Life in the Woods, 2011

free school and video, in collaboration with Patrick Staff, commissioned by Radar, Loughborough University

In the spring of 2011, Patrick Staff and I invited a group of fifteen participants to live together for a week at a Scout camp in John’s Lee Wood, Leicestershire (UK). Borrowing a format from early twentieth-century radical outdoor educational programmes, including Arts and Crafts influenced folk revivalists such as the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, the participants engaged in a process of mutual education. The group included a historian, a birdwatcher, an environmental activist, a self-identified witch, folk dancers, and several former commune members. The resulting video and accompanying publication reflect on ‘back to nature’ movements, identity, group dynamics and the collaborative film-making process itself.

Participants were Daniel Bower, Red Chidgey, Ade Clarke, William Clarke, Jesse Darling, Richard Dowling, Zia Dowling-Haigh, June Gillert, Amy James, Michael Mertens, Jamie Partridge, Natalie Raven, Hester Reeve, Yerang Seong and Sofia Törnblad.

Home Economies

newspaper, in collaboration with Patrick Staff, 2012

A newspaper titled Home Economies, featuring interviews, recipes and instructions on how to organise a camp yourself, was published on the occasion of ‘Plus ou moins sorcières 2/3: Épreuves ritualisées’, Maison Populaire, Montreuil.