D E A R D E S C E N D A N T S

Dear Descendants explores ways we may be able to transform our personal and collective imaginary at a time when it is dominated by a pathologically short attention span. How can we stop, slow down, and explore things on different scales? Engaging culture and the arts, how might we develop new types of secular cultural symbols, icons, rituals, pilgrimages, mechanisms, injunctions, interventions, ceremonies, spaces and other actions which enable all of this, inviting us to consider and inhabit a bigger here and a longer now? 

researching long-durational precedents

...a long durational work is any work (of music, opera, film, theater, performance art, science, and others) whose performance exceeds six hours. The use of time is a crucial element of this genre. By slowing down, lengthening, or repeating actions normally unexamined, a long durational work encourages both its performers and audience to step outside of traditional conceptions of time and examine what this experience means to them (Marina Abramovic Institute, 2013).

Dear Descendants is, amongst other things, an ongoing self-initiated research initiative. Through it, I’m investigating long-durational artistic and cultural works with a particular focus on initiatives that exceed an average human lifetime. Some of the questions being explored include: How are these works helping us think, act and care for the long-term? How are they helping us develop deeper emotional connections with our human and more-than-human descendants?

Through meetings, interviews and site visits a three-month study tour had been organised to explore these questions in person, learning from and investigating options with pioneers, documenting their artistic, cultural & architectural sites/initiatives which have projected lifespans of 100 years (ie; Future Library) to over 1B years (ie; The Last Pictures). This was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and, to date, all research has taken place online. Invitations to visit these various sites in person are still open. Some of these projects are noted here.

developing A long-durational work (australia)

A key aim of the research has been to support the creation of a new platform which will enable the development of a long-durational artistic and cultural work in Australia. Encouraged by a number of artists, curators and  producers involved in some of the above initiatives overseas, as well as supporters in Australia, Project 100+ and other ideas and works are being developed as a response (see below).

supporting a community of practice

Working with local and international partners, the Dear Descendants platform will also feature resources for an emerging community of practitioners: artists, producers and culture makers interested in progressing this particular form of creative practice in their respective contexts. This includes: case-studies, short-documentaries, interviews, essays, stories and more as we delve into the worlds of people and projects that are helping us expand our circle of care.

P R O J E C T 1 0 0 +

"…We are in the first instance a society that begins in deep time...if we would accept it, rather than spurn it, we might discover so many new possibilities for ourselves as a people.”

Richard Flanagan, National Press Club Address, April 2018.

Since the beginning of the millennium we have seen the development and launch of a small but growing set of long-durational artistic and cultural works across the world that are projected to unfold over anywhere between 100 years to over 1B years. They include for example: Future Library in Norway (100 years); the Ok Glacier Memorial in Iceland (200 years); Letters to the Future in Vietnam (1000 years); Centuries of the Bristlecone (5000 years) and the Clock of the Long Now (10,000 years) in the USA; and The Last Pictures in geosynchronous orbit around Earth (1 billion + years) . These works provide much needed counterpoints to today’s accelerating culture. They invite us to stop and slow down, think on different time-scales, consider more deeply our role as ancestors and encourage us to cultivate care beyond our own lifetimes.

Project 100+ is a curatorial platform which supports the development, commissioning and launch of a comparative long-durational artistic and cultural work in Australia. Unfolding over a century or more, and enabled by multiple generations throughout this time, the commissioned artistic and cultural work will stand on the shoulders of giants. This includes a 65,000 + year living legacy of stewardship and care-taking born on this land and nurtured by its First Peoples. By supporting the creation of a long durational artistic and cultural work in Australia, Project 100+ is an invitation to participate in and continue this tradition of caring for the long-term for many generations to come.

Launching in 2023/24, the project will begin by featuring the small but growing constellation of long-durational artistic and cultural works unfolding across the world. Partnering with the artists, producers and communities behind each of these works, this star map of initiatives will provide a central repository for this nascent form of cultural production. These works will be documented through short films, essays, stories and more, providing visitors with a virtual pilgrimage. This will also become a learning resource for people interested in exploring this form of creative practice while providing further context for the commissioning process overall. In parallel, a curatorial vision and roadmap will be authored to guide the commissioning process which will be launched in 2023. This will lead to the selection and public launch of the commissioned long-durational artistic and cultural work in 2024/25.

Recently, Project 100+ has been supported by research undertaken throughout the Community Transmissions Artist Residency (funded by both the Australia Council for the Arts and the City of Melbourne). The project was later awarded seed funding from Arts Northern Rivers through its Your Big Idea platform which supports ambitious ideas ready to be developed into contemporary arts projects. This has enabled some initial conversations about the project in Sydney with curators and producers including: Emily Sullivan (Curator, Kaldor Public Arts Projects), Daniel Browning (Host, The Art Show, ABC Radio) and Sebastian Goldspink (Curator, 2022 Adelaide Biennial).

Project 100+ is the culmination of a decade-long inquiry into how we might engage culture and the arts to help nudge ourselves closer to making long-term thinking and action more accessible and common rather than obscure and rare. To date, this inquiry has unfolded on the lands of both the Wurundjeri and Arakwal people, with acknowledgment of their Elders and communities past, present and future.

Supported by

E A R T H O B S E R V A T O R Y

The Earth Observatory (working title) is a new public art work, a cultural gathering site, specifically designed to enhance our contemplation of Earth. It is currently envisaged for Australia but it may be activated elsewhere as conversations with supporters in other regions are also taking place.

Unlike many observatories that look out to the stars, this observatory is envisaged as a type of mirror that reflects a living, real- time, constantly-changing portrait of Earth back to humanity. In the tradition of ancient stone labyrinth structures that have been 'walked' by people around the world for centuries and used as a contemplative tool, the intent is for the observatory to be a site of pilgrimage and ritual which invites us to reflect on our place in space and time, not just conceptually but viscerally as a whole body experience.

To progress this project, I’ve had exploratory conversations with a range of people including, for example: First Nations wisdom keepers, experts in the field of indigenous astronomical science & sky knowledge, a former astronaut, a land art pioneer, architects, an ethicist and an experimental art and projection lab specialist. I was also invited to give a talk at Parsons School of Design (NYC) about the project a few years ago for Project Anywhere’s biennial conference exploring art and artistic research outside the ‘white cube’ and traditional exhibition circuit (see below).

While this project is currently on hold, next steps will likely focus on the production of a small number of architectural models. Initial conversations about this have been discussed with Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts from Edition Office at their offices in Melbourne and Federal House in the Northern Rivers. Their architectural firm has collaborated with both Daniel Boyd and Yhonnie Scarce on two award winning public art projects in Canberra (For Our Country) and Melbourne (In Absence).

Conference abstract for Anywhere & Elsewhere, November 2018