Symposium – The Wild

Symposium as part of the Summer Lodge

8th  July 2016

Wild Thing, Wild at Heart, Wild in the Country, …Wild in the Studio? This symposium looks at the problematic cultural ideal of wildness in an era of speed bumps, genetic modification and the re-introduction of predatory species into managed ‘wilderness’.

How useful is the idea of un-trammeled wildness to the contemporary artist? Is it a modern myth, like madness, the orient, and the primitive? Can we go ‘back’ to a nature that is already programmable by us? Are we an effect of culture, or it’s agents?

Can the Summer Lodge be a place for wildness, against the hard regulation and sterile metric obsessions of the contemporary public sector? Or is it a refuge from the wild demands of an unregulated market, with it’s jungle ethics, and ruthless economic reductionism?

We will assemble speakers from a range of contemporary disciplines and practices to talk to the theme of ‘wildness’ in relation to their daily activity. In the afternoon, they will be invited to join the Lodge attendees in their studios. Go wild with us…

 Venue: Bonington Lecture Theatre,

Bonington Building, Dryden St

 Schedule:

10.30am TEA/COFFEE Atrium

10.45am Welcome and Introduction Bonington Lecture Theater

Introducing the themes of The Wild by Rob Flint (NTU senior lecturer in Fine Art) and Geoff Litherland (NTU lecturer in Fine Art)

11:10am Morning Presentations  Bonington Lecture Theater

Confirmed presenters:

Alison Lloyd (Loughborough University) Rebecca Beinart (Primary based artist) Jennie Syson (Nottingham based curator) David Turley (London based Australian artist) Rachael Ballard (second year fine art student)

1:00pm – 2:00pm LUNCH (Served in the Atrium)

2:00pm – 3:45 Small group discussion (within the Studios)

For the afternoon session participants are in groups of 4-5 comprising of Lodgers, visitors, and student studio assistants. During these sessions we will move into each others studio spaces to spend time focusing on ideas/points raised from the morning session in relation to each others practice.