Drifting Studio Practice – a PhD research on (co)authorship in the context of the Anthropocene based on an artist’s practice. On 27 October 2021 candidate Lonnie van Brummelen will defend this research in the Agnietenkapel of the University of Amsterdam.
Since 2002 Van Brummelen and De Haan have been making films that are shown in the spaces of art and cinema. They exchanged their permanent studio for a drifting one and focused on exchanges in situ. Although artists are usually considered as “authors,” on location they experienced how a multitude of actors co-determine what can be filmed. The experience prompted them to do an experiment. They initiated two participatory film projects, one with a Dutch fishing community and one with Maroons in Suriname, and in dialogue with them developed a script that was performed on camera by the members themselves. Nonhuman actors were to play a role in this process of co-creation as well.
The research culminated in the film works Episode of the Sea (63’, 2014) and Dee Sitonu A Weti (Stones Have Laws, 100’, 2018), and a written narrative in which the artists bring their findings in conversation with the discourses of participatory film, (de)colonialism, new materialism, and (non)human rights.
The films received a wide and diverse distribution and screened in art house cinema’s, community centers, universities, schools, art spaces, as well as at international forums including IDFA, TIFF, MUBI, ICA’s Frames of Representation, MoMA’s documentary fortnight, and New Horizon Film Festival Miami. On the occasion of the PhD defense, cinema Ketelhuis will screen both films on October 26.
On 28 October Eye will host the book launch of Drifting Studio Practice | Studio op drift, published by Hatje Cantz in collaboration with Jubilée platform for artistic research. The launch will be preceded by an additional screening of Stones Have Laws and a Q&A with Van Brummelen, De Haan and the Surinamese theater maker Tolin Alexander who was involved in the film as dramaturg. The conversation will be moderated by film curator, PhD researcher Astrid Korporaal.
The research Drifting Studio Practice is part of the pilot project Promoveren in de Kunsten of the Dutch Research Council and Mondriaan Fund. PhD supervisors: prof. Patricia Pisters (Media Studies, UvA) and dr. Henk Slager (Artistic Research, HKU).
Members of the doctoral committee: Alida Neslo, Margriet Schavemaker, Mick Wilson, Esther Peeren, and Crista-Maria Lerm-Hayes. Chair: prof. dr. ir. B.J. (Jeroen) de Kloet.
Filmprojects
Episode of the Sea: https://vriza.org/en/portfolio-items/2176/
Stones Have Laws: https://vriza.org/en/portfolio-items/stones-have-laws/
Book
Drifting Studio Practice | Studio op drift:
https://www.hatjecantz.de/lonnie-van-brummelen-and-siebren-de-haan-7906-1.html
October 26: film screening
time Episode of the Sea: 10:00–11:05 hrs
Stones Have Laws: 11:30–13:10 hrs
language English subtitles
location Ketelhuis
Pazzanistraat 4, Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 684 0112
entrance €11, free with Cineville
October 27: PhD defense
time 10–11:30 hrs
language English
location Agnietenkapel
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229–231, Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 525 2362
entrance free
Oktober 28: book launch & screening Stones Have Laws
time 14–16 uur
language film: English subtitles
post screening discussion: English and Dutch
location Eye Filmmuseum
IJpromenade 1, Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 589 1400
entrance €11, free with Cineville
More information: productie@vriza.org