A Belgian Transect: Field Broadcast in the expanded field of ecology

Abstract

This article sets out the notion of a Field Broadcast from the dual perspective of Rebecca Birch, one of the developers of a bespoke version of Flash Media Live Encoder and Bram Thomas Arnold, an artist who uses a case study from Sideways Festival, Belgium, 2012. Field Broadcast enables an artist to be in a field, suitably equipped, and stream live footage to an audience. It is an experiment in place, site and the notion of a field. It is a new method of making work in the space between site-specific performance and the digital realm: a way of working that enables artists to generate new artworks within the non-place of the Internet. Birch introduces the technology from a number of perspectives before it is fleshed out with evidence and experience from a live project that took place in Belgium in 2012. Sideways was a festival that traversed Belgium over four weeks and 400 km, with artists walking and generating work en route. The possibilities offered by Field Broadcast are explored in relation to the expanded field of ecology amidst Bourriaud's The Radicant (2009), Guatarri's The Three Ecologies (2005) and Morton's Ecology Without Nature (2007).

Keywords:

• ecology
• broadcast
• performance
• fieldwork

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Erratum

Notes

1 Field Broadcast developed from the practices of, and is co-directed by the artists Rebecca Birch and Rob Smith.

2 For example, the Royal Opera House live transmissions to nationwide cinemas.

3 Field Broadcast West took place in 2011 with artists Bram Thomas Arnold (live from Devon, UK), Sarah Bowker-Jones (Somerset, UK), Dan Coopey (Glocestershire, UK), Hamilton and St Amand, (Quebec, Canada), Steve Rowell (Washington DC, USA), Matthew Tickle (London, UK) and Dan Walwin (Somerset, UK).

4 Sideways Festival took place 17 August–17 September across Belgium, walking from Menen to Zutendaal; see http://www.tragewegen.be/nl/about for more details.

5 The MA in arts and ecology ran at Dartington College of Arts, Devon, England, from 2006 to 2009. A new version of the course is accepting applications from autumn 2014.

6 In 2010 Field Broadcast first undertook a project at Wysing Arts Centre with 40 commissioned artists. In 2011 a project called Field Broadcast West took place internationally. For more on both of these projects see http://www.fieldbroadcast.org.

7 Notating Despair was first performed at ‘Desire Lines: The Ecologies of Language’ held at Dartington Hall in 2007, a joint venture by Dartington Arts, Dartington College of Arts and Schumacher College.

8 Scene on a Navigable River, with live broadcasts from Dedham Vale, ran from 9 to 15 July 2014.

9 Visit http://www.speedtest.net for more details; other apps are available.

Additional information

Bram Thomas Arnold is an artist who started with walking whilst studying fine art at Oxford Brookes University in the Social Sculpture Research Unit. He went on to undertake an MA in arts and ecology at Dartington College of Art before commencing a PhD at Falmouth University in 2011. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad, including the Parasol Unit in London, Artisterium in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Conflux Festival of Psychogeography, New York. He has published with the New Statesman, This is not a Gateway's series Critical Cities, and has a forthcoming essay to be published by Ashgate Press in 2015.

Rebecca Birch (http://rebeccabirch.net) is an artist and lecturer in Fine Art at Lancaster University, UK. Recent exhibitions include Lichen Hunting on the West Coast, at Fig-2 at the ICA, London and The Thing in the Middle (with Francesco Pedraglio) at Modern Art Oxford. Alongside her individual research she is co-director, with artist Rob Smith, of Field Broadcast, a live broadcast platform that developed through their independent art practices. Recent Field Broadcast project partners include; LUX, Bournemouth University, Camden Arts Centre, Near Now at the Broadway Cinema, The National Trust, Office of Experiments, In Certain Places and Wysing Arts Centre. For more information visit http://fieldbroadcast.org

Rob Smith (http://robsmith.me.uk) is an artist and independent researcher. Recent projects Revisiting the Quarry: Excavation Legacy and Return, a symposium at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Quarry, an exhibition at IMT, London (with Charles Danby). Alongside his individual research he is co-director, with artist Rebecca Birch, of Field Broadcast, a live broadcast platform that developed through their independent art practices. Recent Field Broadcast project partners include; LUX, Bournemouth University, Camden Arts Centre, Near Now at the Broadway Cinema, The National Trust, Office of Experiments, In Certain Places and Wysing Arts Centre. For more information visit http://fieldbroadcast.org