Fieldguide Gathering / Strain Against the Archives

Polyvocal Reading of Fieldguide vol 1 with Orlando Preternaturalist, Nadia Kamies and Ten Voices at ESALA / Adam House Basement Theatre /  Edinburgh / December 3, 2024

Bitter Walk Wind Sing

The Company of Fifty carried the Midwife’s Herball out to meet the winds of the North Sea. De Langste Dag. Saturday 29, June 2024, Western Breakwater, Ostend, Belgium. Bitter Walk Wind Sing is a part of Wendy Morris’s Recuperating a Herball for an enslaved Angolan Midwife at the Cape (2018- ) Photos by Wannes Cré. De Langste Dag / Mu.Zee and KAAP Kunstencentrum

Writing to Listen

Two-day writing workshop with Kate Briggs and Kate Pullinger / June 1 & 2 / Rotterdam / In his book Landmarks, the English nature writer Robert McFarlane advocates for the creation of “a glossary of enchantment for the whole earth, which would allow nature to talk back and would help us to listen.”* While cataloguing the earth might prove too daunting, this two-day writing workshop with guests Kate Briggs and Kate Pullinger offers a modest step in that direction by … Read More

An Ear to Ethnobiologists

Setting up a series of DIALOGUES with ethnobiologists for the project ‘A Certain Herb’. Last week the project ‘A Certain Herb’ travelled to Marrakech, Morocco, to the Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiologists: Biodiversity and Cultural Landscapes: Scientific, Indigenous and Local Perspectives. Held at the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, the Congress brought together four hundred ethnobiologists from seventy different countries. Amongst those researchers were many who have valuable insights to bring to the investigation into the contents of … Read More

In the Making – Ecology and (Sounding) Art at West/The Hague

On March 24, I talked about my research and did a live reading of the audio essay H(a)unted Listening on the In the Making – Ecology and (Sounding) Art event by ACPA Leiden and West in The Hague. About In the Making: ‘In the Making’ is a close collaboration between the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University and Art Institute West Den Haag and consists of a series of six public sessions that present to the … Read More

‘A Forest Lament’ at the Botanical Garden Gent

07.05.2024 Performance of ‘A Forest Lament’ at the book launch of Nele Buyst’s poem collection ‘CORPS, poreus‘ (published by Het Balanseer) in the Palmarium of the Botanical Garden in Gent. More information here A Forest Lament – Due to climate change and century-long monoculture plantings, European forests are in despair. Trees are dying, and the ecology is changing at a rapid speed, which also affects the acoustic sphere – the forests are turning more and more silent. In A Forest Lament, … Read More

‘Between the Lines’ & ‘Natura Rebellis’ at O. & V2_, Rotterdam, NL

18.05–25.05.2024 First public presentation of the new film and robotic sound installation ‘Between the Lines’ (work in progress). Première of the live performance Natura Rebellis at O. (Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.) and V2_ Lab for Unstable Media with new composition of composer Henry Vega.… Read More

‘LUNÄ Talk’ and performance ‘Electrify Everything’ at group exhibition ‘Power Up’, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, FR

Marjolijn Dijkman participates in the group exhibition Power Up, Technical Imaginaries, and Social Utopias at Kunsthalle Mulhouse from 15 February to 28 April 2024. She presents an installation and activation of LUNÄ with a large wall installation of Earthing Discharge (Panorama). On the 25th of March, a LUNÄ Talk will take place, and on the 8th of April, she will perform Electrify Everything together with composer Pom Bouvier b.… Read More

Première of new iteration of ‘Electrify Everything at Biennale Nova_XX, Paris, FR

The première of the new iteration of ‘Electrify Everything’ with live sound composition by Pom Bouvier b., live film projection by Marjolijn Dijkman, and a recorded text by Jean Katambayi spoken by François Makanga… Read More

‘Game Calling’ and Mimetic Practices

A collection of recent experiments and works related to instruments imitating animal calls, hunting, bioacoustics and listening.… Read More

Seminar: Emptiness and Infinite Space VII

Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, NL. December 8, 20h30. Free admission, but reservation required.
Seminar on the potential of digital worlds, with presentations by a.o. artist/researcher Alexandra Crouwers and philosopher Kirsten Poortier, followed by a discussion.… Read More

Marjolijn Dijkman @ LASER Talk Antwerp: Restoring the Human Element

LASER Talk with Frank Theys, Eva- Maria Lopez, Ronny Blust, Marjolijn Dijkman, Florian Zanatta. Organized by: Alexandra Dementieva and Kristof Timmerman (research group MAXlab) Hosted by: Edith Doove

The current state of our society is a product of the technological developments that originated in the second half of the past century. These accelerating technological innovations have shaped our way of life profoundly. However, the rapid pace of progress often overshadowed the long-term implications, leading to unintended consequences such as environmental degradation, social inequalities, and the erosion of human connection. Blinded and propelled by the promises of technological progress, we have often overlooked the human factor and ecological consequences.

MAXLab invites artists and scientists working at the intersection of art and technology to a debate on reintroducing the human element at the center of scientific and technological progress and the role of the arts in this.… Read More

Procession of Contraceptive Plants and Forgotten Midwives / video

The Procession is a part of Nothing of Importance Occurred, a project of recuperation of a Herball for a 17th century Angolan midwife at the Cape, South Africa. This project explores the knowledge that midwives and women of the 17th century had of plants that controlled fertility. At the heart of the story is the person on Maaij Claesje, an enslaved woman in the VOC (Dutch East India Company) slave lodge, Cape Town, who was, eventually, able to negotiate her emancipation … Read More

Artistic Research Project at Middelheim Museum / Discussion between Wendy Morris and curator Pieter Boons

In residence at Middelheim Museum, Wendy Morris is exploring how knowledge of plant-based contraception has been passed down clandestinely for centuries. Curator Pieter Boons spoke with the artist about the many themes in her work: about our lost relationship with plants, about contraception, loss of language and personal connections to histories of enslavement. P: But you don’t work alone. You are working in or as a Company. Who is the Company? First of all the name of the ‘Company’ refers … Read More

Hydromedia residency & invitation for a symposium

Alexandra Crouwers is part of the second Hydromedia residency in Utrecht. The project will run in April 2023 hosted by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (BE), in October 2023 by HKU in Utrecht (NL) and in April 2024 by HfG Karlsruhe (DE). Hydromedia mobilizes the arts to visualize the Green Deal (area 7) agenda in tangible ways so to promote transnational dissemination and audience engagement. The project is co-funded through the E.U.’s Creative Europe programme.

Symposium: October 5. Register link in post.… Read More

H(a)unted Listening / Radio essay premier at Radiophrenia / September 2nd

H(a)unted Listening is an experimental radio essay about a hunter and a field recordist. A haunted encounter on a misty November morning in a forest in East Germany is the departure for a reflection on (sound)hunting, female forest presence and a strange friendship. The radio essay will premier on September 2nd / 15h30 at the international radiofestival Radiophrenia. Listen on the Radiophrenia stream online or on Resonance Extra.

The Forest Radio is online!

How does a forest sound that is changing, disappearing?  How will a forest sound without a forest? Listen here >>> https://theforestechoesback.online The Forest Radio is a live stream radio transmission from a bark beetle-infested site in the Thuringian Forest and is part of the research project ‘The Forest Echoes Back‘ by Nele Möller.

Listening to Trees / w Bart Backaert at Stadpluraal – Recyclart / September 6th

What stories do the trees in our neighbourhood tell? How do they interact and communicate with each other? When does an ‘invasive’ tree become a ‘native’ tree? What happens when we start listening more to the ecology in our environment? Together with sound artist and researcher Nele Möller and plant expert Bart Backaert, we listen to the stories and sounds of trees in Molenbeek and talk about biodiversity, reforestation and climate distress in the city. 18:30 Meet-Up 19:00 Listening Walk … Read More

(Un)recording the Field / Presentation at the ‘Time to Listen’ Conference

On 19th and 20th August 2023, inm/field notes and the Academy of Arts welcomed participants to the conference »Time to Listen – Sustainability in Contemporary Music«.  Musicians, artists and researchers were invited to reflect on the relationship between sound and ecology. The sessions included presentations, open discussions, workshops, listening sessions and lectures. From more than 40 submissions, the sessions were selected together with an expert jury consisting of Marina Cyrino, Katharina Rosenberger and Fabien Levy. In ‘(Un)recording the Field’  we … Read More

! Call to Participate !

Since January Wendy has been working in commission of the Middelheim Museum on a new performance work in which the virtues of medicinal plants growing in the park – and more specifically indigenous contraceptive plants – are central. On June 24 this work, which is a procession and an ambulatory library, will wind its way through the park – and it needs you to join in! With this mail we are making a call to friends, acquaintances and anyone interested, to become … Read More

The Forest Echoes Back @ Reveil 2023

Reveil is a 24-hour live radio transmission of the dawn chorus around the globe. >>>>>>> Listen here <<<<<<< “Reveil (2014—) is a collective production by streamers at listening points around the earth. Starting on the morning of Saturday 6 May in South London near the Greenwich Meridian, the broadcast will pick up feeds one by one, tracking the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following the wave of intensified sound that loops the earth every 24 hours at first light. … Read More

Strain Against the Archives / Fieldguide Gathering / Cape Town

A gathering around Fieldguide #1, UNPICK, RESTITCH – Doilies, Medorahs, Labouring Plants by Nadia Kamies. UNPICK, RESTITCH narrates an archive of the ordinary. It insists on story-telling as method. There are family photographs, hand-crocheted doilies and medorahs – Nadia’s grandmothers’ craftwork – rituals and traditions. There is the Rose of Jericho or Flower of Maryam, a plant that emerges as an analogy for midwives, birth and labour, travelling and displacement, rebirth and resurrection, with deep connections to disempowered voices throughout … Read More

There, Listening / Fieldguides Gathering / Kamiesberg

A three-day gathering in Kamiesberg/Namaqualand. We started the gathering on the first day with a joint reading in Paulshoek of Fieldguide #3 – There Listening: Plant Perspectives on Healing and Power/’n Plant se Perspektiewe van Krag en Genesing, written by Joshua B Cohen and Johanna ‘Marianna’ Lot. Each participant wore a pocket with stitched plant names in Afrikaans, Dutch and Nama that appear in the text of the Fieldguide. Participants of the reading/gathering in Paulshoek were Cornelius Brand, Willem Brand, … Read More

Listening Fields #1

Mark the date! April 7th, 2023 – 12 noon The first episode of Listening Fields will be broadcasted on Radio Panik. Listening Fields is a bi-monthly radio show that oscillates around various listening and field recording practices and the discourse surrounding them. We invite you to come listen to buzzing, squealing, chattering, fluttering – sounds that tell stories about the living and non-living beings we share our space with. For each show, we pay attention to the work of guests … Read More

Fieldguide Gatherings / South Africa

In April deep histories fragile memories are organizing two sets of Gatherings in South Africa in collaboration with the authors of the Fieldguides.
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The Annotated Garden

Seeing my plot as a demonstrably alive protagonist, this quick and earthly prototyping session with the Realities in Transition Artists engaged various technologies to explore narrative, visual and ecological densities. … Read More

Rooted Encounters / Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings Recap Day 2 Part 2

A review by An-Katrien Callebaut
CHAPTER 4: GATHERING / WHISPERS OF WIND… Read More

Rooted Encounters / Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings Recap Day 2 Part 1

A review by An-Katrien Callebaut
CHAPTER 3: GATHERING / AMBULATORY LIBARIES… Read More

Rooted Encounters / Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings Recap Day 1 Part 2

A review by An-Katrien Callebaut
CHAPTER 2: SYMPOSIUM/ROOTED ENCOUNTERS – AFTERNOON SESSION… Read More

Rooted Encounters / Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings Recap Day 1 Part 1

A review by An-Katrien Callebaut
CHAPTER 1: SYMPOSIUM/ROOTED ENCOUNTERS – MORNING SESSION… Read More

Rooted Encounters / Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings

Symposium and Fieldguide Gathering / Nov 8 & 9 / Deep Histories Fragile Memories research group organizes a symposium on pluralist entanglements of artistic thinking with other research ecologies and considers art’s potential for making a stand within current challenges. Thinking along with philosophies of plant biology, with feminist critiques of biotechnology, colonialism, and science, with histories of plants out of place, with bark beetles and bitter roots, we explore the collaborative possibilities of ambulatory libraries, storytelling-as-method, and ecologies of … Read More

Exhibition / Smaller Worlds. Diorama in contemporary art.

Alexandra Crouwers shows ‘The White Hide (v)’ in Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest (Hungary) as part of the group show ‘Smaller Worlds. Diorama in Contemporary art’. October 14 – January 15, 2023.… Read More

Day of Encounters: Constructed Histories, Conflicted Memories

A day of encounters, presentations and screenings on the historic & contemporary entanglements b/w architecture urban history & colonialism While debates about the conflicted heritage of colonialism have gained momentum worldwide, this conference day confronts the fields of architectural history, art, film and heritage studies with the difficult question of the memorialization of colonial sites and architectures in both Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By revising the methods of architectural history and shifting the focus from questions of … Read More

Artist Talk / (un)common values / National Bank of Belgium / 25/08/2022

Artist Talk connected to the exhibition (un)common values at National Bank of Belgium https://www.nbb.be/en/articles/uncommon-values-contemporary-art-collection-national-bank-belgium-celebrating-its-50th More information: www.nbb-expo.be

Performance / Breathing Barks

Breathing Barks took place on June 16th 2022, in the context of the blurred edges festival in Hamburg/Germany.… Read More

Exhibition / NGMI. Solo Alexandra Crouwers

Opening Saturday, June 11 and running until September 11: NGMI, a solo show by Alexandra Crouwers in De.Groen, Arnhem. NGMI stands for ‘not going to make it’.… Read More

Learning with the Garden; Learning from the Land

Friday June 3, 2022: As a part of the symposium Learning with the Garden; Learning from the Land, Renée Turner and Tara Page will be talking together about the pedagogies of place. … Read More

Cement and Sacraments

A talk by architectural historian Ellen Rowley on Friday May 20th, introduced by the Department of Ultimology.  This talk is part of research by Fiona Hallinan on the coming into being of Ultimology, or the study of endings, and the development of a film that looks closely at a rupture, the demolition of a Dublin church.Friday May 20th 18:00 BrusselsFor more information or to RSVP  info@departmentofultimology.com

Open air permanent art installation / ⓘ

On May 11, 2022, a small gathering took place to celebrate the permanent installation of a research related artistic information panel on The Plot.… Read More

Exhibition Cripur Cripour

Cripur Cripour is a nonperformance on migraine and voice, wavering between interactive opera and installation art. Through personal narratives and intimate vocal sounds, singer and sound-artist Mariske Broeckmeyer guides the audience into the blackened scenery of the migraine lands. When this neurological syndrome rages at full force, a throbbing headache and an all-consuming nausea reduce the migraineur to an immobile body on the verge of being. As the attack increases, the voice, too, slowly starts to fail. By capturing this … Read More

Research Talk / Fiona Hallinan

Fiona Hallinan gives a talk on the form of the radio essay guided by ‘Inside the Department of Ultimology’ a radio essay she co-created with curator Kate Strain / Research in the Arts class. 19/10/21. In this presentation Hallinan will explore the form of the radio essay, beginning with her experience in co-creating this work for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ Radio One, and encompassing examples in the form such as the work of George the Poet, Allie Martin and … Read More

Symposium / Sliding Together

Symposium on the occasion of the defence of Maria Gil Ulldemolin’s doctoral thesis Collapse: A Warburgian Autotheory of Impacted Interiorities and Folding Bodies / UHasselt / Sept 16 With Barbara Baert, Edith Dekyndt, Hannah Van Hove, Wendy Morris and Mia You in the morning and Maria Gil Ulldemolins in the afternoon.

ⓘ / information panels

In July & August, five information panels on my research are on view in the Park Brialmont in Antwerp, Berchem. … Read More

Meeting / dhfm

Deep histories fragile memories meeting on the occasion of the No One Would Have Believed exhibition at Netwerk Aalst 26/02/21 Our expanded research cluster met for the first time this year, in part virtually, in part in person. Anja Veirman joined via zoom from Ghent, Renée Turner from Rotterdam, Hannah Van Hove and Laurens Dhaenens from Brussels. Alexandra Crouwers, Mariske Broeckmeyer, Joeri Verbesselt and Wendy Morris were able to meet at the large and welcoming table of Netwerk Aalst. The … Read More

No One Would Have Believed

Announcement / Exhibition by Wendy Morris and Runo Lagomarsino / Curated by Laurens Dhaenens and Fernanda Pitta / Netwerk Aalst 14.11.2020 – 13.02.2021 This is the announcement for an upcoming exhibition at Netwerk Aalst. Three deep histories fragile memories members are involved. Laurens Dhaenens is co-curating, and Mariske Broeckmeyer and Wendy Morris are together composing an Audio-Eerie for the exhibition. No one would have believed is an exhibition that brings art, popular culture and politics together. It focusses on the work … Read More

Music /// Botanical Bodies / Kaap

Botanical Bodies herwerkt de muziek van Hildegard von Bingen in een gedurfde en eigentijdse geest. Deze visionaire, genezer, botanicus, feministe en componist uit de 12e eeuw creëerde fascinerende werken met vocale muziek terwijl ze werd gekweld door migraine.Dit lichamelijke lijden werd beschouwd als de bron van haar hemelse inspiratie.Samen met violist Hendrike Scharmann brengt zangeres Mariske Broeckmeyer eengroep muzikanten samen met dezelfde fascinatie voor het griezelige, in eenu itvoering die de muziek van Von Bingen herinterpreteert door middel van vrije … Read More

Lab North

Lab North soon houses the LUCA Intermedia research unit, including the dhfm research group.… Read More

The Three Motions of Loom

The exhibition ‘The Three Motions of Loom’ opened Sunday, December 15 at the Antwerp Art Pavilion (next to the MAS Museum) in Antwerp. It’s running until February 16 2020. Jeroen Olyslaegers read from his novel-in-progress ‘Wildevrouw’, which was the starting point for the project. Publisher Demian presented a limited edition. Zaaltekst (in Dutch) ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??????????????? ?????????, ??? ??? ??? ???? ??, ????? Een donderpreek. Zo herinner ik mij Jeroen Olyslaegers’ voordracht van de eerste fragmenten uit zijn … Read More

Keynote: Hilde Van Gelder at AHM Conference

Hilde Van Gelder is keynote speaker at ‘Memory, Word and Image: W.G. Sebald’s artistic legacies’ AHM Conference 12-14 December 2019 in Amsterdam.… Read More

Botanical Bodies, on the political and ritual meaning of plants

An afternoon with international guests around the work of Wendy Morris. Saturday, 12.10.2019 12:30 – 22:00h. Zwartzusterstraat 17, Aalst & Netwerk Aalst. … Read More