Artsadmin

Skip links

  1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to search

Main menu

  • Home
  • What’s on
  • Projects
    ProjectsArtists’ projectsOur programmesEngagementUnlimitedArchive
  • For Artists
    For ArtistsAdviceResources directoryBursary schemeWorkshopseDigest
  • About
    About usWhat we doWho’s whoHow we workOur policiesJobs
  • Toynbee Studios
    Toynbee StudiosWhat’s onArts Bar & CaféPlan your visitWho is hereSpaces for hire
  • Spotlight
    SpotlightUnlimitedSeason for ChangeSustainability
  • Explore more
    Explore moreBlog@artsadmNews
  • Contact us
    Contact usJoin the mailing list
  • Support us
    Support usMake a donation

Follow us

  • Twitter @artsadm
  • Instagram – artsadm
  • Facebook @artsadmin
  • YouTube – ArtsadminUK
Skip to content Skip to search Top
  • What’s on
  • Projects
  • For Artists
  • Toynbee Studios
My account
Basket
Artsadmin

What Matters launches

Quick links

  • Blog
  • @artsadm
Photo by David Caines

What is the pattern that connects the crab to the lobster and the primrose to the orchid, and all of them to me, and me to you?”
– Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson – who is the subject of the film An Ecology of Mind, (screening during What Matters on Saturday 14 April), spent his life exploring the patterns that connect things. Leaving studies in zoology to become an anthropologist, Bateson’s explorations then took him into such diverse areas as psychology, cybernetics and linguistics.

Through this process of moving between discrete areas of knowledge, Bateson became increasingly aware of just how difficult it is for a single individual to grasp the meaning of a larger complex system. Curious as to why this might be, he turned his attention to knowledge itself. What knowledge do we have? How do we get it and how do we organize it? He once said: “Why do our schools teach us nothing about the pattern which connects?…Break the pattern which connects, and you necessarily destroy all quality.” When we don’t see the pattern or connecting system between things, (whether this is in relation to subjects like ecology or politics, or in connection to our own relationships with others), it’s easy to disregard or misunderstand what something is. It seems the recognition of the delicate, often invisible, connectedness of things offers the possibility of living more harmoniously within complex systems. Systems which, within our current paradigms for knowledge, will always remain outside the ‘knowable’ grasp of an individual.

What might be the connection between Bateson’s ideas and choreography and movement? There are many possible answers to this question, but let’s start with this one: the practice of exploring movement offers the possibility of experiencing the complexities of systems: perceptual systems, aesthetic systems and collaborative-social systems. Although the practice of dancing is now frequently articulated through language in research and books, there are other layers of its embodied thinking which are passed on through the unspoken absorption of an idea – no less distinct for its lack of being spoken or written.

What Matters emerged from an invitation, and was shaped by a death. Both the invitation and the death came from and to Gill Clarke, who had been a huge part of the curation of What If… in 2010, which was the predecessor to this current festival. What Matters emerged as a title because, for Gill, the notion of “What?” mattered – the sense of questioning, exploring and remaining curious mattered deeply to her – and is essential to the work of Independent Dance, the organisation of which she was co-director.Here already are a number of connections – from invitations and questions to past events and influences. All are present in What Matters, which is a festival that serves up artifacts and events that, although made entirely without connection to each other, will be placed in the same building for a period of time, and so therefore will speak to and across each other.

What are the connections between these disparate art works? Can we find a route through an event that displays (amongst other things) the details of the rotation in the ear of a horse, the story of a man holding his dying wife in his arms, the extended view of a spider weaving a web, and a woman tending to bee hives in East Sussex? Can we find a path from two bodies slamming together in a live space to the ecstatic screen bodies of soldiers about to go to war? Can the images of a man who decides to take on an Indian mannerism of squatting remain in the minds of those who pass by those images and then see a performance on mixing and heritage?

Lucy Cash and Becky Edmunds are Curators of What Matters 13-15 April at Siobhan Davies Studios.

12 April 2012 Categories: Blog | Tags: exhibition & film, performance

Top

Explore more

What Matters

Showcasing experimental work and choreographic enquiry across traditional art-form boundaries What Matters, curated by Lucy Cash and Becky…

Lucy Cash

Lucy is an artist and filmmaker. She is drawn to beginning with the extraordinary appearance of ordinary

What Matters

Lucy Cash Sheila Ghelani
London

13–15 April 2012

Three repititions of the same image of a person lifting one hand to their face
Blog Reflections

Behind the scenes of The Forgotten People

19 January 2021

Follow

More social posts

Top

Artsadmin

Artsadmin Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
London E1 6AB

Tel: 020 7247 5102

Box office: 020 7650 2350
Plan your visit

Subscribe

Please send me

Information

  • About us
  • Get in contact
  • Spaces for hire
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility

Links

  • Café
  • Blog
  • Jobs
  • Press
  • Shop

Follow us

  • Twitter @artsadm
  • Instagram – artsadm
  • Facebook @artsadmin
  • YouTube – ArtsadminUK

Supported by

Lottery funded. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

Company details

Registered in the UK no. 2979487. Registered charity no. 1044645.

We use cookies to ensure we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Find out more about our cookie policy.OK