Wednesday 19th March I attended an amazing symposium called All Maps Welcome, at Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Wendy Wheeler talked about "Postscript on Biosemiotics: Reading Beyond Words – and Ecocriticism" and covers biosemiotics, the fibonnaci sequence, epigenetics, symbiosis and abduction. Culture is natural, and depends on nature. Nature and Culture, Culture is a part of Nature.
Following this Julie Bacon deliberately rambled (as in a derive traversing a complex terrain, a thinking on her feet kind of way) through ideas of what happened in her PhD, starting with a word performance about "things are (not)exactly as they seem"
She related the necessity for the (occasionally) locked door in her practice, how it allows things to emerge, providing a safe space and how Wittgenstein was taught to her by a spider.
Additionally. there were three workshops which hoped to go "beyond text".
1) research "for, through, into" practice. Physical theater, and interpretive of the idea of research for arts practice, research through arts practice and research into arts practice. This being the model of how arts practice relates to research.
2) working out what art maps to what one line title.
It showed how the mapping is not one to one, the title and the work and the thesis. A little like the example of Hans Ebbing, his research on the "Extraordinary Economy of the Arts" and his own practice which is life drawing.
3) a thought experiment, beyond the written thesis. Referencing Pitt Rivers and his experiments with categorising vs doing a field trip in the amazon where trees are being categorised more on their taste as the differentiating characteristic. What does a non-text thesis look like? Is it a collection of twigs arranged on a table.
Once they get their website I will post a link.
