Fieldworking

FIELDWORKING by Laura Harrington
Collaboration / co-commissioned funded project (artist camp and film). 2019 – 2020
Tyneside Cinema (Projections) | MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art)

Fieldworking – artist camp

“Fieldworking is a film shot during a five-day camp in the uplands of Moor House-Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve during August 2019. Six artists, an ecologist and two filmmakers were brought together at a former scientific field station to cultivate multifarious practices of artistic fieldwork. Together we found ways of existing, inhabiting and working within the context of this remote location. Moor House and its upland, blanket bog ecosystem was largely unknown to the participants. The camp intentionally provided an opportunity to experience an unfamiliar context, with the intention of exploring a rawness of perception in relation to artistic practice. The camp wasn’t about endurance, remoteness or having a difficult time with the elements, although it did rain continuously. Rather, it was a space to think about how artists and landscape meet and what happens in that encounter.”

Summary:
Collaborative research residency staying remotely in tents near to Moor House scientific station / public programme with workshops, talks, performances and film / working with artists, cultural agents, a remote field centre and cultural institutions

Artists:
Ludwig Berger
Luce Choules
Laura Harrington – organiser
Simone Kenyon
Fiona MacDonald (Feral Practice)
Lee Patterson

With:
Chris Bate – filmmaker
Sarah Bouttell – filmmaker
Meredith Root-Bernstein – ecologist and ethnobiologist

And:
Adam Pugh – curator and designer
Alessandro Vincentelli – curator

Project partners:
Tyneside Cinema (Projections) Newcastle, UK | MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), Middlesbrough, UK | Bergit Arends, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK | Danny McNally, University of Reading, UK.

Keywords:
Environmental Art, Curated Landscapes, Physical/Human Geography, Ecology and Geology, Survey, Fieldwork.

Funded by:
National Lottery through Arts Council England, with additional support from Natural England, Northumbria University and The Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Link to Laura Harrington website (Fieldworking page)
Link to Tyneside Cinema (Projections) screening (2020)
Link to The Newbridge Project screening (2022)
Link to Institutional Fieldworking: CNoS @10 event (2023)

The collaborative film Fieldworking was to be premiered as part of Projections at Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, UK in March 2020 – it was postponed due to the pandemic, and rescheduled for screening in 2021. A bookwork was published in April 2020.

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IMAGES – Luce Choules

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PERFORMANCE LECTURE – Luce Choules (shown at MIMA in 2021)

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LUCE CHOULES Fieldworking accommodation
Image: Luce Choules’ very brilliant Terra Nova ‘Voyager’ tent which has accompanied them well on many travels over 20 years and sadly perished on this project – seems the rain of the Pennines finished it off!