In June 2010 I participated in the University of Sussex's Sounding the Site 2: Ark! Described as an artsplash, it took place on various sites across campus. Here's a description from the Ark! website:
Sounding the Site 2: Ark!
Wednesday 16 June 2010, 10am-4pm
Ark! involves ten different elements, each of which has been created in collaboration, and links to the idea of an ark. The day draws on a wide range of disciplines, from creative writing to microbiology, and from music to engineering, working with creative practitioners, schools and community groups.
Ark! was the second annual 'Sounding the Site', a community artsplash, a day long festival of creative activity. The aim was to bring people together, both within and beyond the University, to explore and celebrate their shared creative energies, this year exploring themes of biodiversity and sustainability.
Our element was called the Ark of Consensus and was developed as a collaboration between myself and sculptors Olga Klieger and Shaida Kazemi.
It was inspired by an article in the Guardian about sea level rising 80m in the next 100 years. My house is 64m above sea level so would be underwater if this prediction came to pass. This was puzzling as there was no evidence in the scientific literature that this was plausible and seemed to be an attempt to create a consensus despite the scientific and philosophical problems of trying to predict the future.
This got me interested in the idea of consensus as cultural construct and the fact that academic, religious and political organisations rely on it as a form of group-think, providing the philosophical basis for collective action.
This is fine until the consensus is broken or shown to be flawed but our histories are littered with wars and conflicts caused by the breakdown of consensus and attempts to maintain them.
The idea of this piece was to ask people to predict the future of the University in 2110 and create a series of ritual spaces to display the results and play with the idea of consensus. Here are some photos of the space which is the entrance to the Arts A building.
Olga (right) inspecting her sculpture. Shaida's sculpture is the small box behind her.
We also took over the two lecture theatres, either side of the steps, and showed a short, looped film. Some shots from it are shown below. The music was designed to leak through into the theatres and give a continuously changing soundtrack.
The complete music and short film for the Ark are below.
