The Commons: Halifax, Nova Scotia (2019)
Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder
Being-in-the-Breathable: The Commons
Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder
Halifax Commons, August 3, 2019
For Re-interpret, Anna Leonowens Gallery, July 29- August 3
Organized by Jacinte Armstrong, Camille Valcourt-Synnott and Louis-Charles Dionne
This participatory artwork responds to the contingencies of the Halifax Commons as a public space through which we move. Participants consider the internal experience of breathing and the haptic sensation of weather through actions that utilize movement, performance, objects and sound. Allegorical references to the history of breathing, atmosphere and weather are incorporated into the experience of being at the Commons.
Walking is a sensorial experience; the senses provide both distil and proximal relationships to the world that inform our knowledge and understanding of place. The ubiquity of technologically mediated space affects the experience of knowledge generation gained through walking. As pedestrians we are networked into multimodal sensorial experiences while walking and interacting with mobile devices.
Being-in-the-Breathable is a term that the author Peter Sloterdijk uses to describe how the atmosphere and environment were made explicit by the use of gas warfare during the first and second world wars. The atmosphere, the last common space that people share, lost its innocence when it was used as an environmental weapon. This is the Commons.
Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder
Halifax Commons, August 3, 2019
For Re-interpret, Anna Leonowens Gallery, July 29- August 3
Organized by Jacinte Armstrong, Camille Valcourt-Synnott and Louis-Charles Dionne
This participatory artwork responds to the contingencies of the Halifax Commons as a public space through which we move. Participants consider the internal experience of breathing and the haptic sensation of weather through actions that utilize movement, performance, objects and sound. Allegorical references to the history of breathing, atmosphere and weather are incorporated into the experience of being at the Commons.
Walking is a sensorial experience; the senses provide both distil and proximal relationships to the world that inform our knowledge and understanding of place. The ubiquity of technologically mediated space affects the experience of knowledge generation gained through walking. As pedestrians we are networked into multimodal sensorial experiences while walking and interacting with mobile devices.
Being-in-the-Breathable is a term that the author Peter Sloterdijk uses to describe how the atmosphere and environment were made explicit by the use of gas warfare during the first and second world wars. The atmosphere, the last common space that people share, lost its innocence when it was used as an environmental weapon. This is the Commons.
Robert Bean @2020