Field Essays workshop

ANIMALE STATE is the title of a workshop for STUDIO FOR IMMEDIATE SPACES which I gave with BRYNJAR SIGURDARSON at VU HORTUS Amsterdam (a beautiful peaceful place amidst the city’s business quarters), in preparation of the upcoming issue of Field Essays. Our brief: bring a description, drawing, plan and/or model for the living space of an imaginary animal – one that could exist, somehow. Bring materials to prototype this space on location.

Anima = âme (soul)

What role does the animal realm play in your life?
What space does the animal have or not have in your culture?
How can the physical setting indicate the animal’s morphology, behaviour and needs?

A few lessons learnt:

Awkward is good.
Not knowing what you are doing is good.
The line between something genius and something terrible is very thin but you have to dance that line if you want to achieve something good.
(A lookout for interesting things in your practice can be very intuitively based)
You can also learn a lot about yourself by just making without thinking.