On the 9th of November I hosted an event at the Arthouse in Wakefield supported by Disability Arts Online
I didn’t wan’t it to be the usual format of an audience being talked at. Instead from the very start I attempted to create an equal non-hierarchical atmosphere in the room. This worked successfully and enabled people to engage in the conversation, often talking about personally relevant and meaningful things, in a safe and trusting environment. There were 3 talks/performaces within the day which enabled plenty space for deeper diving into the subjects of mental health and climate change with a particular focus on community, presence and loneliness. A huge thank you to everyone who came, participated and supported the event.
A day of performances, provocations and conversations to explore the intersections of wellbeing, climate change, and culture.
About this Event
Let’s Talk about the Weather is the first event taking place under the Emotional Weather Bureau umbrella, created by Aidan Moesby.
The event will bring together artists, writers, musicians, medics, meteorologists, cultural critics and commentators for a day of performances, provocations and conversations at The Art House Wakefield. We invite you to be participants and contribute to the conversations.
Over the past year, Aidan Moesby has been a Disability Arts Online Associate Artist developing his socially engaged, conversational, and curatorial practice. This has coincided with devising and developing his first performative work ‘I was Naked, Smelling of Rain’, which premiered at Arc Stockton on October 17th, and gaining a Curatorial Residency at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.
As part of his development, he has created the Emotional Weather Bureau – a nomadic space in the real and virtual worlds acting as a location for activities which explore the relationship between climate change and wellbeing.
Moesby’s work focuses on the external physical weather and our internal psycho-emotional weather as a metaphor to explore the dual crises of Mental Health and Climate Change.
This may include, but is not limited to: research, education, discussions, artist residencies, performances and events. The Emotional Weather Bureau will work within a variety of settings and locations, be that in a town square, a library, a gallery, online or as a curated space at a festival. It may be a table in a community space, a science laboratory, a garden shed.
This format allows Moesby to be artist and curator, collaborator and funder as he invites others to be part of the Emotional Weather Bureau.
Refreshments and lunch are included in the ticket price.
Confirmed speakers/performers:
Dr Fay Bound Alberti is a historian of emotion, bodies, gender and medicine. She has researched and lectured at many UK universities including York, University College London, Lancaster, Manchester, and Queen Mary University of London, where she co-founded the Centre for the History of Emotions. She is currently UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Reader in History at the University of York.
Duncan Speakman is a composer and sound artist based at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol. He creates narrative sound led experiences that engage audiences in uncontrolled public and private space. He regularly creates bespoke work internationally including installations on trains in Guangzhou, loudspeaker symphonies in New Zealand, audio walks in Saitama, and sound installations in Porto; he has also recently developed a number of hybrid print/digital experiments.
Tineke De Meyer is a Belgian artist who studied comparative literature at the University of Ghent. Since then, her work has focused on dramaturgy and writing, but also as an assistant director in theatre at NT Gent. In 2017 she worked on the Ambient Literature project as a dramaturge for It Must Have Been Dark By Then. Her work has been presented at Vooruit, TedX Amsterdam, Zuidpool, IDFA and Oorzaken.
