We chose the earth

We chose the earth
Cement Fields
2018-2021

For We chose the earth, we worked with secondary school students at Northfleet Technical College and Northfleet School for Girls over a period of two years, collectively re-imagining ways of being and learning together through the methods of philosophical enquiry, radical listening, dance, movement, and film making.

Eschewing competition in favour of care, we worked alongside the students to co-create an alternative environment for learning, where tacit knowledge, imagination and autonomous thinking are central. Drawing from ethics, history, pop culture and science fiction, we developed the direction of the sessions in collaboration with the students; listening and responding to what is most interesting, important and urgent to them, and sharing in a genuine quest.

Over the course of the two years students became familiar with the methods of philosophical enquiry, a learning technique that enables the formulation and expression of thoughts through collective questioning, dialogue and reflection. This practice provides young people with intellectual strategies better equipping them to navigate a complex world which might not always make sense to them.

In collaboration with dance artist Lucy Suggate and experimental vocalist Phil Minton, we used movement and voice in the sessions as a means to explore different kinds of knowledge: inherited, cultural, subconscious and embodied. Where language breaks down, dance and singing are harnessed as alternative tools of expression and understanding – making space for the body to speak, protest, and disobey.

We chose the earth workshops were also a form of living research, gathering and sifting ideas and material to build towards the film This place is a message

This project was commissioned by Cement Fields and supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.