Life Friendly Residency - Àgata Alcañiz

WEEK 1: EXPLORING THE LIFE FRIENDLY CONCEPT

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Life friendly is a concept that has been well defined for the artists, invited to do this residency at the Chinese Arts Centre, respond to it and apply it to the Centre and our own arts practice (read more here). This concept was presented to us by researcher Nadine Andrews.

It is a very broad concept encompassing:

• make the spaces we inhabit friendlier
• make our social structures friendlier
• be friendlier with the natural environment

It's such a broad concept that has proved difficult to grasp and not to say, to become or materialise, even I have tried to approach its ethos since a child, has shaped my life, in a way that I prefer to do nothing than put another piece of shit in this world, and has defined my own art practice which since 2004 has focused on developing my ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE art project.

And it is very difficult to be friendly.

• I want to make the space I live friendlier but hey! I might not have the money or resources to do so, plus my neighbours might not have the same views of what can be friendlier.
• I want to be friendlier with my family, my close ones, and my surrounding communities but hey! sometimes can be difficult.
• I want to be friendlier with the environment but hey! even I try my best, sometimes I do not know what are the right choices plus, can I really take everything which is needed to become environmentally friendly? For example, even I have very few electronic equipment I still have a laptop, my  mobile and 2 cameras, one video the other photographic.

Then, there is the issue that if I want to be friendlier with myself and take care of my own well being, that might not match with being friendlier with others or with the environment.

So, in my first week, I felt that in order to grasp how the Chinese Arts Centre and artists can make their practices friendlier I should first to inquiry to Nadine Andrews, who knows more about the subject, the staff who works in the centre, who can give insight of what they are looking to improve, the artists taking part on this residency, who already have an interest in this subject, and the centre's audience, who are also a primordial part of the centre's experience.

The result of this research are a series of interviews in video format which capture those conversations. Videos which were screened at the residency's first week opening and will be posted in this blog shortly.

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I'd like to explore how friendly is the Chinese Arts Centre by looking at the stuff used and waste that generates. I'll analyse this stuff in all its life-cycle and I will ask staff and artists in residence to safe any waste they want to dispose of.

www.agataalcaniz.net
www.environmentalperformance.info


WEEK 2: DEVELOPING THE LIFE FRIENDLY CONCEPT

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After listening all the interviews / conversations we had around how the Chinese Arts Centre and artists can make their practices friendlier, I decided to create an ever growing mind-map in which I will write down all those views aroused and I will invite also to everyone to contribute with their own views, opening this inquiry to the wider public.

The mind-map will be looking at:

• how to make friendlier this institution's space
• how improve the well being of the staff and artists working in it and its visitors
• how it can be friendlier with the wider environment

To do so, people is invited to:

• come to the Chinese Arts Centre space and contribute to the growing mind-map / dialogue at the residency space or 
• send emails to wearelifefriendly@gmail.com or
• tweet views at #wearelifefriendly 

from Tuesday 1st to Saturday 5th of May.

The artist will include the views received via internet to this growing picture and will photograph it and hang it to this blog everyday so people can add more on it or just point out the views they feel more identified with.

Views that repeat themselves will be just circled as many times people mention them.

The mind map will be on a wall and marked with the most sustainable materials possible:

• locally sourced charcoal made near Manchester, in offshoots permaculture project in Burnley, which make the charcoal from branches coppiced from their own trees and using their own charcoal burn which is designed to minimise CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.
• re-used tea bags and brushes made in England.
• once finished will be washed with water and a bio-degradable cloth. 

The final picture wants to be a visual representation on people's views on the matter hopefully easier to grasp in just one look. To make it friendlier for visually impaired, the mind-map will be transferred into an audio representation.

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I'd like to make people to visualise some of the stuff found in the Chinese Arts Centre using performance and a mural platform.

I'd to recollect all the waste generated and I design a piece of ergonomic archaeological furniture encapsulating this waste in a bio-degradable / non-toxic transparent material. I won't be able to materialise this because time and resources but this could be a piece of furniture which the Chinese Arts Centre could commission for its completion. This piece would make the centre more friendly but at the same time aware of the amount of stuff that characterise our times. It will be just a sketched drawing of 3D design.