EVENT NINE – GEOPOLYPHONIES

Friday 9th July

For SE8 gallery the Geopolyphonies presentation made use of factual references including historical surveys and urban development maps with the central aim of providing an overall description of Deptford, or an idea of how it might be perceived, through rational and scientific systems – measurements, statistics – sources of facts that are otherwise closed to interconnections and different levels of operation.

At certain moments during the presentation speakers interrupted the narration. Definitions of certain terms were questioned, deconstructed and alternative subtexts to suggest how the area might actually be being lived and experienced on many different levels, political, personal and the everyday were introduced.

Using personal narrations, fictions, political views, theoretical texts, videos and sound pieces our aim was to create a geopolyphony in-situ, performing the issues that can arise out of formal texts and stereotypical narrations of spaces. We attempted to explore this space as a microcosm that can lead us to different connections with remote systems and sources of knowledge.

The evening at SE8 also provided the Geopolyphonies with an opportunity to explain how the group works as a collective. We used the example of a talking stick, originally used in Native North American council meetings where the stick would be passed around to anyone who wanted to voice their opinion. The rest of the council agreed to listen to the person holding the stick as a courtesy. In this sense the Geopolyphonies operates as an informal pedagogical model where we each actively learn from the different research methodologies and findings presented by the other group members. Opportunities to present our research to a public audience, whether as a book or live meeting, are an integral part of our collective practice. Our research returns back into the field and allows an uncovering of new directions through this process.