A possible end:
Creative Centre for Fluid Territories (CCFT), is a peripatetic international research group that contributes to discussions about interdisciplinary practices and how they articulate critical insights about place making, belonging and occupation.
Building on last year’s contribution to buffer fringe 2019 - ‘The Urban Glenti’ - CCFT has created a unique dialogical and negotiated creative exchange to take place on-line within a dedicated exposition: Images, sounds, texts, interviews, moving image have been used to contest the idea of fixed documentation in order to acknowledge how our relationship to places are not static and where conflict/tension/uncertainty also defines the creative process itself.
In the period September - December 2020 CCFT have met online at least once a week, most often on Friday evenings. Piece by piece we have created a common exposition along with invited guests and participants.
This is now coming to a possible end… we wish to invite guests to walk through the exposition: to stop where and when they find something of interest, and to reflect on the work in the context of the Buffer Fringe theme of ‘Displacement’. To watch the events, please go on to bufferfringe.org/live or to the Buffer Fringe Facebook page.
CCFT - events
December 3, Thursday
18-19 UK time / 19-20 EU time / 20-21 Cyprus time
First guided tour through the exposition by invited guests, followed by a conversation with CCFT / Alex Hale – archaeologist uk, Vasilis Vasiliou – street/grafitti artists CY, - Anastasia Shesterinina –Politics and International Relations, UK, Despo Pasia – Museologist and curator, CY
December 5, Saturday
12-13 UK time / 13-14 EU time /14-15 Cyprus time
Second guided tour through the exposition by 4 Invited guest researchers followed by a conversation with CCFT: Helen Angel-Preece, Noah Rose, Emily Gray and Andy Lock
December 6, Sunday
12-13 UK time / 13-14 EU time / 14-15 Cyprus time
We will share our memories of CCFT’s collaborative work with invited guests from the Buffer Fringe. The exposition will then be locked and published as a live event.
Little do ye know your own blessednes; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.
El Dorado, Robert Louis Stevenson (1878)
Notes - plans - updates I:
Research Catalogue
We had a really productive conversation about the Research Catalogue (RC) and how it’s taking shape, and not in a linear shape – we felt it should continue to form in an organic responsive way. The agreement was we keep adding, responding, digging into areas we each want to, as the RC builds. Using sounds, images, texts, short videos, new pages etc or layering in a palimpsestic way.
There were no ‘new’ themes, rather we each build up our responses, introduce developed ideas, or collective responses to what is growing out of the RC, day to day, week to week etc.
There was an idea we can edit, or re-shape, or create a form towards the end of the process, rather than create a structure now. The RC is an open frame we can use, and we trust it will find it’s form over the coming weeks and months. As it is a process and the dialogue is the process, it might not need any editing rather it stands as it is.
Who are we?
We agreed we needed something on the RC to say who CCFT are, and working on the RC. So, the agreement was we each produce a 1minute audio intro to who we individually are, easiest suggestion was a mobile phone recording and sent via WhatsApp to the group to include:
- 1 minute max
- Name
- Institution affiliation and/or occupation
- Short description of creative interests – this could relate to the key words we set out for the fringe – relationship to CCFT or particular creative questions for CCFT + the fringe.
Shauna was going to build a CCFT – audio CV page)
Time line
Linda was going to create a simple time line on the RC so we can set out dates, things we need to do over the next 2 months, E.G. in particular the Friday events – see below
Invited events – 3 to 4 guest voices
We wanted to invite different voices into the RC to get responses, thoughts, ideas and reflections on what we are producing. We would send the RC link in advance so they can browse and build up a response.
We came up with several names, and dates – Sue and Johan are contacting individuals and we wondered Yiorgos if you could invite the colleague/ friend you mentioned – activist/architect to do the same – reflect on our material and propose thoughts, questions and responses with us. If he wasn’t available perhaps there is another person you could invite?
Invited guests - Starting on 16th October – details to follow
Yiorgos – we have a date of Friday 6th November for your colleague/invited guest
A thought - Do you think we could ask one of the Fringe curators to be one of our invited guests – or one of the other artists taking part??
We also thought we need to be really mindful of who we invite – ethics, gender etc etc…as it will be on-line we could really be very International/global in who this is?
We need to check permissions regarding recording the sessions or how they might contribute to the RC pages with their own new material or external links etc.
Friday night WhatsApp
We thought of doing another Friday night 18.00 to 19.30 wherever we are WhatsApp – sound, image, film, text – and in addition each ask another person to do the same – so we build up a ‘montage’ of material based on ours and 1 others response. So that would be whoever can take part – max 7CCFT’ers and 7 guests = 14 responses on the night using whatsapp.
We thought about who the ‘another person’ could be, friend, relation, from another place, country, and in particular non-academic to get different voices – places, thoughts, content and material we wouldn’t produce ourselves.
Blog posts
We suspect the fringe would like regular updates and new posts – perhaps every week. Duncan suggested he was happy to do this – or we could each take turns week to week? Duncan sending a new post on Sunday, draft was sent on email Friday – next Friday we can decide how to proceed.
Notes - plans - updates II:
Research Catalogue
We had a really productive conversation again this week….about the Research Catalogue (RC) and how it’s taking shape, and not in a linear shape – we felt it should continue to form in an organic responsive way. The agreement was we keep adding, responding, digging into areas we each want to, as the RC builds. Using sounds, images, texts, short videos, new pages etc or layering in a palimpsestic way.
we liked the audio CV’s…and Johan’s silence ;)
As before…….there were no ‘new’ themes for the RC, rather we each build up our responses, introduce developed ideas, or collective responses to what is growing out of the RC, day to day, week to week etc.
As before some discussion regarding ……..an idea we can edit, or re-shape, or create a form towards the end of the process, rather than create a structure now. The RC is an open frame we can use, and we trust it will find it’s form over the coming weeks and months. As it is a process and the dialogue is the process, it might not need any editing rather it stands as it is.
Who are we? – CCFT audio CV - Shauna had done a great job with the audio CV page.
Time line – MAP page on the RC – thanks Linda !!!
it looks great, and we can add week to week as the process develops
Invited events – 3 to 4 guest voices
Sue, Jim, Yiorgos and Johan have contacted others to take part, and have positive responses to date, we can hopefully confirm the speakers, or some, next Friday and what dates.
Invited guests - Starting on 16th October ????– details to follow – if next week do we need to send an email around in advance so we are ready ;)
Yiorgos – we have a date of Friday 6th November for your colleague/invited guest
To follow up if this is still relevant……..A thought - Do you think we could ask one of the Fringe curators to be one of our invited guests – or one of the other artists taking part??
We also thought we need to be really mindful of who we invite – ethics, gender etc etc…as it will be on-line we could really be very International/global in who this is?
We need to check permissions regarding recording the sessions or how they might contribute to the RC pages with their own new material or external links etc.
Live WhatsApp – 18.00 to 19.15 UK time
This was agreed Sunday 18th CCFT’ers plus we each invite 1 other – with a theme/question/prompt of MOBILITY
So we build up a ‘montage’ of material based on ours and 1 others response. So that would be whoever can take part – max 7CCFT’ers and 7 guests = 14 responses on the night using whatsapp…….in order to keep it simple we each organise how the material is shared, so it doesn’t have to be through the CCFT whatapp group…..perhaps best just between each of us and our ‘other’…and we will organise sharing all the material – confirm details before or next Friday 16th
We thought about who the ‘another person’ could be, friend, relation, from another place, country, and in particular non-academic to get different voices – places, thoughts, content and material we wouldn’t produce ourselves.
Blog posts
We suspect the fringe would like regular updates and new posts – perhaps every week as I think, reading through the material again this was part of the agreement.
Duncan suggested he was happy to do this – or we could each take turns week to week?
Duncan sent a new blog post 3 on Sunday
Belonging and displacement – student or other voices participation
Sue and Jim gave us an overview and the details of how they are approaching students at GSA to contribute to the dialogue – They have prepared a great ‘invite’ for the request and all of us agreed we can do the same with our own students or others, at respective institutions, neighbourhood etc.
Sue and Jim will forward the guidelines, details of what? how? why? etc and we set a period of 12/10 to 8/11 for responses and opportunities for this to take place.
A relative of mine claims she has been to Svalbard.
Has she?
What does it mean to be at a place; to have been there? Who can say she is wrong if she remembers the colours, the architecture, the cold, the light, the atmosphere?
Who can claim she has not been there, when she can even remember it was her that had to carry the gun to protect everybody against polar bears?
A frequently asked question in 2020 has been: Can I record it? Meeting online — it is so easy; all you have to do is to push the record button. So we push it. Is it because we feel we must go back and check how it really was?
We — CCFT — have also been recording several of our talks taking place during the Buffer Fringe Festival this autumn. But is not the recording false, and the memory true?
How it really was should that not be how I remember it?
How can a recording capture my excitement when I heard something for the first time; my joy when I suddenly did have an insight or my eagerness when I did identify a new relationship? My memories also add meaning and create new stories to what I once did hear, see, think and feel.
During this autumn we have shared images, sounds, texts, films and words about displacement, belonging, mobility, stones and pilgrimage. But, what I remember most is the Friday evening when one of us commented on that shirt we already had discussed in detail, and I could not stop laughing. Sitting in front of my computer like I have done for so many hours the last months, struggling to find a comfortable position, looking at those digital miniature torsos; and for a small moment feeling like a complete and emotional human being.
The Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman claims in Thinking, fast and slow (2011) that if you ask subsequently how something was; the answers will only tell you how someone remembers how it was.
Does it matter? Is it not our memories that connect us; that make us humble, shameful or able to feel loss?
It was how it was, and that is how I remember it.
LL
Public event,
December 3,
18:00 - 19:00 uk
JOIN / Passcode:
rW@?1yd8
October 16,
Friday,
18:00 - 19:15
First invited guest:
Ellada Evangelou
Invitation:
‘fluid territories – a nomadic on-line dialogue’
for
The Buffer Fringe 2020
Nicosia, Cyprus
The Creative Centre for Fluid Territories (CCFT) – an international inter-disciplinary group of artists, designers and architects initiated in 2016 – is currently engaged in a project called, ‘fluid territories – a nomadic on-line dialogue’ for the Buffer Fringe 2020, Cyprus and we would like to invite you to take part.
The Buffer Fringe is a cultural and intercommunal festival held each year in the heart of the City of Nicosia, and within the limits of the no-man’s-land of the demilitarized UN controlled Buffer Zone; Nicosia being the only divided city in Europe. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic this year much of the festival is being held on-line.
CCFT is a peripatetic international research group that contributes to discussions about interdisciplinary practices and how they articulate critical insights about place and displacement, place making, marginality, belonging and occupation. Our core participants exploit their creative, collaborative and other international connections, to build a rich dialogue between creative individuals and institutions across borders and boundaries.
Our working process builds on mutual respect and shared insights, rooted in an ongoing collaborative relationship that has emerged through trust and dialogue. We focus on practice-based research methods, exploiting the creative intersection between image and text, sound, presented as performance, publication, exhibition, architectural and design interventions, and socially engaged practices. We believe that culture, whether defined in terms of community, place or landscape, should not be reduced to a state of homogeneity, but should be allowed to express difference as a dynamic aspect of positive exchange.
Building on our contribution to Buffer Fringe 2019, entitled ‘The Urban Glenti’, CCFT is now engaged in a 3 month long on-line dialogic and negotiated creative exchange, between internationally dispersed contributors from Cyprus, England, Norway and Scotland. The project is running from October – December 2020, focused on the following themes: People - Places – Processes, belonging, occupation, connection, displacement, marginality, distance, mobility.
The process is being captured and published within a dedicated web portal in the public domain: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/976547/976548
Our contribution for the Buffer Fringe 2020 is taking the form of an evolving creative dialogue between our core members, into which we are inviting other voices (visual, sonic and textual).
Please see the attached Open Call.
Sue Brind,
Jim Harold
& Shauna McMullan
___
‘fluid territories – a nomadic on-line dialogue’
for
The Buffer Fringe 2020
Nicosia, Cyprus
Open Call to your students:
We would like to invite those of you who are interested in the particular themes of Belonging and /or Displacement to contribute to our on-line dialogue which you can see in progress here: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/976547/976548
Other participants in this aspect of the CCFT Buffer Fringe project, ‘fluid territories – a nomadic on-line dialogue’, include students of fine art and architecture from Universities of Nicosia, Bergen, and Nottingham Trent.
You can contribute by submitting relevant work(s) in the forms of: images, text, or short sound or video works or documentation from performances, for example. You can make or send work (which could also be documentation of a work previously made. All work should be relevant to the themes of Belonging and /or Displacement but the means of interpretation can be as specific or broad as you wish.
You are invited to make and/or contribute your work between 16 October and 6 November 2020. All participants receiving this Open Call will be working within the same timeframe. The absolute deadline for receipt of work/images is 6 November (midnight UK time).
Format for submissions:
- Image files: jpegs (maximum of 3);
- Size of images: 180 dpi, output size 30 cm by rest in proportion;
- Sound files: mp3
- Video clips: 1 minute max (indicate whether they are image only or if they include sound. Title the work and include any credits on the clip.
- Text: Word.docx files, 350-400 words max.
- If text layout is important, please also send as a pdf file so we can follow the format.
Please note: It is important that you adhere to the formats given above in order that we can manage the volume of online material. Also note that it is vital that all files are compatible with Mac computers.
How and where to submit your material:
Text and image files: email these to
Video and sound files: send these via WeTransfer to
All submissions must include an email containing the following information:
- Your name,
- Medium,
- the date of the work,
- the title of the work (if any),
- Theme(s) you are addressing,
- Location where the work was made,
- Your consent to the material being published for the purposes of ‘fluid territories – a nomadic on-line dialogue’,
- Confirmation that you own the copyright to the work,
- Give the names of any collaborators.
Where and when the work will be made public:
Once the work is received, CCFT will post your contributions on a dedicated Research Catalogue page attached to the project: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/976547/976548
The works received will be inserted on the webpage in the order in which material arrives from invited participants. We will put out an announcement for you once the material is available to view.
Please note: as the project is focused on transcultural and inter-communal dialogue, CCFT reserves the right not publish any material that is deemed to be offensive or unethical.
We hope you will feel able to contribute to CCFT’s nomadic dialogue and look forward to receiving your contributions.
Regards
Your name / department
Public event,
December 5,
12:00 - 13:00 uk
JOIN / Passcode:
0N3U9Y*a
October 18,
Sunday,
13:00 - 14:15
WhatsApp walk with
invited friends: Mobility
Public event,
December 6,
12:00 - 13:00 uk
JOIN / Passcode:
QuZfm4Ki
December 3, Thursday, 18-19 UK time
First guided tour in the exposition by invited guests, followed by a talk.
December 5, Saturday, 12-13 UK time
Second and last guided tour in the exposition by invited guests:
December 6, Sunday, 12-13 UK time
Closing down the exposition, part II. We share our memories from the event and the common work,
and add these memories to the exposition. The exposition is locked and published.
A possible end…
In the period September - December 2020 CCFT have met online at least once a week, most often on Friday evenings. Piece by piece we have created a common exposition along with invited guests and participants.
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/976547/976548
This is now coming to a possible end… we wish to invite guests to walk through the exposition: to stop where and when they find something of interest, and to reflect on the work in the context of the Buffer Fringe theme of ‘Displacement’. To watch the events, please go on to bufferfringe.org/live or to the Buffer Fringe Facebook page.
CCFT - events
December 3, Thursday
18-19 UK time
19-20 EU time
20-21 Cyprus time
First guided tour through the exposition by invited guests, followed by a conversation with CCFT
Alex Hale – archaeologist uk, Vasilis Vasiliou – street/grafitti artists CY, - Anastasia Shesterinina –Politics and International Relations, UK, Despo Pasia – Museologist and curator, CY
December 5, Saturday
12-13 UK time
13-14 EU time
14-15 Cyprus time
Second guided tour through the exposition by 4 Invited guest researchers followed by a conversation with CCFT
Helen Angel-Preece, Noah Rose, Emily Gray and Andy Lock
December 6, Sunday
12-13 UK time
13-14 EU time
14-15 Cyprus time
We will share our memories of CCFT’s collaborative work with invited guests from the Buffer Fringe.
The exposition will then be locked and published as a live event.