Online residency for Engaged Art Network

Having met through the Art of Engagement website, Rajni and Canadian artist Caffyn Kelley together decided that they would like to initiate a simple online residency program that would allow artists and activists from different parts of the world to share experiences and conversations in a little more depth. This program is designed to allow artists with some experience and/or interest in using online technology to spend a month playing with what might be possible using the simple technology supplied. Once completed, all residencies will remain on the site as a growing resource.

Visit http://islandsinstitute.ning.com to join the network and see who is currently in residence.

Online residencies between June 2007 and June 2008:

Rajni Shah, a trial residency, using a blog to explore various ideas around engaged practice

Jean-Marie Mauclet and Gwylene Gallimard, who have worked for thirty years on large-scale public projects around the world

Tim Jeeves, whose work includes interventions, writings and the artistic athleticism of the Grunts for the Arts arts collective

Doran George, whose experimental dance and live art practice focuses on the physical, emotional, interpersonal, and cultural body in recovery

Glas(s), artists Jess Thorpe and Tashi Gore - UK performance artists who work with young people and communities

John Jordan, whose Paths Through Utopias takes us on a 6 month journey through Europe in search of ways of living despite capitalism

Bobby Baker, whose humorous work wickedly interrogates the intersections of intolerable cultural assumptions with everyday life

The Art of Engagement at http://islandsinstitute.ning.com

1st June 2008: a letter within a letter

For my online residency during June 2008, I've decided to keep a blog
on this page. It's strange because blogging on the one hand really
appeals to me - I love writing and being able to… Continue

5th June 2008: the bridges and tiredness

I'm a little shy today, clumsy, I don't know what to say. I knocked
over my glass, stumbled over my words… Continue

6th June 2008: letter for an invisible woman

You have been an invisible citizen, a neighbour who slips between the
joins in the day, a silent participant in our neighbourhood. When I
talk to you, I understand something further… Continue

7th June 2008: where we are allowed to tread

These two notions, they captivate me:
1. translation
2. internal geographies
Dear Bobby
You too are looking at where you can tread… Continue

9th June 2008: observations of a man on the street who says hello and smiles

It is important to remember that given circumstance, given home, given
background, given what has been taught and what has been observed and
what has not been observed, given privilege, given desolation, given
change… Continue

11th June 2008: for theron, reprise on being invisible

10.06.08
dear theron
last night got me thinking again about being invisible.
because when i'm in west london at a 'proper theatre' i get a little
uneasy, feel out of my depth, aware that there is no-one… Continue

17th June: fragments - for birthday girls

because the time for reflection is not "of value" (see? how ridiculous it sounds?)
because of the idea that someone remembers us, and creates us through that memory
because sometimes… Continue

21st June: a leap into another culture, about to leave for Fribourg, Switzerland

Many of us begin with this willingness to leap into other cultures, to
be among people and to work in situations that surprise, challenge us.
I try to commit to things when I don't yet know… Continue

25th June: towards destabilisation and welcome

My language is allowed to become dented and elevated by the idiolect of every person I meet
I am writing from Switzerland! I'm at the wonderful Belluard Bollwerk
festival in Fribourg, and we've just opened… Continue

26th June: quick in a slow time or slow in a quick time

I was waiting to buy something at the check-out today. And I wasn't
impatient... Continue

27th June: what remains

I'm desperate to tell you everything before June ends and this space
closes. I know it doesn't have to close, but also it does. Because it
gains its energy from the knowledge that it will be over… Continue

30th June 2008: The End

So this to conclude the online residency. It is late and I am still in
Switzerland, land of beauty and time and linguistic shifts. Today I ran
a workshop with a group of women… Continue