The Free House in the state of Cwmaman.
by artists Anne Hayes and Glenn Davidson of Artstation
Gradually we will bring the blog upto date to cover the fascinating developments on the Cwmaman Project. First some background:
During 2006 - 7 Artstation presented a series of three highly localised commissions, 3 public temporary site specific installations.
- 1)"Homage to the top down and bottom up" Coed Hills Rural Art Space commission. In which we evolved the use of “ontological maps” produced with people living and working at Coed. These greatly influenced the final form and meaning of the installation. Which will be available as website film soon.
- 2)"Ty Bont" in Porth Plaza reflecting on a bicentenary William Edwards single span stone bridge in Pontypridd and the new link road and Realto Bridge spanning the Rhonda Fawr and Fach Valleys. In which we developed the mapping concept to include philosophical discourse from Dr Chris Groves Bambo Soyenka and engineers from Costain Ltd - Available as a PowerPoint soon.
3) Arising Nature - St Josephs Church, Cwmaman Cynon Valley S.Wales. A biodiversity audit of the valley conducted by Science Shops Wales - Artstation create public engagement thorugh a commissioned installation.
http://www.polonio.com.uy/ofarisingnature/index.html
Flowing from Arising Nature we have embarked on a new and collaborative work about the The Shepherds Arms freehouse, the oldest pub in Cwaman. This has come about through the experiences and research gained in 2007 commission where a practice based research process lead to an installation in the local church of St Josephs as part of a biodiversity audit commissioned by Science Shops Wales (SSW) - science communication a department at University of Glamorgan, S.Wales, UK.Working with SSW .
Dr Steve Harris manages the SSW team and has a background in computing and cybernetics. He had known Artstation for many years before he became involved in the communication of science and in the process finish his Phd. It had beenan expressed interest of Steves to work with us for some time. He proposed we met up after he attended the opening of "Y Bont" our 2006 installation for Porth Plaza. Our first meeting was at Uni. of Glamorgan where we discussed proposals to work with the Science Shops Team who Steve had bought together over some 2 years to address science communication.
In 1988 we had undertaken a seminal an artist in residence, an art science residency within a Social Science programe on cybernetics and complex systems research under prof. Gordon Pask, prof. Gerard De Zeeuw among others. This provided an underlying connection through cybernetics, however Steves and our knowledge and interest were somewhat different. Ours came from social science; the work of Gordon Pask, Ranulph Glanville, Heinze Von Forster, Homberto Maturana, Francisco Varela and many notable others. We had been associated with the American Society for Cybernetics and the Dutch Systems Group with whom we remain in occasional contact (see the latest Cybernetics paper for Vienna 2008 on our website:
http://www.artstation.org.uk/vienna.htm) Steve's interest is from within systems and computing. He had studied early 20th century Russian systems scientists predating, Norbert Wiener and his 1949 classic publication "control and communication in the animal and machine", often quoted to us as an origin from which cybernetics of the kind we became influenced by had grown. We will, I hope discuss this further with Steve.
I should say our sensibilities informed by cybernetics are further filtered through our art practice. The first meeting placed found our interests somewhat at counterpoint - a striking soft science verses hard science divide in terms of the influences. This immediately increased awareness of our potential position as artists within the collaboration with SSW and we became intrigued as to how things might progress.
Artists can be at potential risk in working with scientists. Science operates and makes its case very differently from art and artists. Scientists who use art for its communication and participation potential may not be skilled in providing the necessary conditions for a successful art project. We were highly aware of the caustic repercussions if outcomes were to under whelm or fail within the context of SSW.
Our first point of real unease on the Cwmaman commission was the problem of a none negotiated project title. Unable to extract one from us, Steve emailed, first suggestions to us then strong statements and time constraints and in desperation made a title up that he felt suited what we had discussed. There it was a title : “Of Arising Nature”. The conventions of “work in progress” or working title or process commonly used in artspace were never part of a solution. Neither could we evolve a title through the process of undertaking the work in its self. Some how such methods were absent from discussion it created difficulty about the politics of control, sensitivity to authorship. We also felt potentially this did not bode well for conditions surrounding operation of art work. The experience served to sensitise us to potential for a disrupted process and possible disaster.
As Artists we have fundamentally different and at times apposing methods of working and thinking about the "world" from science, most particularly when constructing meaningful statements about or from it. And this, of course, is the primary interest in attempting to doing so. Discourse with science and science professionals has made us aware of conditions for our work, particularly when our art may be constructed from within the method of its coming about ! . What this means in practical terms is that we usually say as little as possible about our intentions and methods before embarking on our own style of primary research at the location for the work. In this way we strategically attempt to avoid our own assumptions it is an approach epitomised the general Artist Placement Group concept (APG) the “open brief.
The SSW had started unintentionally as a provocation to our art practice, we needed to establish and impress our influence on the process surrounding the biodiversity audit.
St Josephs Church Cwmaman was our project base for 4 weeks, often working in the background as farther David ministered to the congregation. First days of the residency some of the Science team had problems relating to our process and the purpose and position of the work within the broader remit of the Biodiversity Audit. Mostly science backgrounds SSW team members were ill equipped to assemble reasons for the demands we were now making upon them as they were enlisted to help run sessions and contribute to conversations with a range of community groups and individuals. As things proceeded discussion were clearly happening between SSW management and the team. As SSW people began to adjust and find their feet, conversations, drawings and ideas intensified. Two wonderful photographers Christian Helgessen and Diego Vidart captured and recorded the work in progress much of this work landed up on the project website www.ofarisingnature.org.uk. Their carefully observed compositions began to circulate back to the science team and things became easier and confidence grew as community members joined conversations Patterns and key pieces of information began to emerge in the maps and drawings we were creating. The process gained meaning and contributions increased.
“Conversation” is a term we use after Prof. Gordon Pask’s “Conversation Theory“ and it marks the first stage of our engagement in our installation commissions. The first person on the SSW team to become professional motivated and connected through this process was Kath Williams. During a stimulating exchange of ideas Kath and we explored how the mapping and research methods we were using could be applicable in anthropology her field of study. (She is also a cosmologist but we only found that out later…) As a core member of SSW her involvement and visible motivation further linked and integrated the work with the wider SSW team.
The design which emerged is also is covered on the website
The cwmaman Installation
We then saw the central metaphor of the work emerged out of the many community conversations. We had started all the discussions in St Josephs simply asking what what was important in or about Cwmaman.
In answer most people at some point bought The Shepherds Arms Public house in to their descriptions. Here emerged a central theme that was to carry us to completion on this project and beyond into the new one.
Kath Williams takes up the story :
The Shepherds Arms – Cwmaman Aberdare
In the course of researching for an art installation the artists realised that the Shepherds Arms Pub, situated in an extremely prominent place in the village and under threat of demolition, was very important to the community for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the pub was important geographically. Whether they used it or not, time and time again, people identified where they lived and how they fitted into the village as being geographically speaking ‘above’ or ‘below’ the “Sheps”.
Secondly, the pub was important socially. Despite the pub being open only after around 10pm on a few nights a week, many people were using it regularly, considering it their ‘local’ and, when they could, still organising gigs and get-togethers for special occasions.
We quickly came to realise that the Shepherds Arms a dilapidated building in the small village represented a continuing battleground. The Sheps was inked to an assumed village hierarchy who were running ever faster under the agenda of progress. This small and influencial group appeared to be missing, even strategicallly mis-interpreting the buildings social role and its symbolic importance to the wider community.
We decided to visit the Shepherds Arms with photographers Diego and Christian to have a drink with the locals. We also invited our friend and Ceramicist Keith Munro for his robust good humour. We met a range of characters who have subsequently become involved in this project and other run by the university.
We immediately noted how people in the pub were unaware of the feelings other members of the community, non pub users, had for the Shepherds Arms. Many wonderful stories and anecdotes had been shared with us by the community who had use the building over many decades. Last Christmas a large crowd had cooked their Christmas dinners and then carried them to the Shepherds Arms to consume, just to be together...
Pub verses club drinkers
At the back of the bar a retired older contingent of drinkers were understandably suspicious and a bit cagey about their relationship to the pub and its uncertain future. Nearer the front of the bar another group of younger 35 – 50 were openly and vocally against the “owners” knocking the building down. Many told us they drank as pub drinkers, independent of clubs and groups or organised institutions. A sharp contrast with the Institute drinker. It was a basic freedom this group cherished, the comfort of the old place.
Art:
The installation at St Josephs proved succesful. Many local people entering the church were given to reflect on the various forces in the community and events surrounding the Shepherds Arms.
At the installation open evening attended by a couple of hundered residents and local councillors the save our sheps SOS band were invited by the artists to play a couple of rock folk songs to set the scene - which they did....
The comissioned research and its installation revealed the conditions for
Free House in the State of Cwmaman emerged.
