ABOUT
What is an Island? was a multi-regional artistic research project which explores relational form through the concept of archipelagic thinking and collaborative arts practice. Developed over diverse geographic sites from West Cork to the Galápagos Islands, What is an Island? negotiated the shifting relations between locality and world at a time of planetary transition. Comprising three iterations, the first site (2018) took place in the West Cork archipelago and explored the value of archipelagic thinking for art education at a time of geo-political tension in the Brexit negotiations. Central to the first iteration was an interrogation of the myth of the island as an islolated ilse in a vast ocean, and an affirmation of the relational dimension of the archipelago. The second site (2019) was developed over two separate archipelagos in the global south, the Jambelí Archipelago on the Ecuadorian / Peruvian border and San Cristobál Island in the Galápagos islands. Supported by Marie Curie ‘Excellence’ funding, the second iteration focused on the roles of islands in signifying climate change. Central to this iteration was an emphasis on listening as a relational form which can capture the multi-scalar, geo-poetic dynamic of the Anthropocene. Finally, in 2020, with global pandemic restrictions at their peak the third and final iteration (2020) of the project was realised online in the form of a digital archipelago designed for artistic research and educational exchange between islands, artists and academia.
SITE 1 : 2018 / SHERKIN ISLAND / HEIR ISLAND / LONG ISLAND
Facilitated by a unique pedagogical programme on a specially commissioned ferry, the first iteration of What is an Island? travelled the West Cork archipelago on a single summer day, in 2018, in search of a deeper connection between islanders, artists and the world. Responding to the question: What is an Island? three local artists were commissioned to develop work on one of three islands in the west cork archipelago, they were: Sherkin Island (artist Mona O’Driscoll), Heir Island (artist Tess Leak) and Long Island (artist art manoeuvres). Each art event was connected by the specially commissioned ferry and was supported a unique pedagogical programme, titled: The Tidalectic Lecture series, which brought together thinkers, educators and government officials to engage with the project.
> For more information on the Tidalectic Lecture programme...see here...
> For a review of the project in Circa magazine...see here...
SITE 2 : 2019 / JAMBELÍ ISLAND / SAN CRISTÓBAL / SKIBBEREEN
The second iteration of What is an Island? initiated a series of artistic research engagements across a number of Archipelagos in the global south. Developed alongside the Guayaquil Archipelago conference and supported by Marie Curie Excellence funding, environmental soundings were recorded on Jambelí Island, on the border between Ecuador and Peru, and San Cristóbal island on the Galápagos. These soundings culminated in the Listening School, a conceptual school that was set up in the Galápagos Islands for three days in July (24 – 27) and linked to West Corkand the Skibbereen Arts Festival in Ireland. Interrogating the western eco-colonial gaze on islands in the Anthropocene, the Listening School developed a pedagogical programme around listening and sounding the archipelago in the Anthropocene.
SITE 3 : 2020 / THE DIGITAL ARCHIPELAGO
The third and final iteration of the What is an island? project took take place in a virtual archipelago designed to enable archipelagic education across multiple island territories. Developed for the newly established archipelagic MA in Art and Environment in the West Cork region, the digital archipelago formed the backdrop to a virtual education programme aimed at supporting environmental art education using Oculus Rift headsets. Within this context, students used virtual Island spaces to develop contributory research with islanders and artistic propositions for the future of islands.
> For more information on the MA Art and Environment...see here...
PUBLICATION
