Between 2011 – 2019, colleagues within Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University undertook an annual research residency called Winter Lodge which took place in a rural location [often at a youth hostel in the Peak District – e.g. Castleton, Hartington, Ilam] away from the commitments and distractions of both university and home life.
Winter Lodge was conceived in complementary relation to the activities of Summer Lodge: whilst Summer Lodge was more about open-ended exploratory practice undertaken within the context of the fine art studios, Winter Lodge focused on the specific enquiry within individuals’ research practices. The aim of Winter Lodge was to put critical pressure on and develop individual’s understanding of their own research practice whilst exploring points of connectivity and shared concern between practices, identifying potential for collaboration and emergent research thematics.
Whilst the focus of Winter Lodge was about putting pressure on our research enquiries through supportive critical peer discussion and the sharing of practice (through presentation, discussions, as well as experimental workshop sessions), it also played a key role in cultivating a strong sense of collegiate culture, trust and even intimacy within the fine art team, through the shared experience of engaging in specific kinds of activities together in a ‘retreat’ context: including walking together, eating together, playing together, writing together, the sharing of aspirations and personal objectives. At times, the quasi-ritual function of the Lodge not only enabled the transformation of research-practices, but also created the heightened conditions of ‘temporary community’ through the experience of being-with. Certainly, spending time together in such an intensive way, especially at the dark end of the year, made for both a reflective, restorative, even at time revelatory, experience.
Over the years, Winter Lodge evolved a particular structure:
Contexts Reflection: The Lodge began with each colleague reengaging with some of the questions emerging within the last years’ Context Lecture series. Contexts was a research-informed lecture programme (curated and convened by Emma Cocker) where fine art staff presented their current practice through fresh contextualisation/thinking, often responding to a specific trigger word/provocation, as a way of willfully preventing easily repeatable content and activating new research activity.
Where we are now?:On the first evening, each colleague gave a short 10-minute presentation reflecting on: Where are you now? What are the pressing concerns/questions within your current exploration or enquiry, and how have you been exploring these interests over the last year?
Exploratory Walk: On the first morning of the Lodge, the group would take a walk together, which served as a kind of ‘clearing’ – setting up different conditions of ‘being-together’ in preparation for the rest of the Lodge. The walks were often led by Andrew Brown, whose research practice focuses on sound walks, or else, the walk was undertaken in silence, or even punctuated by series of small interventions or instructions en-route. e.g short guided instruction for heightening attention, an activity for ‘listening’ or ‘looking’, or a passage of a text that could be read by the group.
Encounters: These sessions provided opportunity to engage more deeply with some aspect of an individual’s research practice and to offer constructive feedback. The sessions were conceived as informal, collegiate testing spaces for rehearsing and working with emergent ideas and research-in-progress. They were intended as a time to involve others in making / doing practice, research methods or experiments, giving different or new understanding of each other’s practice through the activity.
Writing workshop: For many years these sessions were led by Joanne Lee, inviting short generative writing and language-based activities with some of the key words emerging within the Encounter sessions.
Screenings: During the evenings, there were occasional ‘free and easy’ film screenings for sharing individual video and moving-image work alongside that of others.
Winter Lodge (2011 - 2019) was an annual research residency for enabling the fine art team to come together, to focus solely on artistic research activities, away from the habitual pressures and distractions of the university. The aim of Winter Lodge was to put critical pressure on and develop individuals’ understanding of their own research practice supported through constructive peer engagement, whilst exploring points of connectivity and shared concerns between practices, identifying potential areas for collaboration and emergent research thematics.
Walk led by Andrew Brown
WINTER LODGE: 2011
Leisure Lane, Hartington, 14 December
Participants were led on a walk across fields and along farm tracks, performing a variety of tasks en route. These included sensory writing, group running, walking with eyes closed, finding objects and moving them from one place to another, and experiencing a guided meditation. The intention was to playfully explore the local environment together.
Action led by Andrew Brown
WINTER LODGE: 2012
Frostbitten, Ilam Hall, 12 December
Participants were led on a walk in the grounds of Ilam Hall and invited to climb into emergency bivvy bags and lay on the ground at various locations.The focus of the exploration was to adopt different perspectives on the surroundings and to experience the frozen ground. An intriguing consequence of the activity took the form of the residual impressions that the warmth of our bodies left upon the grass.
Danica Maier, Untitled (building mountains)
Winter Lodge: 2014
Outline/Exploration: The original intent of this exploration workshop was to play with scale and perspective through creating person-sized mountains (using fabric and bamboo sticks) within the hills of Derbyshire. However, nature had other lessons for us that day – with extremally high winds our efforts to follow the initial plan, while fighting against the wind, continued to fail. Once we let go of the plans and leaned into the context and circumstances surrounding us – a far better experience transpired.