Hello 2012!

Well here it is – a brand-new year, with new ideas, new projects and of course, the inevitable website overhaul … bear with us as we prune, rake and plant. We will be back soon with the latest from the edge of Brighton. Beware – may contain biodiversity, kites, beehives, wildlife corridors, happenings, wind and perfume! Happy 2012,

Your friendly Involuntary Park Rangers, CiCi & Johanna

LAST weekend of THE EXCHANGE

Deer Feeding Station Cafe at THE EXCHANGE

Don’t miss the LAST weekend of THE EXCHANGE!

Have homemade delicious food in our Deer Feeding Station Cafe, and come and swap workshops for stuff.. something you can do? Because it’s the last weekend we are specially interested in people who can swap songs, dances, jokes, music! For our art? But anything is good with us… just tempt us..

Saturday workshops are:
11:00-15:00 (drop in)
Facilitator: Parliament of Feathers
Screen Printing workshop -Print your own t-shirt!

12:00-13:30
Facilitator: Veronica Walton
Dowsing for Health, Missing Objects & Geopathic Stress- have a go at dowsing!

12:00-14:00
Facilitator: Charlotte Hyde
Shoulder, hand & neck massages (short drop-in sessions)- a massage & a cup of tea?

14:00-15:00
Facilitator: Eva Weaver
Glass Walking- Could change your life!

15:30-16:30
Facilitator: Johanna Berger
Urban Deer Hunting-a workshop in drawing and watercolour sketching- Guided in-situ painting in Portslade.

Urban Deerstalking in Portlade – Artists Open Houses blog post by Peter Chrisp

Urban Deerstalking in Portslade. Map by Johanna Berger, Involuntary Park 2011

Peter Chrisp took part in the Involuntary Park stalk last week and has written about the experience in his blog for Artist Open Houses:

“Last Thursday, I had an intriguing invitation from CiCi Blumstein to go Urban Deerstalking in Portslade. As part of this year’s HOUSE festival, we would set off from Blank Studios on ‘a hunt to catch sight of the legendary Portslade deer.’

We got to the studios at 6pm and had a free glass of wine. CiCi, and her fellow deerstalkers, Joseph Young and Johanna Berger, told us that they’ve declared the whole of Portslade an ‘Involuntary Park‘ – an urban area reverting to an overgrown, feral state. We would be stalking metaphorical deer, emblems of wildness, regeneration and creativity. We would also have to develop an inquisitive, alert ‘deer sense’.” … Peter’s blog continued here …

Urban Deerstalking in Portlade – Deer Corner, Involuntary Park 2011.

Photo: Johanna Berger

What is Art Worth? A short symposium about value, art and exchange

Improvised Sleeping Shelf, Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, CiCi Blumstein 2009

What is Art Worth? A short symposium about value, art and exchange

As part of THE EXCHANGE at BLANK, Involuntary Park present a 90 minute symposium on the value of art in the age of austerity. Three short presentations looking at value and art from a personal and political perspective will stimulate debate and conversation as we unpick how art and artists operate in the global marketplace; look at alternative models of exchange as an art form in an historical context; and how improvisation in art acts as a model for equal exchange, posing a challenge to current value and power structures.

Presenters: Johanna Berger, CiCi Blumstein and Joseph Young.

Saturday 21 May, 18:00 – 19:30

£5 / £3 concs (including a complimentary glass of wine or juice).

Tickets available from:

http://brightonticketshop.com/events.aspx?p=v&v=BGS

Involuntary Architecture & Lebkuchen Houses

The scene today in the IP studio, after architects and lecturers of the Architecture course at  Brighton University came to see us to discuss plans & possibilities for the Portslade Project –  a great meeting, resulting in some excellent ideas and Involuntary Architecture …

Architect-devoured Lebkuchen House