LEAPing Out!

I have had a great day!

It was the first day of leaping out, the first event led by LEAP. So I got to meet the other artists involved in the project. There is a wide range of people, all incredibly lovely and with varying skills and interests. There are a couple of sculptors, sound engineers, producers, visual artists, performers, mask makers and even a guy called Eduardo who does crazy things with computers (I’m not very computer savvy so if I attempted to explain exactly what it is he does then I would get it wrong and just sound silly) The result is a community of artists all very excited and eager to make work.

So here is a quick breakdown of what happened today. First off it was a well organised event using Open Space technology. Open space is a participant led conversation. It involves the participants coming up with the topics of conversation. These conversations take place in several different groups around the room and you can leave any conversation at any point to join another. Here’s a link to the wikipedia page on Open Space Technology, if you’re organising any meetings or discussions any time soon I’d recommend taking a look.


We talked about audience interaction, the interaction between art and technology, the Leap that we take as artists presenting our own work and the Leap that audiences take in engaging with that work. We also discussed what it means to be an emerging artist and the difference between emerging artists and emerging art. As well we tried to decide at what point a piece art ceases emerging and matures. We never actually reached a conclusion, but we did decide that it varies from art form to art form and piece to piece.

One idea that was raised was particularly interesting to me. I was in a group discussing creating work and where inspiration comes from. Victor, one of the sculptors (whose qualifications had nothing to do with his art) said that when he started making work he spent a year divorced from influence. Obviously there was natural, unavoidable influence but he did not actively seek it out by talking to other artists, showing his work and asking for feedback or going to gallery’s. The idea of isolating yourself to create is something that I found intriguing but sensible. It means you can see what you want to make, not what you feel like you should.

The day finished with us being given the theme for the artwork we will be making for the 22nd. I wont let the cat out of the bag by telling you what it is. But I will tell you that it started a lot of creative discussion and there are some exciting projects underway and if you’d like to see what is going on then I recommend you come down to DT3 in Lancaster at 7pm on the 22nd of September. It’s a free event, book your tickets by ringing this number 01524 598500. Don’t book your tickets online through the Dukes, you’ll be charged a 60p booking fee for a free event. Seriously come watch it there are gonna be some really interesting and exciting performances and live art taking place.

Cheers for reading. I’ll start blogging soon about the projects I’m working on. Promise…


One comment

Comments are closed.