Facilitated by Breg Horemans and Gert-Jan Stam of TAAT Arts Collective
TAAT have been creating spaces for encounter in Europe and beyond for over 10 years, with their projects serving to bring together people and organizations from different personal and cultural backgrounds. TAAT’s Encounter Portals are the latest in their series of ‘encounter-architecture’ projects and use a regenerative arts and design praxis to expand the idea of encounter beyond the human. An Encounter Portal is an organic mixture of co-creative process, bio-based installation and do-it-together theatre experience. It stages encounters between humans and more-than-human entities.
We are seeking 15 participants to take part in a free two-day Encounter Portal Workshop with TAAT at Aberystwyth University.
In the worksho; you will design, create and experience your own Encounter Portal, followed by a shared reflection. You will create Encounter Portal on-site in Penglais Woods, in collaboration with different entities (plants, stones) from the local ecosystem, then experience the Encounter Portal as a performance/ritual, and reflect on the experience through collective writing and collaging. The workshop will introduce ideas of ‘regenerative learning’ and will weave together different knowledges and voices.
TIME: The workshop will run from 10am to 6pm on both days and participants will need to attend both days
LOCATION: The workshop will take place in the Parry-Williams Building, Aberystwyth University, and in the grounds of Plas Penglais and Penglais Woods, a short walking distance away.
FOOD: Lunch and refreshments will be provided on both days.
PARTICIPATION BURSARIES: To support participation in the workshop we have 6 Participation Bursaries of £100 available to provide financial support for those on low or insecure incomes. Please let us know if you would like to be considered for one of these.
To Take Part: please email Dr Andrew Filmer (awf@aber.ac.uk) by Friday 17 February to secure a place on the workshop. Please let Andrew know a bit about you, if you would like to be considered for a participation bursary, and any accessibility needs or dietary requirements we should know about.
We will be holding an online briefing meeting with TAAT in advance of the workshop. The time and date for this is yet to be arranged.
We are also considering offering the Encounter Portal to others in the local community on Thursday 23rdMarch and will discuss this with participants during the pre-workshop briefing.
About TAAT
TAAT is a transdisciplinary arts collective founded in 2012 by Gert-Jan Stam and Breg Horemans. The collective brings together an international network of artists and designers from different fields and cultural/social backgrounds. Over the years they have been developing a regenerative arts practice making installations based on the encounter as a dramaturgical tool. Their work culminates in the long term project HALL33, that started in 2014 with HALL01. TAAT has set up and guided many co-creation processes and workshops both as part of HALL33 and connected to their work in general.
The Encounter Portal Workshop is funded by HEFCW’s Research Wales Innovation Fund
