‘T(r)ipping points: the architect-walker and the destabilised city’

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS DIY HAS NOW PASSED

A two-day, intensive DIY project exploring notions of tripping and tipping points through the lens of the architect-walker

Project summary

This is a 2-day professional development project for artists who work, or are interested in developing work, in relation to the urban public realm. Drawing on participants' individual practices and expertise, and working largely on our feet on the streets of Dublin, we will explore notions of tripping and tipping points. It will utilise disrupted walking practices to initiate playful debate, collaboration, intervention and spatial meaning-making; help participants to develop individual tactics for negotiating the city; and facilitate transdisciplinary exchange through walking and talking with other artists and non-artists on an equal footing.

Together, we will undertake a series of peripatetic experiments designed to interrogate questions such as: How might walking culture contribute to architecture? When does the walker become an architect? How small a change is required to tip the city, or the lived experience of the city, from one state to another? We will respond to input from experts from other spatial practices, as well as each other.

This DIY project is rooted in the continued rise in urban, peripatetic practices. It will touch on the transformative potential of transdisciplinary (even antidisciplinary) dialogues around place and mobility. On thinking around climate change and sustainable living. On living between the local and the global. On the growing assault on 'public space' triggered by an exponential rise in Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) and Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs). On tactical urbanism ('short-term action for long-term change').

Participants

Given the nature of walking-based activities, there are a maximum of 8 places. The experience will be most interesting if we are able to achieve as wide mix of disciplinary backgrounds as possible. The application asks for a statement (500 words maximum) about your own practice and how you imagine the DIY project would be of benefit to you.

Dates, times and location

Dates: 16-17 Aug 2016
Times: TBC (2 long days)
Location: Dublin
This DIY is supported by Create Ireland

The artist

Stephen generates live art + spatial practices across a range of contexts, e.g.: Where to build the walls that protect us, Kaleider commission (2013-14); 4 x 4 Screens, Live Art Development Agency DVD (2013); The Master Plan, Book Works/Situations co-publication (2012); SLarristokaupunki, ANTI Festival commission, Finland (2009); for piano solo, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow (1994). He is a core member of Wrights & Sites, four artist-researchers who focus on people’s relationships to places, cities and walking. The outcomes of their work varies from project to project, but frequently include site-specific performance, Mis-Guided Tours (e.g. Stadtverführungen in Wien, Vienna Festival, 2007), published Mis-Guides (e.g. A Mis-Guide To Anywhere, 2006), drifts, mythogeographic mapping, public art (e.g. Everything you need to build a town is here for Situations, 2010) or installations (e.g. mis-guided, BBI Fribourg, 2008), as well as public presentations and articles. He is Associate Professor in Live Art + Spatial Practices at the University of Exeter, and a stakeholder resident at Kaleider. 
> www.stephenhodge.org