The first exhibition-presentation of the project The Land of the Summer People took place in the Exeter Community Centre on the 25th of March.
The results of this project were presented as an art exhibition where artists and engineers were able to talk about their work with the public. The varied nature of the projects created a very dynamic event, given that some of the projects required public participation in the exhibition space to be completed. In addition, there we presented documentation of work done specifically in Somerset, both work with the landscape and with the local people, following our aim to communicate flooding issues in the Somerset Levels and Moors through public engagement.
During the day we were able to work together in creating the exhibition in the available space for the evening event. This last step of the project was interesting as the engineers participated in a new experience to them, displaying art installations. The result was that we had a group of people both concerned with pictures hanging straight and equally spaced, while also worrying about what emotions it might evoke in the visitors. This part of the collaboration again enabled both groups, engineers and artists, to engage with each other’s thinking and creative processes. And even if the exhibition was the final step of the project at this stage, it is likely to become just a milestone along a path that will lead to further joint work.
We would like to say thanks to everyone who was involved in the research process and the making of the work, especially to all the participants:
Olivia Cooke, David Glover, James Webber, Deborath Wesrmancoat, Andrea Oke, Josie Ashe, Lawrence Hawker, Jonathon King, Jon England, Nejc Coz, Wouter Knouben, Barney Dobson, Ludovica Beltrame, Ioanna Stamataki and Simon Ledson.
We of course would like to thank EPSRC, the WISE CDT program and the office for public engagement at the University of Bristol for their financial support, and a special thanks to the Exeter Community Centre for being such a great team to work with.
For us, Seila Fernandez Arconada and Thorsten Wagener, the project has been a whole new learning process and hopefully we will be able to work together again so that we can develop new ideas building on this first pilot project and experiment. Please have a look to the images of the event – “a picture is worth a thousands words”. Also, in the following posts of this blog, each project will be explained by the participant group and we will kepp you updated with news about the project. We would like to hear from you, so please do share your thoughts with us.
Some images of the process of putting the exhibition up and taking it down.
Some images of the event
Seila Fernández Arconada and Thorsten Wagener.
The Land of the Summer People 