Fieldwork tools
Tools for selecting/engaging with a site and getting to know it through moving, observing, walking, exploring and analyzing.
Photo: Harmattan Theatre
AQUATOPIA: Governors Island, NYC (USA)
2017
Harmattan Theatre, May Joseph
WHAT is the practice?
Harmattan Theatre develops an oceanic praxis, a performance-based inquiry into alternative modes of coastal living amidst rising water levels and climate change. Their performance Aquatopia sought to pull New York City inhabitants into an immersive, sensory engagement with their maritime landscape, aiming to remind them of the vulnerability of living within such environments.
WHY was it initiated?
The performance emerged in the wake of Hurricane Sandy that struck New York in 2012 (Governors Island being among the most affected areas), and a succession of devastating storms in the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast, and along the coast of Texas. These events spurred Harmattan Theatre to explore the challenges faced by communities living by the water in times of rapid climate change. Their performance-based intervention aimed to also confront the outdated laws of the US political establishment at the time, which mobilized its resources primarily for disaster relief rather than for prevention measures in an increasingly turbulent climate.
HOW does it work?
During the performance, audiences were invited to walk, climb and sit amidst the scales of stones on Governors Island. At various points, actors recited from Dante Alighieri’s Fifth Canto and Heinrich Heine’s Lorelei, drawing participants into a hypnotic meditation on the sea’s violent undertow and the vulnerability of humans in the face of natural elements, while a rendering of Fernando Pessoa’s Mar Português served as a reminder of Manhattan’s role in the Atlantic slave history. The performance culminated with a metaphorical representation of the Hudson River swaddling the island, enacted by the actors and audience participants using Indian saris in the colors of the river. They carried the ‘waves’ of the Hudson, portraying the island’s solitary fragility at the mouth of the harbor.
KEY TOOLS:
- Fieldwork tools
- Participation tools
- Tactical tools
- Materiality tools
Learn more:
Photo: Harmattan Theatre
Sea Dike (NL)
2014
Harmattan Theatre
WHAT is the practice?
Sea Dike was a movement-based public intervention, performed by Harmattan Theatre members and local audiences in Amsterdam in 2014. The slow-walking method employed in the performance drew on the traditional movement techniques of Kalaripayattu (from Kerala) and Vipassana dance (from Laos).
WHY was it initiated?
The project aimed to bring to the fore the connection between Amsterdam’s maritime history and the environmental impact of Dutch colonization on sites and communities outside Europe (such as the Malabar coast in India). The site of the old moat of Amsterdam, now Singel Street, was used as a symbolic node to represent how current ecological crises, such as rising sea levels, are connected to the violent alterations of coastal ecologies during the colonization era.
HOW does it work?
A lead performer, Varino, emerges from under the Torensluis bridge and starts walking slowly towards the Singel Street on the other side of the canal. She is followed sequentially by other five performers, all using the Kalaripayattu/Vipassana techniques to channel movement through their feet. Bystanders soon start to join, gradually extending the human link crossing the bridge. Coming from global regions that were intertwined in the early maritime trade (Dutch, Portuguese, Malabari, Turkish, Italian, etc.), their movement embodies a journey of cultural and historical rearticulation, recognition and recalibration.
KEY TOOLS:
- Fieldwork tools
- Participation tools
- Tactical tools
Learn more:
https://www.mayjoseph.com/work/sea-dijk
Photo: Rosie Healey
WALKING : HOLDING (UK)
2011-present
Rosana Cade
WHAT is the practice?
Walking:Holding is a subtle, experiential performance that invites you to walk hand in hand with a series of different local strangers around the city to discover it anew. The performance relies on unfamiliar perspectives, unexpected encounters and unimagined feelings.
WHY was it initiated?
Designed for one audience member at a time the piece asks people to challenge prejudices in the flesh and experience first-hand what it is to walk in someone else’s shoes – or hands. This performance was part of queer activism and a commitment to build meaningful connections between strangers and challenges whose physical intimacy is considered normal in public space.
HOW does it work?
A group of local volunteers is gathered, and they are distributed along a track. Each of them will be covering a section of the path walking hand in hand with a single person at a time. During the section, a volunteer walking the guest might or also might not share some personal experiences or thoughts and have a conversation with the audience member.
KEY TOOLS:
- Fieldwork tools
- Participation tools
Learn more:
https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Rosana-Cade_Walking-2019.pdf
Photo: MTÜ Hakk
KULTUURIKANAD (CULTURE CHICKENS) (EST)
June - September 2012
MTÜ Hakk
WHAT is the practice?
Kultuurikanad is an urban chicken-keeping project featuring an architecturally designed hen garden. It integrates metal pyramids and a net structure, providing a functional and aesthetic environment for Sablepoot chickens while engaging city dwellers with urban farming and city planning discussions.
WHY was it initiated?
The project promotes urban chicken-keeping, encourages public engagement with city planning, and highlights local urban development issues, particularly around Kultuurikatel and Kalarand (the seaside area in Tallinn). It also drew attention to the “egg panic” while creating an interactive space for visitors to observe chickens in a thoughtfully designed environment.
HOW does it work?
The hen garden consists of a separate chicken area and shed, integrated with metal pyramids that support a net and divide functional spaces. Visitors can sit nearby and observe Sablepoot chickens, a small, friendly breed ideal for city environments, while the installation blends architecture with urban nature.
KEY TOOLS:
- Fieldwork tools
- Dialogue tools
- Material tools
Learn more:
https://baas.edl.ee/system/items/570/original/kultuurikanad_kokkuvote.pdf?1347008525