Waterlog commission: Initial proposal (Crowd-forming) Oct 06
====Rambling version====
While mine has been a speedy and partial reading of Sebald's work, I've been really struck by the uses to which walking is put in his work - in the rings of saturn for example it's made apparent as a way of pacing his thoughts and subsequent writing. additionally it's a way of encountering the world in isolation. His walks through the countryside or into town are always solitary and his thoughts are often his own without the obvious moderation of others.
I'm keen to explore uses of walking beyond this tendency towards isolation. My aim for this work will be to invite people from the region/locality to participate in a live event in which we shift from a state of isolation towards being a crowd - as a rudimentary process of 'becoming social'.
At a stated time and date participants will be invited to 'walk to where the sea meets the shore'. While the precise destination is not stated, the participants are free to choose where this might be. What is important here is that each participant feels compelled to leave their home or their work and to journey towards the place where this is considered likely to occur. As each participant makes their journey they will travel withoutknowing whether others will be travelling the same route, whether they share a dedtination or when, once there, those other people are also responding to the call.
In effect, the invitation brings the crowd of participants to the point where they will meet a symbol of another crowd - the swell of immigrants gathering beyond the horizon, as remembered, as mythologized, as demonized. Our crowd could be well-wishers, or, as in the case of Sebald's shop-girl encountered on his journey by foot along the East Anglian coast, they could be warily keeping the strangers at a distance, for fear of what they might visit on them.
There will be an open call for participation using the chanels open to the exhibition venue, such as (e)mailing- lists and local papers. Participation relies on the marketing & promotions activities of the gallery/host organization for widest participation. A limited number of invitation cards will call for the participation among key contacts; posters will address a wider out audience. These also form the 'hard' outcomes of the work.
The event(s) itself will be scheduled for at least one day during the exhibition period. I am entirely open to increasing the number and/or frequency of events pending on further discussion and extending the use of Canetti's 'crowd symbols' to include river, sand, forest, corn and so on as destinations.
====Step-by-step version====
Process
1. Call for participation
i. Poster/invite cards
ii. Mailing lists/local press
2. The live event
'a walk to where the sea meets the shore'
*participants choose destination
*participants journey to destination
Outcomes
*limited edition/short-run invite card & poster