FAST FORWARD
FAST FORWARD is a six week program for multidisciplinary artists and designers looking to develop an individual project amongst a new community dedicated to collaborative thinking and creative energy.
With a range of online lectures, writing sessions, reading groups, and personal direction meetings, we will build a learning environment of collaboration and community – embracing the fast forward attitude.
OUR MISSION
In this Covid world, finding space for collective thinking is extremely valuable. The Fast Forwards program aims to provide a space where new ideas can develop together, and the minds of participants act like neurons in an expanded network of thought, where the momentum of the Fast Forward community drives each of us to complete a project that communicates and expresses an idea.
Fast Forward is a collective endeavour. The direction of the program will evolve over a four week period of intensive and collaborative study and reflection. The final two weeks of the program will be spent in a state of intensive making, where the communication of a core idea and the form of your work will weave together into something meaningful.
A series of online seminars, reading groups, and group making sessions will be hosted by Anna Dakin, Ania Drupka, and Ava Watson, three artists based in three countries, with three slightly different perspectives on art, the environment, technology and how these things will shape the future we will inhabit.
When the program is complete, we will develop a group show highlighting the connections made between participants and ideas.
Now is a perfect time to prepare for the coming months – to get out of a rut, prepare your portfolio, or finish a piece for an exhibition, while expanding your artist reach and network. Discover innovative online learning optimised to the current situation in 2021, and make new connections.
We look forward to hearing from you. Register before 20th Feb 2021, 23:59 GMT.
WHAT WE ARE OFFERING
The FFD program is made up of three groups who will meet 3-4 times per week. Each group will be led through virtual making, reading, writing, and group crit sessions by the program hosts. All groups will come together for weekly Creative Lab sessions for ideas sharing, ongoing social meet ups, and final presentations at the end of the program. There will be the ongoing opportunity to request one on one conversations with any of the other participants, and at the end of the program, there will be a group presentation of the work and ideas to the public.
Throughout the program, hosts will advise you on best methods for creativity, making, and communication, with a focus on investigating our interconnected world. These six weeks have been crafted into an experience that will lead you to make new work, have fresh ideas, and develop your portfolio. This is an opportunity to work with fast forward-thinking talented individuals.
PROGRAM HOSTS
Anna Dakin
Anna Dakin is a British painter and experience designer, based in Central Australia. Anna’s practice developed from painting to experience design after a 232km solo hike on the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia in 2014, where the experience of being in the landscape was more powerful than the paintings that resulted from that trip could ever be. This shift in practice took her to The Royal College of Art, where she led the Royal Amateur Expedition Society, which evolved into her own business, The Artist Expedition Society.
Anna believes that taking art and design practices into remote outdoor environments changes the context of creative thinking, and allows ideas inspired by observing complex interconnected elements of our planetary system to seep into our own art and design practices.
Anna uses painting as a tool to observe the landscape in more detail, and as a catalyst for thinking more deeply about the elements of these landscapes. Anna’s practice includes designing experiences for artists outdoors, and curating events in and about the outdoors as The Artist Expedition Society for four years.
Anna Drupka
Anna Drupka is a Polish born Artist and Designer, living and working in Amsterdam. Anna studied Architecture and Fine Art in Poland, Textile Design in Amsterdam and Information Experience Design in London. Anna is currently conducting studies remotely on religions at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and working as a coach for artists to prepare portfolios, and a curator of events and exhibitions.
Anna designs atmospheres and experiences with a focus on ethnographic research. This research investigates the paradigms of social-cultural relations, and the ritualized communal interchangeability of values and heritage inside material systems. Anna’s artistic practice deconstructs the dichotomous lines between fiction and nonfiction, appropriating the rituals, spiritual practices, and narratives of a number of religions to question the circumstances we live in, and where these things fit into contemporary life.
Ava Watson
Ava Watson is a multidisciplinary artist-designer, researcher and educator from London, UK. One of the fundamental beliefs within her practice is that design expands beyond the fibres of physical space, creating narratives in our minds about how we relate to the wider environment and guiding us into who we will become, thus, expressing that ideas come before the medium. Ava has specialist experience in using many mediums including, primarily light, architectural building, interactive software skills to make work for both the digital and physical space.
Ava creates sensory experiences that communicate elements of science, psychology, philosophy and anthropology. These poetic atmospheres create room for humans to come into contact with complex research ideas that would otherwise be difficult to grasp.
Ava Watson is known to push the boundaries of emerging technologies by exploring intersections between the artificial and the natural world. How can the experiences we design illuminate aspects of our impact on the environment, such as light pollution at night, space debris, and how can the narratives of these experiences hold space to reflect on the impact on the wider environment that affects our self perception?
JOIN THE PROGRAM
Meeting multiple times per week, the group will study selected readings and artworks that communicate something about our interconnected world. While making work, participating in writing workshops, and sharing ideas. This is an opportunity to work with fast forward-thinking talented individuals.
The direction of the program will evolve with its participants over a four week period of study and reflection, before a two week program of intensive writing and making. – As a student of the Fast Forward program, you will learn new research methods, how to evaluate your work, and how to explain your creative communication intentions in front of a group.
TIMETABLE
The FFD program is made up of three groups lead by the program hosts. The groups will meet 3-4 times per week. Each group will be led through virtual making, reading, writing, and group crit sessions by the program hosts. All groups will come together for weekly Creative Lab sessions for ideas sharing, ongoing social meet ups, and final presentations at the end of the program. There will be the ongoing opportunity to request one on one conversations with any of the other participants, and when the program is finished, there will be a group presentation of the work and ideas to the public.
These six weeks have been crafted into an experience that will lead you to make new work, have fresh ideas, and develop your portfolio. This is an opportunity to work with fast forward-thinking talented individuals.
TIME ZONES
Key program times will be:
Entire Group Meetings
UK/Amsterdam/Alice Springs, Australia
10pm/11pm/7.30am
10am/11am/7.30pm
Host group meetings
These times are guideline and may change to accommodate participants.
UK: 5pm / 10pm
Amsterdam: 11am / 2pm
Alice Springs, Australia: 11am / 7.30pm
- Introduction the hosts will introduce themselves, their research interests, and the program.
- Virtual Making 1 hour of working together on individual projects – like being in a studio, but not.
- Creative Lab A relaxed session where you can bring an idea, an artwork, a quote from a text that you want to share with the group.
- Reading Group the hosts have chose a small series of texts that you will read and talk about in the reading group.
- Writing Hour 1 hour of focused writing as a group, with music.
- Group Crit Each member of the tutor group will talk about what they have been making and why, and gain feedback from members of the host group.
- Social time dedicated to getting to know each other.
- Final Presentations The entire program will come together to learn about what we have been making. Resonant ideas will be highlighted here.
- CELEBRATION a celebration to mark the end of the program.
- 15 min 1 on 1 crits will be organised ad-hoc throughout the program.
- You will have the option to request a 1 on 1 call with another member of the program to talk about work, ideas, resonances. These calls are 15 mins long.
PROGRAM RULES
– This is a collective space and all ideas are welcome (unless they cause harm or are disrespectful). All ideas will be given the time to be voiced.
– We encourage feedback between participants during crits, but your feedback must be constructive. If you are mean, you will get three strikes before being asked to leave.
– You cannot join the program purely to promote your own work or business. You must be here to learn and develop, and share ideas.
– This is a safe space to learn. Everything that is shared in this space is private and confidential.
– Your technology is your responsibility. While the program hosts will, where possible, help you if you have difficulty participating in the program due to technical difficulties, ultimately it is your responsibility to set yourself up to be able to listen and talk. We respect the time of every member of the group, so it is essential to prepare yourself and your tech before each session starts.