Table of Contents

Parenzana Residency Notes

Notes during the residency at Castelletto Parenzana (on the former TPC train line) → http://fo.am/family-residency-sarah-neville/ and continued at adhocracy residency notes

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157636156644153/

From the 30th of September to the 9th of October 2013, Sarah Neville, Florence Thomas, Nik Gaffney and Maja Kuzmanovic inhabit the Castello Parenzana, close to the legendary town of Motovun in Istria, Croatia. Matt and Miranda Thomas take part in the residency as well, remotely from the Adelaide Hills. Although the landscape in Istrian and South Australian hills might share similarities of climate and topography, the flora and fauna, stories and cultures that grew from them are quite different. Inspired and informed by the landscape, the weather and the (hi)stories of both places, as well as our own experiences as inhabitants and migrants, we're looking into the relationships between storytelling and the environment, particularly when dealing with unpredictability, turbulence, 'uncontrollability', as well as full-blown natural disasters.

With warm thanks to Dorina Vlakancic, for her support and welcoming this residency to Castello Parenzana; Danica Kuzmanovic, for sharing her social network with us, helping with planning and logistics, as well as a wonderful moral support; Goran Kuzmanovic and his friends for allowing us to borrow an all-terrain pram, much needed for a well-travelled baby in residence!

Supported by the Flemish Authorities, the Culture 2007-2013 Framework of the European Commission and the Thomas family.

Notes from 20131002

<graphviz dot right> digraph 20131002 { 

  bgcolor = "grey93";
  rankdir="LR";
  node [shape = doublecircle]; Stories Emotions Environment;
  node [shape = box];
  Environment -> Uncertainty;
  Environment -> "Out of Control" -> Disasters -> Premonitions -> Adaptation;
  Environment -> Emotions;
  Environment -> Stories;
  "Growing out of links with the environment" -> Environment;
  Stories -> "Sense making" -> Environment;
  "Sense making" -> Visualisation;
  "Sense making" -> "Supernatural in a natural environment";
  Stories -> "Contemporary Mythology" -> "Pop culture" -> "Everyday Life" -> "How people see things" -> "Stories people tell themselves" -> "Interviews/questionnaires?";
  "Contemporary Mythology" -> "Science and technology";
  Stories -> "Science Fiction" -> "Speculative Fiction" -> "Eco-disaster movies" -> Environment;
  "Science Fiction" -> "Science and technology";
  Stories -> "Growing out of links with the environment" -> Culture;
  Stories -> Folk -> Myths -> Environment;
  Myths -> Creation Myths;
  Creation Myths -> "Footnotes, commentary";
  Folk -> Wisdom -> Aphorisms
  Folk -> Superstitions -> "Old wives' tales" -> Emotions;
  Stories -> Emotions;
  Emotions -> Uncertainty;
  Emotions -> Fear;
  "Growing out of links with the environment" -> "What can be transported" -> "Legitimacy of a thread of Myths" -> "geography";
  "Legitimacy of a thread of Myths" -> ?;
  "What can be transported" -> "EU - AU";
  "What can be transported" -> "Continuity in the framing?";
  "What can be transported" -> "footnotes, commentary";
  "What can be transported" -> "Emotions"
  }

</graphviz>

Notes from 20131003

A few things to explore:

L1006762

Exploring the region:

Questions to explore:

Creation myths in contrast to aphorisms and sayings about the weather and other natural phenomena, such as:

Anthropologists had initially expected the aboriginal population of the Andaman Islands to be badly affected by the tsunami and even feared the already depopulated Onge tribe could have been wiped out. Many of the aboriginal tribes evacuated and suffered fewer casualties. Oral traditions developed from previous earthquakes helped the aboriginal tribes escape the tsunami. For example, the folklore of the Onges talks of “huge shaking of ground followed by high wall of water”. Almost all of the Onge people seemed to have survived the tsunami. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami#Signs_and_warnings

Aphorisms include a heuristic approach to the world, they deal with probabilities rather than dogmas. What happens to age old sayings that might be less in tune with current climate chaos (when red sunsets don't only mean nice weather the next day, but could signal unexpected fires and other calamities). Do we need new annotations or re-interpretations of these texts to reflect our time?

<graphviz dot center> digraph 20131003 { 

  bgcolor = "grey93";
  rankdir="LR";
  node [shape = doublecircle]; Form Migration;
  node [shape = box];
  Form -> "Australian Yarn" -> "A house" -> "In Adelaide Hills";
  Form -> "A house in the hills" -> "Castelletto Parenzana" -> "Fairy Tales";
  "A house" -> "A house in the hills";
  "Castelletto Parenzana" -> "A railway that isn't there";
  Form -> "Question of claim on cultural heritage" -> Migration -> "How you understand (new) surroundings" -> "Remembering landscapes left behind";
  "How you understand (new) surroundings" -> "Hyperawareness of new / adopted landscapes";
  Migration -> "Closing of borders" -> "Rise of nationalism and xenophobia";
  Form -> Annotations -> "Re-interpretations of aphorisms about turbulent weather";
  Form -> "Discarded stories" -> "Filmske Novosti Showreels" -> "Cemetery for unwanted stories"
  }

</graphviz>

Notes from 20131004

The Storyteller and the child

Characters:

The stories we're looking at could be expressions of emotions, such as the threat of the body being destroyed. They could also be seen as a way for a storyteller to garden or forage the inner and outer landscape. As with oral storytelling, the stories could be warnings (weather, poisons…) in disguise, or tales of folk wisdom (weatherlore)

Task: Improvise the moments in the space, as improvised staging including the characters

L1006884

The nature of rain is always the same but it makes thorns grow in the desert and flowers in the garden. | Edible and poisonous plants (notes at http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/10084237623/)

L1006964

No one knows what rolls behind the mountain

L1006909

All flowers of the future are in the seed of the present

L1006976

Furious storm passes quickly

L1006882

Experience is the mother of science | Musings on stories, ethnobotany and plant mythology

Weather lore

Who are the characters and what are they doing in contemporary weather lore?

Divination and invocation in storytelling

Divination: descriptive, reactive; “the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.”

Invocation: active, giving tools to help you deal with things, or even to bring about a different world (e.g. the onwards and upwards of limitless growth); “the summoning of a deity or the supernatural: his invocation of the ancient mystical powers.”

More on Form...

What is the shape of stories?

Oral - Written - Digital stories

Tasks

Myths and Natural Early Warning Systems

“Earthquakes bring vibrational changes on land and in water while storms cause electromagnetic changes in the atmosphere,” he said. “Some animals have acute sense of hearing and smell that allow them to determine something coming towards them long before humans might know that something is there.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0104_050104_tsunami_animals_2.html

Notes from 20131005

Conversation with Matt

Making Meaning

Notes from 20131006

Notes from 20131007

Tradition must be a springboard to the future, not an easy chair for resting.

Tradition must be a springboard to the future, not an easy chair for resting.

L1007026

She who foretells the future lies, even if she tells the truth

Design Fiction

Bruce Stirling: Design fiction is the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change. That’s the best definition we’ve come up with. The important word there is diegetic. It means you’re thinking very seriously about potential objects and services and trying to get people to concentrate on those rather than entire worlds or political trends or geopolitical strategies. It’s not a kind of fiction. It’s a kind of design. It tells worlds rather than stories.

Notes from 20131008

Tale of a child and the weathermakers at foam on Vimeo.

parenzana weatherlore at foam on Vimeo.

Notes from 20131009

drive from Motovun → Linz

Future Fabulators workshop http://libarynth.org/future_fabulators/index and http://fo.am/future_fabulators

A constructive observation of a participatory process to elicit ideas about possible futures. More about the scenario building process:

This could be abridged to assist with the communication of stories based on weather lore across diverse communities in Australia or else where.

Meeting and networking with likeminded individuals and organisations from across Europe.

Notes from 20131015

Discussions at foam Brussels

Tim Boykett

Tim spoke about people resettling from one geographical place to another and still living by the weather lore of the first place. Hence a misunderstanding of the seasons/weather leading to dire consequences for the environment of the next place. For example the Noonga people in Western Australia considered their part of the world to have six seasons but when it was settled by the English they brought their idea of four seasons with them.

Rasa Alksnyte

Rasa gave direct feedback on the project as she had read about it in these notes. Firstly she found the focus of the project very vast in respect to potential outcomes. This could be considered a bit unfocussed, however she thought that if the main idea becomes clearer then it was very exciting to have a project with so many potential forms.

Nik Gaffney

Notes from 20131016

In the beginning of the residency we had a discussion about which natural disasters occur in Istria. We couldn't think of any except bush fires. However, today Maja dug up the Istrian folk tales book in Pula and found another disaster that has been troubling the region for centuries: it seems that hail is the weather phenomenon considered mythical enough to make it into several legends. It is often related to misfortune of young children (especially those who died before being christened, or those strangled by their mothers). Hail and thunder becomes their way of communicating (usually their anger) with the living world. Aside from children, witches and priests are also known to be able to summon very localised and destructive hail storms.

Ref. Boskovic-Stulli, Maja (1959). Istarske Narodne Price. Institut za Narodnu Umjetnost, Zagreb

Sounds from Matt

Miranda's Weather

miranda-weather-2

residency report

Adhocracy - June 2014