Publications

Report first published in 2007 on www.forma.org.uk after an exciting year in which Forma achieved substantial growth in terms of programme, turnover and structure.

Established in 2002 and revenue-funded by Arts Council England, Forma works as a creative producing agency. We specialise in creating new projects with artists whose work crosses the boundaries between traditional forms and defines new approaches to making and presenting art.

Our productions involve close collaboration with artists from the earliest stages, and are presented in a world-wide programme of exhibitions, performances, films, public art works and publications, in partnership with a wide range of international venues and festivals.

Our mission is “to promote the highest quality interdisciplinary contemporary arts practice at regional, national and international levels, developing new and dynamic forms of participation and engagement for both artists and audiences.”

Forma supports all aspects of the production process, from the artistic development of projects and fundraising, to expert technical assistance, marketing and PR support, as well as production management and distribution.

Forma is constituted as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. In 2005/06, its operation was supervised by a voluntary Board of five people, and its activity was developed and managed by seven staff at its offices in Newcastle upon Tyne and London.

In Forma’s fourth year, we achieved major growth in activity, turnover and structure:
• The number of exhibition/performance days increased by 160%, from 24 per month in 2004/05 to 65 per month in 2005/06
• Forma produced 29 new productions, compared to 17 in the previous year
• Touring extended further across the world, with Forma productions being presented in 19 countries across 4 continents
• Audiences increased to 400,000, a four-fold increase on the previous year, and our performing arts productions played to 96% capacity
• Turnover increased by 97% to £677,943
• Staffing resources increased by 50% with the creation of two new full-time posts.

This review focuses on Forma’s activities during 2005/06 in:
• Producing and touring interdisciplinary art
• Working with artists (pages 3-8)
• Working internationally (pages 9-11)
• Our work in North East England (pages 12-13)
• Increasing participation in interdisciplinary art (pages 14-15).
• It also details:
Our 2005/06 programme in full
Staff, Board and accounts.

Producing and touring interdisciplinary art

Working with artists

Investing in artists. One of Forma’s defining characteristics is the long-term collaborative relationships we build with artists to support and facilitate their productions and their artistic development over time. These collaborations, some formalised as artist representation and others effectively a series of projects, have proved remarkably fruitful during 2005/06.

We completed our fourth successful year of artist representation for Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda, touring his work internationally and securing funds for commissioning new works. Ikeda’s new concert piece, datamatics, had its world premiere at Sage Gateshead. Co-commissioned by AV Festival 06 and ZeroOne San Jose, datamatics combined dynamic, computer–generated imagery with an electronic music soundtrack and explored the ways in which data is used to encode, understand and control the world. In August 2005, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne commissioned and exhibited data.spectra, a major new installation piece by Ikeda.

“datamatics showed Ikeda at the height of his artistic powers, building on his own unmistakable artistic language.” – The Wire on Ryoji Ikeda, 2006

We built on a long-term working relationship with British artist Gina Czarnecki, with whom we developed a new large-scale production, Spine, and secured a major SciArt award from the Wellcome Trust for the creation of another new work, Contagion.

We also began a close working partnership with Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, representing her work world-wide and securing an Arts Council England International Fellowship residency, which allowed her to research ideas for new projects.

This year, Forma began working on a long-term basis with Carsten Nicolai to tour his audiovisual concerts. We produced the live version of Nicolai’s collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, insen, which toured across Europe in October 2005, performing at ten major festivals and concert venues.

We also worked on projects with many other artists, including: Laurie Anderson; Kim Gordon, Marina Rosenfeld, Kaffe Matthews (Her Noise exhibition and catalogue); Karen Finley, André Stitt, Kira O’Reilly (navigate ); Autechre, Fennesz, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Pan Sonic, Wolf Eyes (version – the other music); Atelier van Lieshout, Gob Squad, Grand Magasin (A-Tipis); Susan Stenger, John Armleder, Kristian Levring (Soundtrack for an Exhibition) and Erik van Lieshout.

Supporting new ways of working

Forma often commissions and facilitates artists and curators to explore new ways of producing and presenting their work. Our support for this process ranges from sharing ideas and expertise, to providing technical management and engaging collaborators, co-producers, funders and presenters.

For ‘Soundtrack for an Exhibition’, Forma worked with the curator Mathieu Copeland in commissioning and producing an ambitious, large-scale exhibition that deliberately broke with many of the established ways of making an exhibition. It combined three key elements, each in itself technically demanding, and presented them together in the gallery simultaneously; the exhibition as an experience was defined by the collision and confrontation between the three elements – film projection, exhibition of paintings and sound score.

The score itself – ninety-six days of continuous music – was composed by Susan Stenger. Forma worked closely with Stenger to integrate the many contributions from her collaborating musicians – who included such artists as Alan Vega, Kim Gordon, Bruce Gilbert, and Alexander Hacke – into a database that could be accessed and played by a custom-made computer programme, according to her score. ‘Soundtrack for an Exhibition‘ premiered at Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon in March 2006.

Our collaboration with Lynette Wallworth also enabled her to develop new approaches in her work. These included producing, we believe, the first interactive video installation made for High Definition video. Wallworth created this installation, Still:Waiting2, in February 2006 with a commission from Arnolfini, Bristol.

Shortly afterwards, Gina Czarnecki premiered Spine in Newcastle upon Tyne. This large-scale temporary public art piece was on a scale not previously attempted by the artist, and was produced by Forma for AV Festival 06.

Professional Development

2005/06 saw the completion of Associates, our pilot professional development scheme in North East England, funded by the EU and Arts Council England.

Developed in collaboration with project manager Julie Crawshaw, Associates offered two places at Forma for an artist and a curator living in the region to explore new ways of working and to support their research through a self-determined programme of mentoring, assisted technical and artistic development, and travel. Curator Ele Carpenter and artist Peter J. Evans were selected to take up these positions during 2004.

Ele Carpenter’s research centred on how socially engaged and net artists use new media to take cultural and political risk. Her Associateship contributed to her future work, and a new website currently under construction will present the results of her research. We supported Carpenter’s research through travel, networking and provided an assistant to support the development of her website.

Peter J. Evans developed Signal Transposition, an innovative new project for possible exhibition across a range of formats. This project took as its starting point biological processes that produce micro-voltage changes within plants, which he used as a system for producing a sound composition in real time. We facilitated advice and support from a team of experts, including a biologist from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, an electronics engineer, a computer programmer and a number of peer artists and curators, who assisted the artist in devising the production of the work.

Curating

As well as producing its own programme of new projects with artists, Forma also uses its international contacts and expertise to curate adventurous exhibitions, festivals and events.

During 2005, we worked with amino, Baltic and Michelle Hirschhorn, to co-curate ‘navigate’, a four-day festival of live art in Newcastle and Gateshead. Taking ‘navigation’ as its theme, the programme included performances that considered the mapping of real and virtual geographies, the body as site, navigating data within digital media, and navigating time across physical and emotional space. ‘navigate’ took place aboard Stubnitz – a German ship that travelled to the Tyne for the festival – at Baltic and on a coach touring throughout the region. It attracted important international artists and critics, and premiered work from artists including Karen Finley, André Stitt and Kira O’Reilly.

“‘navigate’s’ four days.. opened up many more channels of enquiry than I’ve charted. More such far-reaching voyages, anchored on the banks of the Tyne, are definitely required.” – Mary Brennan, The Glasgow Herald, on ‘navigate’, 2005

We also co-curated with amino and no-fi a three-day festival of experimental music, also using Stubnitz as its venue. Titled ‘version – the other music’, the festival’s diverse programme ranged from folk to electronica. Including Autechre, Alasdair Roberts, Wolf Eyes and many more, the line up featured both new and established musicians: those who combine different genres within their music, and others who reinvent music traditions. It also featured regional artists alongside internationally acclaimed musicians, raising their profiles with audiences and the media.

‘A-Tipis’, co-curated with Belgian performance company, Victoria, was an exhibition of specially commissioned installations and performances that toured to major European festivals in summer 2005. This project brought together artists from Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and France including Gob Squad, David Neirings, Private Thoughts in Public Places, Wouter Decorte, Sophie Nys, Grand Magasin, Aarich Jespers and Atelier Van Lieshout. Each artist created a structure that would either house performances or function as a sculptural object. Together, the works created a ‘territory’ that the audience was invited to visit and explore. The exhibition reflected on the themes of contemporary nomadism and interdisciplinarity within artistic practices.

Awards

British artists Gina Czarnecki and Mike Stubbs won awards this year for films produced by Forma.

Mike Stubbs’ Cultural Quarter (produced 2003) won the Sphinx Award for the best single-channel work at Videomedeja, the 9th International Video Festival, Serbia and Montenegro, October 2005 – the film’s fifth international prize.

Nascent, Gina Czarnecki’s film (produced 2005) won a Special Mention at Il Coreografo Elettronico, Naples, May 2005; The Delegates’ Award at IMZ Dance Screen, Brighton, June 2005; Best Dance Film Award, Australian Dance Awards, Sydney, November 2005.

“Nascent multiplies and shape-shifts dancers’ bodies to create a free-flowing and painterly stream of images. The effect is hallucinatory, as if the viewer is inside a dancer’s mind and body.” – Deborah Jones, The Weekend Australian, on Gina Czarnecki, 2006.

Working internationally

Developing partnerships

As an office-based producing organisation without any venue, Forma produces and delivers its programme through partnerships with venues and festivals. Developing and maintaining an international network of partners, spanning performing arts, visual art and media art, and operating across a range of scales, is key to our success. This international focus is fundamental to Forma’s activity.

During 2005/06, following a previous collaboration in 2003, we worked again with Romaeuropa Festival, Rome. With Santa Cecilia It’s Wonderful, the Festival co-produced insen, the first live collaboration between multi award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on acoustic piano and acclaimed electronic composer/visual artist Carsten Nicolai (alva noto) on electronics, with a visual concept by Nicolai that created video graphics triggered by the piano. Attracting significant media coverage and capacity audiences, insen was presented across Europe throughout October 2005 at major performing arts spaces such as Barbican Concert Hall, London (UK), Chemnitz Opera House (DE) and La Cigale, Paris (FR).

“..as thrilling as a virtuoso tightrope walk, and, ultimately, as emotionally pulverising.. a privilege to witness.” – Michael Bracewell, Frieze Magazine, 2006 on insen

Commissioned by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) Melbourne, Ryoji Ikeda’s data.spectra was a large-scale installation produced by Forma. data.spectra was the first exhibition work in Ikeda’s data.series, an ongoing series of sculptural, sound and new media projects that use data as their theme and material. data.spectra premiered at ACMI – where it was shown with Ikeda’s spectra II installation – in August 2005 as part of ‘White Noise’, a major international exhibition exploring abstraction in the digital age. The two works were widely acclaimed as the highlights of the exhibition.

“The breathtaking data.spectra is a four-lane superhighway of numbers streaming in a dense band across one of the walls of a vast darkened room. It’s a run-away flow of code.” – The Australian on Ryoji Ikeda, 2005

We co-produced ‘A-Tipis’ with partners La Villette, Paris (FR); Oerol Festival, Terschelling (NL) and Victoria, Ghent (BE). ‘A-Tipis’ was a large-scale exhibition of specially commissioned public artworks that toured to major European festivals in June – July 2005.

Working in partnership with international venues, festivals and promoters, Forma productions toured to nineteen countries across the globe in 2005/06. Organisations with whom we worked for the first time this year included major international institutions such as Adelaide Festival of Arts (AU); Auckland Festival (NZ); Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (AU); Barbican, London (UK); Dance on Camera festival, New York (US); Donau Festival (AT); Elektra festival, Montreal (CA); European Media Art Festival, Osnabruk (DE); Festival d’Ile de France, Paris (FR); Graz Biennial on Media & Architecture (AT); GRM/Radio France, Paris (FR); ZeroOne, ISEA, San Jose (US); Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (DE); Maerz Musik, Berlin (DE); Melbourne International Arts Festival (AU); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (SE); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (JP); Moving Image Centre, Auckland (NZ); Performance Space, Sydney (AU); Sage Gateshead (UK); Santa Cecilia, Rome (IT); VolksbÜhne, Berlin (DE) and others.

In 2005/06, Forma undertook its first significant touring development outside Europe, building new relationships with international institutions in Australasia and Japan. As well as producing Ryoji Ikeda’s new commission data.spectra for ACMI Melbourne, we worked with Melbourne International Arts Festival to present two audiovisual concerts in Australia by the artist in October 2005. We supported a collaboration between Ikeda and Hiroshi Sugimoto for Sugimoto’s large-scale solo exhibition at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In March 2006, we toured a solo audiovisual performance by Carsten Nicolai to Adelaide Festival; Moving Image Centre, Auckland; and Performance Space, Sydney.

Bringing international artists to the UK

As well as touring our productions world-wide, Forma also works with international artists to tour their work in Britain. Usually, these are artists whose work is shown rarely in Britain, or artists who Forma works with regularly.

In February 2006, Forma produced the first UK exhibition by Lynette Wallworth, Still:Waiting2, commissioned by Arnolfini / Inbetween Time. This interactive video installation used a surround soundscape and allowed audiences to contribute to the revelation of the work. How the audience sat or moved within the exhibition environment led to the dramatic experience of large flocks of birds arriving or taking flight. Still:Waiting2 premiered at Arnolfini, Bristol, as part of ‘This Secret Location’, an exhibition of works by national and international artists whose practices occupy the gap between live art and digital media.

In March 2006, Forma presented the leading electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda, at Barbican, London. Ikeda performed a double-bill concert of his audiovisual pieces, C4I and formula, in his first London appearance in over six years.

Other Forma productions in the UK featured important international artists and generated positive media coverage. Our UK programme included solo multi-media performances from Carsten Nicolai and Laurie Anderson. navigate, the four day festival of live art in NewcastleGateshead, presented the work of international artists including Karen Finley, e-Xplo, Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci, Tim Miller, Sachiko Abe, and Melati Suryodarmo. version – the other music featured rare UK appearances by Fennesz, Pan Sonic, Scion, Stars as Eyes and Wolf Eyes, among others.

Our work in North East England

Producing a high-quality artistic programme in the region

Forma works in partnership with regional organisations and venues to contribute high quality, cross-artform events to major festivals and programmes across North East England.

During 2005/06, Forma produced in the region many high quality and high profile events that reached wide and varied audiences. We began the year by bringing one of the world’s leading performance artists, Laurie Anderson, to North East England for the first time. She performed her new solo work, The End of the Moon, at Sage Gateshead in May 2005, to an audience of over a thousand people.

We worked with a range of co-producing and funding partners to present the festivals navigate and version, in Newcastle and Gateshead in summer 2005.

In March 2006, Forma produced several projects for AV Festival 06. For the Festival’s opening gala, we produced the world premiere of Ryoji Ikeda’s datamatics at Sage Gateshead. For the same programme, we organised a concert by alva noto (Carsten Nicolai). One of the major commissions for AV Festival 06 was Spine, a temporary public realm project by Gina Czarnecki, produced by Forma. Spine premiered in Newcastle during the Festival as a 17 metre-high projection onto the Civic Centre Bell Tower in the city centre.

This year, we worked with National Glass Centre (NGC), Sunderland, to facilitate an Arts Council England International Artist Fellowship by Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, which began in March 2006, hosted by NGC. These activities have attracted significant media attention, and have contributed to the growing national and international profile of the region as a centre of cultural innovation.

The economic impact of our work

Forma contributes to the regional cultural economy by collaborating with and supporting regional cultural programmes, artists and organisations.

We do this by engaging regional technicians, designers, artists and other cultural businesses in our programme; by supporting the professional development of regional cultural managers and artists; by assisting regional artists and arts organisations by making our own equipment available for them to hire at low rates; by earning income by exporting our productions nationally and internationally.

International exports of our productions grew significantly over 2005/06, accounting for 29.3% of our annual turnover compared to 12.6% in 2004/05. This represented a growth of 355% in monetary value.

At the same time we broadened our funding base, with earned income contributing 42% of turnover in 2005/06 compared with 19% in the previous year.

This year, Forma built on its reputation as a leading international production agency, and our programme was presented at some of the world’s leading venues and festivals. Our activity brought attention to our region, and, alongside Baltic and Sage, Forma is seen internationally as one of the flagship cultural institutions in North East England. Our work brought many artists and cultural practitioners to the region, not only to show work, but also to research and make work, to see our projects and for meetings.

During the year, Forma contributed to the training of young people interested in working in the cultural sector. We hosted two internships recruited from the Cultural Management MA course at Northumbria University, and three work experience placements from regional schools.

Increasing participation in interdisciplinary art

Developing audiences

One of Forma’s key aims is to encourage audiences to respond to the increasingly flexible ways in which artists are making work across and between art forms. We seek to develop audiences’ loyalties not to one particular media, but to works that reflect the increasing hybridity and fluidity of 21st century culture.

Central to Forma’s collaborations with venues and promoters is our aspiration to develop audiences across artforms and genres. As well as encouraging attendance and participation by existing audiences, we strive continuously to engage new audiences with new work and experiences.

We provide to host venues considered marketing guidelines, advice and support for each of our productions. By working in collaboration, sharing knowledge and information, we communicate about our productions with existing and potential target audiences across visual art, performance, music, new media and film.

During 2005/06, audiences for Forma’s projects increased significantly in size. Audience figures more than trebled on the previous year to reach 400,000, whilst we welcomed 96% capacity to our performing arts productions. Development of Forma’s profile and audiences this year was supported by the appointment in April 2005 of a new Senior Communications Manager post.

Forma’s website www.forma.org.uk continued to provide in-depth information on artists, projects and the touring programme. The number of visits rose by 37% on last year, with 236,025 page impressions reached for the website during 2005/06.

This year we worked to maximise our online marketing. We introduced regular e-mail programme updates and targeted e-flyers to our expanding database of contacts, allowing us to communicate cost-effectively with international audiences for our projects.

We also promoted a wider understanding of interdisciplinary art by supporting discussion events that accompanied our programme. Lynette Wallworth and Gina Czarnecki both took part in a two-day AV Festival 06 symposium, and Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai gave insights into their collaborative project cyclo. at a special Forma presentation about their work, as part of the Festival. Carsten Nicolai gave an artist’s talk at Artists Week as part of Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts 2006.

Our programme for the year as a whole provided a variety of experiences and reached beyond specialist audiences. We introduced innovative and challenging work to new audiences on an international level.

Publishing

Forma’s publishing programme aims to develop critical writing and discussion around cross-artform practice, placing projects in wider historical and critical contexts.

In 2005, we published Her Noise, a catalogue that accompanied an exhibition at the South London Gallery in November/December 2005. The publication explored the activity of international artists such as Kim Gordon, Christina Kubisch and Marina Rosenfeld, whose practices involve the use of sound as a medium. Featuring essays by Thurston Moore, Christoph Cox and Drew Daniel amongst others, this catalogue highlighted the often overlooked contributions of women artists to the development of genres as disparate as Fluxus, performance art, punk and sound installation.

We continue to work with Cornerhouse Publications to distribute our publications world-wide.

Full programme 2005/2006

New productions

Ryoji Ikeda, data.spectra, ACMI Melbourne, August-October 2005.
Alva noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto, insen, Opernhaus, Chemnitz; Barbican, London; La Cigale, Paris; VolksbÜhne, Berlin; Cinema Teatro, Chiasso; Auditorium, Parco della Musica, Rome; Teatro Manzoni, Milan; Palazzina Ex-Gil, Bari; Teatro Communale di Modena; Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine, October 2005.
Lynette Wallworth, Still:Waiting2, Arnolfini, Bristol, February 2006.
Ryoji Ikeda, datamatics [prototype], Sage Gateshead (UK), March 2006.
Gina Czarnecki, Spine, Civic Centre Bell Tower, Newcastle upon Tyne, March 2006.
‘Soundtrack for an Exhibition’, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, March-June 2006.

Curated pogrammes

‘Navigate’ (live art festival), Baltic, ms Stubnitz, coach tour, Newcastle Gateshead, June-July 2005
‘Version – the other music’ (music festival), ms Stubnitz, Newcastle upon Tyne, July 2005
‘A-Tipis’ (public realm exhibition), Oerol Festival, Terschelling; Parc de la Villette, Paris; Gentse Festen, Gent, June-July 05

Touring productions

Ryoji Ikeda, C4I, Contemporary Arts Centre, Vilnius; Usine C, Montreal; Dissonanze, Rome; Arts Centre, Melbourne; Klangraum Minoritenkirche, Krems; Teatro Canovas, Malaga; Sage Gateshead; Barbican, London, April 2005 – March 2006.
Laurie Anderson, The End of the Moon, Sage Gateshead, May 2005.
Mike Stubbs, City Strapline Industries, Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane, May-Jun 2005.
Ryoji Ikeda, spectra II, ACMI Melbourne, Arnolfini; Bristol, August 2005 – February 2006.
Ryoji Ikeda with Hiroshi Sugimoto, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (JP) Sep 2005 – Jan 2006
Ryoji Ikedal, formula [ver.2.3], Arts Centre, Melbourne (AU); Barbican, London, October 2005 and March 2006
Ryoji Ikedal, Playing John Cage, Arnolfini, Bristol (UK) Nov 05 – January 2006.
Alva Noto, transall STUK Kunstcentrum, Sage Gateshead (UK); Elder Hall, Adelaide; Moving Image Centre, Auckland; Performance Space, Sydney Leuven, Feb-Mar 2006
Ryoji Ikeda + Carsten Nicolai, cyclo, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, March 2006.
Gina Czarnecki, Infected Number 15, Penrith April-May 2006.
Gina Czarnecki, Nascent, film, dance and performing arts festivals in Adelaide, Athens, Brighton, Budapest, Köln / Kalk, London, New York, Stockholm, Terrassa, Toronto, Utah, 2005/2006.
Mike Stubbs, Cultural Quarter, film and new media festivals in Graz, Kassel, Novi Sad , Osnabruck, 2005.

Publication

Her Noise, exhibition catalogue for the ‘Her Noise’ exhibition at South London Gallery, November 2005”

www.forma.org.uk

First published: Forma, 2007. Republished: a-n Collections April 2008.