Proposal.
Applying for:Grant for artists (collaboration) Kayle Brandon kayle@irational.org Heath Bunting heathbunting@irational.org Tel: 0117 9553780 Funding required for:
Collective Manouvers. Bristol Summer Games, Urban Olympics 2003. Commencing: 3 to 5 October 2003, Bristol, United Kingdom.
http://duo.irational.org/collective_manouvers/ http://duo.irational.org/collective_manouvers/proposal.html
1. You and Your work.
Collective Manouvers: Urban Olympics 2003 intends to be a three day event based in Bristol, UK. We invite international, national and local cultural collectives to participate. The term Cultural Collectives recognises: Artist's, activists, independent information groups, and collectives servering the community, however the invite also extends to people interested in these areas. Bringing groups of this kind together provides an opportunity to explore, and extend the social relevance of collective work amid the experimental context of an Urban Olympic. Urban Olympics recognises physicality as a platform for the critic and exploration of urban aesthetics and politics. Groups will create and partake in situations based on the generic urban environment i.e. motorways, underpasses, urban furniture. Movement (conceptual and physical) will create a forum for personal, collective and cultural debate. Urban Olympics introductory statement : We invite cultural collective teams to present challenges and compete against each other for rewards. Collective Manouvers explores and celebrates universal urban architecture and furniture. Challenges issued by teams should utilise existing urban structures eg. trees, walls, skips, lamp-posts. We envisage challenges such as fence climbing, rail balances, tunneling, river crossing and urban cross country. We thought rewards and prizes could be items produced by the groups themselves such as books, kits, medals and equipment, but who knows. Challenges must not be dependent on equipment or technology and should be achievable by technique alone, but all technological equipment will be permitted in actual competition. Teams should be self assembling of one or more members and can be constitutionally dynamic throughout the games. Teams will not be penalize for collaborating. All teams should take part in the selecting a winner for each challenge. The challenging team will should present the prize(s) for the winning team(s). In the statement we express the formalistic aspect of the event, it seems to be structured by rules and foundered on the principles of competition. We are aware that groups also operate within sets of principles and working systems. We intend to investigate these systems how and why they work. We want to create social and physical situations where groups spend time together, share knowledge and inevitably form new relationships and networks. We want to create a forum to discuss issues of collaborative practice and public urban space. We hope the project generates significant, social situations and networks that enhance, empower and celebrate collective work. This project is progressive for our personal collaborative practice and current line of inquiry. It draws several aspects of our practice together: The investigation of the urban terrain via interventions. We employ cooperative, collaborative and social ways of working; the ethical consequences of these approaches are of importance and interest to us. The event will also be in collaboration with the Cube Cinema 'Cube_Outdoors', using the out_doors as venue. Heath and I are the founding members of 'Cube_Outdoors'. The cube will act as an over all base and a venue for an evening events. The idea is to have a Collective Exchange were we invite the groups to present some of their work. Also some form of reviewing the highlights of the day events.2. making it happen.
We have made a website specifically for the event: http://duo.irational.org/collective_manouvers/ All current information can be found on this site. We have sent out information about the event to several art collectives to receive feedback and interest concerning participation. We have received some very positive responses and some confirmation: * Rotor (rotorrr.org), Barcelona, Spain (confirmed). * IRATIONAL.ORG (irational.org), Transnational (interested). * The Yes Men (theyesmen.org), Transnational (interested). * Twenteenth Century (twenteenthcentury.com), London United Kingdom (confirmed). * The Cube Cinema (cubecinema.com), Bristol, United Kingdom (confirmed). * Bureau of Inverse Technology (bureauit.org), Transnational (confirmed). * c6.org (c6.org), London, United Kingdom (confirmed). * spc.org (spc.org) London, United Kingdom (interested). * Lowtech (lowtech.org), Sheffield, United Kingdom (interested). * A2:RT (a2rt.org) Birmingham, United Kingdom (confirmed). * Furtherfield (furtherfield.org), London, United Kingdom (confirmed). * Bristol indymedia (indymedia.org), Bristol, United Kingdom (confirmed). * Rotterdam urban adventure (euronet.nl), Rotterdam, Netherlands (confirmed). * Independent heroine (independentheroine.org), Bristol, United Kingdom. * Z Productions (zprod.org), Cardiff, United Kingdom (confirmed). We have begun to plan the schedule of events:* Monday 29 September. o 12:00 opening registration for challenges. * Tuesday 30 September. o 00:00. * Wednesday 1 October. o 00:00. * Thursday 2 October. o 10:00 informal challenge survey and development walk. * Friday 3 October. o 19:00 opening ceremony. o 24:00 challenge deadline. * Saturday 4 October. o 10:00 start of events. o 18:00 end of events. o 20:00 non-bought banquet (foraged, appropriated or home-produced food/drink/etc.) to celebrate something. * Sunday 5 October. o 10:00 start of events. o 15:00 end of events. o 17:00 closing ceremony. We have collaborative and individual experience of organizing events of this kind and are confident we can make the event coherent. Refer to national tree climbing day and the tunnel treasure hunt for previous Cube Outdoor events: Urban underground exploration: Tunnel Treasure Hunt http://tunneling.irational.org/hunt/ Exploring the Super surface: International tree climbing day http://duo.irational.org/super_surface/ Refer to these examples for other related events: Urban climbing transitions, to reroute the route: Detour http://duo.irational.org/detour/ hands and feet on tour of Bristol's finest fences:Tour De Fence http://www.irational.org/fence/ The cube Cinema will support the event by allowing participants access to its faculties and use of the venue as a base. We have no financial support. We will promote the event via the cube cinema's publicity mechanisms and the local media. We expect that groups invited to be relatively self-organising take some responsibility for the project and support us by making practical and conceptual contributions.
3. Finance.
Budget. - Publicity 100.00 gbp - Administration costs 200.00 gbp - Accommodation and travel 500.00 gbp - Documentation 100.00 gbp - Total 900.00 gbp4. Benefits.
Participants benefit from engaging in a experimental art project that provides an opportunity to meet, network and create new social and working relationships. The Cube Cinema will benefit from exchanging with like minded collectives, and the showcase of important contemporary works will be of great benefit to the audience. In general the event benefits Bristol arts and cultural communities as it will be inviting people who work and contribute to the richness of these sectors. The project is a creative intervention in public space; is public art beneficial to the public?5. Meeting our aims.
I have read through The Arts Council's aims and honestly think this project fulfills all stated. As for cultural diversity, I am a young female mixed race artist in collaboration with a less young Caucasian male.5. Evaluation.
We will be documenting this work fully, with the aim to produce a book and possible evening video showings at The Cube Cinema. The event will be evaluated by assessing the response of groups involved and that of the audience who attend the collective manouvers evening at The Cube Cinema. Also, the response of the public that happen upon the event will be of great importance and interest to us. Evaluation also will center around Heath and I reviewing our collaboration and structural work. We are happy to provide you with a report if required.