October 2020




Email Thread of Invitations/Organization





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October 9th


Hi there dear friends,

I am writing to you with an idea that has been swimming around inside for a few months. It's been shape shifting as the local restrictions have fluctuated over recent weeks but it has come to feel more urgent and needed (for me personally anyway!) as time goes on and summer morphs into autumn and winter appears on the horizon.

I am hoping to initiate an 'outdoor walking bookclub' :)
as a means of creating a structure of meet up opportunities for our artist/friendship community
as a means of continuing to share, discuss and discover topics and areas of interest / peer-led learning
as a means of experiencing the outdoors (land and weather) and bringing awareness to the ways that environment affects our engagement with the written/discussed material and with each other.
as a means of establishing a safe/covid conscious social practice that is also cost-low :)


Covid in Ireland has affected the ways that artists/friends may learn/share and inspire one another. Studio spaces and cultural organizations/diy spaces and the organic communal environments they offer us are virtually gone from our lives. The potential for crossover, collaboration and stimulating conversation has moved almost entirely online, in multiple virtual, text based environments. This kind environment imposes lots of limitations on communication and thought processes as well as physical/bodily participation and wellbeing . I am hoping to organise a short term sustainable bookclub practice that responds to some of these issues affecting us.



The hope is that the book club would run from October to December, as a bi-weekly set up. Text may be chosen by a different member for each meet up (rotating basis) and can be pretty open format (essay, poem, interview, script, book chapter, etc) Ideally the reading or listening time for a chosen material would be 20 mins - 40 mins, to keep it manageable for anyone who may be time poor. You may also choose your own work if you would like? Each meetup would involve meeting in a different outdoor location (not high density urban environment for covid safety purposes). Meet up times would be approx 2 hours and walking at the beginning and end of the meeting would be a feature of the meet up (keep warm, etc)



Transport and time tabling can be organised in the coming week. 14 people have been included in this email in keeping with the Level 3 outdoor pursuits restriction numbers of 15 people per group. Social distancing and mask wearing will be a key part of the book club that can be discussed in line up to the meet up <3



So the first meet up will take place on the Saturday 17th of October (can be rescheduled to the 18th if the weather is absolutely dire) at 11.30am

The walk will happen up / around Killiney Hill. We will meet at the Dalkey DART station approx 11.30am and walk from there.

Please bring; a mask, hand sanitizer
If you like you could bring; a notebook and pen, flask of coffee or a snack?
Possible swim afterward too ? Maybe bring togs and towel ?!

Finally - the first text!

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3162-designing-disorder?fbclid=IwAR1SX1BPvZ7GRu4_sgDBRWl3KKMrP1pK_QV9ycOIGqVvU36F6jMkd4_y8pY

- it is an interview hosted by Verso Books with Richard Sennet and Pablo Sendra, the two authors of 'Designing Disorder, Experiments and Disruptions in the City'.
For the purpose of the bookclub discussion, I am hoping we can chat about subjects raised between 12 minutes and 51 minutes of the interview. However, if you want to listen to the whole thing please do!
I will type up and print out some sections from the interview which we can maybe read on the day. They might serve as Catalysts for some chat?
Also please feel free to write down any points or quotes or ideas that came to mind upon listening. :)

This will be a first trial, and the format can change, move etc determined by whoever is choosing the text and reading sites in the coming meet ups :~)


Looking forward to sharing IRL presence!~~~

Jenn





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October 17th

Hey friends,

Just checking in before our first meet up. I’m going to try and make this as safe as possible a gathering. Approx 14 people (incl me) have responded about the first meet up on Sunday.

I hope that we can make our practice as sustainable and safe as possible. We will need to make a conscious effort to maintain a 2m distance and bring our masks. We can figure out mask wearing times and use collectively. If you are a close contact of a case or suspected case please sit this one out :)

I have attached two photos from the latest level 3 update which states that outdoor groups for arts events with a named organizer can take place with up to 15 people outdoors.

Let me know if your name is not below and you intend on coming. :) Hopefully I haven't forgotten you :) Also if you cannot make it please let me now :)

11.30 Dalkey Dart Station. See you there!
Jenn



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October 21st


Hello friends,

Thank you so much coming along to our first meet up on Sunday October 18th. For everyone who could not make it, thank you for letting me know and thanks for making that call. You were missed but part of the spirit of the group !

The first meet up was really wonderful and has led to some great ideas for continuing this process of sharing material, movement and support.

We began at the Dalkey Dart Station, through the Quarry, over Killiney Hill and ended with a swim in Coliemore Harbour. I don’t want to attempt to summarize or document conversations and discussions that were had in response to the video text as I don't think this email is the best format for doing so? As a group, we talked about the ways we might continue/expand on conversations that took place along the walk. We shared some ideas about meaningful learning practices and methods (cerebral vs embodied learning?); roles of place/environment (youtube vs forest?) in our experiences with/of information; ways of holding onto and embodying new knowledge. It was decided that as a part of moving forward, each group member would have the opportunity to offer sharing a 'reflection' on the previous meet up. This could take the format of a written item or other - paragraph: poem; essay; a recorded voice note; a drawing; a list of words; a map; photographs - ultimately all formats welcome really. You could even photograph notes you made about the text/video or type out some lines or quotes from the tex/video. These records/responses/documents will be gathered and organised in a shared space. I'll be following up in the coming week about this online space.

Resilience and response were two values that led to the initiation of this project. Despite the current lockdown measures, I'll be proposing the next 'meet up' goes ahead in two weeks, taking a different (remote) format to the last meeting. Increasing restrictions may give us a unique opportunity to engage more deeply in unexpected directions whilst continuing to facilitate togetherness, support, peer-led learning and engagement with our living outdoor environments. The last meet up left me feeling really nourished and I'm really grateful to have shared the experience before this coming lockdown. I am planning that there will be two- three 'remote' meetups in October -November and two IRL meet ups in December.

I have included a shared folder with documents and some photographs from the walk. If you have photo documentation it would be great to add it for people who couldn't attend, for them to get a sense of the places we walked. I have made a photo consent document - It would be great if you could read and sign. Feel free to suggest amendments or change phrasing etc. I would also like to add everyone's email to a document for us to be able to contact each other. Please let me know if you would like to opt out of that. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-x-Ys2VBUoZ4DcDUBlfGOt0fQ65ygY-C?usp=sharing

At any point if you wish to leave the group and no longer receive these emails, please let me know, absolutely zero hard feels <3


Jenn


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October 28



Welcome friends,

I hope you are all doing well this week in the lead up to the Blue Moon on Halloween Night. It will soon be 2 weeks since our first meet up!

Our next programme has been chosen with Calendar time in mind. The amazing Eimear is leading our group and is offering up the text 'Challenging Masculine Discourses of Violence: Posthumanist Approaches to the Figure of the Morrígan in Táin Bó Cúailnge' —By Elizabeth Kempton. Eimear has suggested that you can read as much as the first few paragraphs, or the entire text if you like !

This book club gathering will be remote - please read the guidelines that follow;

- Between today and Saturday, carve out 15 minutes or more to sit down in a quiet environment (if possible), in a comfy way with a device view or print of the text.
- Bring a notebook and pen if you like
- read :)
- Allow time for absorption/processing (however that works for you)
- Record a voice message for the group (this can include a hello:), a few jokes. a few thoughts on the text you read or just some parts you enjoyed or found interesting)
- You can also include a reflection on anything else really if you like!

If possible could you record your voice message on your phone and email it directly to me before Saturday?

I will be putting everyones voice notes together into a single audio piece, with an introduction by Eimear. This audio piece will be sent back in its full form (all our recordings together) to you on Sunday, Samhain, Nov 1st. I would ask that you take it with you to listen on a walk outside somewhere. Maybe you could take a photo of some part of your listening place?

Let me know if you think you will not be able to make it.

Thanks again so much to Eimear for choosing such a special text for us.

Hope you are all keeping safe and well as possible in heart and spirit these days,
Jenn
Xxx