THE DEVIL’S DOVECOTE
Multidisciplinary performance, combining: storytelling, video and poetry
A tale of wildness set within the local landscape of Bruton, 2023
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Exploring Wildness
How few places in the UK can really be considered wild, and yet what is ‘wild’? Wildness as: nature unsullied by human intervention only proliferates the Cartesian viewpoint of human as separate from the natural world.
If we are a part of nature, then we are and what we make is inherently natural. So what is the wildness of human nature, and what is the wildness of that which we deem artificial?
A tale of wildness set within the local landscape of Bruton, 2023
Exploring Wildness
How few places in the UK can really be considered wild, and yet what is ‘wild’? Wildness as: nature unsullied by human intervention only proliferates the Cartesian viewpoint of human as separate from the natural world.
If we are a part of nature, then we are and what we make is inherently natural. So what is the wildness of human nature, and what is the wildness of that which we deem artificial?
Wild A.I
Working with an A.I chatbot, I created a wondertale for the mysterious dovecote which stands on the hill above the village of Bruton, Somerset. This formed the basis of a multidisciplinary performance, combining: storytelling, video and poetry; developed through somatic research.
Somatic Research
I developed the story through somatic research - placing the story within the landscape and embodying the wild - crawling through the undergrowth, stomping through mud, walking out in the darkness of night - creating a physical language to embody the story and its themes. I also carved a wooden mask as a costume for one of the characters, which I exhibited with other costumes as part of the final sharing.
Photo credits: Rosie May Jones & Clare Walsh for Hauser & Wirth