View source for User:Martina/Beyond What Drifts Us Apart (residency research)

==== 11th of June 2025 ====
Notes from site visit with the curator:

* What do we know already about the nearby area of the tower?
* a speculative archive? collectively built through workshops and public participation
* avoid taking on a historical approach, as it has already been done with the past 4 years of this recidency - take an approach using the sense
* documenting the present and the speculative - socio politcal - everchanging - urgency - everchanging cliff face
* every week would be a chapter that explores the senses - sonic, tactile and visual. The speculative and accumulation of it all would be done in the last week. 
* fieldwork through unconventional tools
*preservation - what is important to us? for the non human
*museological approach - can they document where the non human is currently? 
*diy approach - could further apply the senses
*how do we typically create archives? 
*having prompts with the workshop
*the workshops can include collaborators 
*end of July - programme and framework 

====<mark style="background:#CBC3E3;">★ Notes taken during Assessment II</mark> ====
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 <div style="width:200px;background-color:#ADD8E6;border:1px solid blue; padding:1em;box-shadow: 8px 8px 0px blue;">Four week residency: '''Beyond What Drifts Us Apart 2025'''
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I have been invited to be one of the artists representing Malta in the BWDUA residency of 2025. This residency is part of Unfinished Art Space, run by [https://www.margeritapule.com/ Margerita Pulè] and curated by [https://www.elysetonna.com/ Elyse Tonna.] <blockquote>"Beyond What Drifts Us Apart (BWDUA) is a multi-year interdisciplinary research and residency-based project that uncovers the less dominant narratives associated with the environments surrounding Malta’s historic (300-year-old+) coastal towers. As colonial legacies have dispersed over time, the relevance of these towers beyond their military and cultural significance has faded. However, their continued presence within fragile landscapes reveals the evolving relationships between impacted ecosystems, human intervention and non-human communities."


<u>The project asks:</u>

''How can a shift in focus towards the non-human reveal environmental challenges and human interventions shaping coastal landscapes?'' 

By embracing the ecotone of these in-between zones - the spaces where land and sea, past and present, human and non-human meet - BWDUA facilitates the development of new relationships between geographical, geological and ecological factors. The project fosters collaborative research, artistic production and public engagement to explore alternative models for conservation and coexistence.

This edition of BWDUA at Għajn Tuffieħa Tower - a 17th-century coastal defence structure at risk of cliff erosion, environmental instability and unsustainable development - will delve into the physical and conceptual transformations of this coastal site. Through a four-week artist residency, workshops, temporary artistic interventions and public engagement, BWDUA will offer alternative ways of thinking about these landscapes, challenging fixed historical narratives, zooming in on the natural environment and advocating for sustainable futures.</blockquote>Some initial ideas:

''<u>Server in The Watchtower:</u>'' 

* Server = storing data related to the watchtower

* I was also thinking of the perspective of watching from the watchtower and vice versa from ground up[[File:Tower.jpg|left|thumb|Għajn Tuffieħa Tower under repair works following storm damage, 2023.]]
* I am currently thinking of a server but I guess it could be anything that stores current information of the tower, and how can this data be stored constantly?
* This residency will take place in the first few weeks of September but I think the research and work that will be produced during this time could benefit the research question/ thesis production.

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"The Għajn Tuffieħa Tower, also known as Riviera Tower, is a 17th-century coastal watchtower located along Malta’s north-western coastline. It originally served as a warning system against maritime threats. The tower is now a Grade 1 listed heritage site under the guardianship of Din l-Art Ħelwa and sits within a Natura 2000 protected area, surrounded by cliffs, sand dunes and marine ecosystems. Due to coastal erosion and structural instability, access to the tower has been restricted by authorities, requiring a broader investigation of the surrounding landscape and ecological networks."</blockquote>
<br>'''1st of September 2025'''

Throughout the summer, the idea of the residency project has changed slightly. Conversations together with the curator and the artists made us think of different solutions for accessing the tower. Since it is heavily damaged and under restoration works, there is no access to the tower, and the only way to 'access' it is by observing it further away from the scaffolding.

The more we discussed, the more interested I became in exploring ways to collectively document the micro and macro-elements that surround the tower through unconventional tools and workshops. The idea is to involve participants from different disciplines, gain different perspectives and build a physical + digital repository of information, dedicating the final week of the residency to a speculative look into the future of the watchtower.

<u>Below are notes / writing from the proposal stages:</u>

=== Conceptual Outline ===

==== Fieldnotes on Unmaking:   ====

==== Speculative archives and fieldwork through unconventional tools   ====
'Fieldnotes on Unmaking’ proposes a new outlook towards fieldwork. In its expanded and experimental sense, it will move beyond traditional observation and instead become a space of active engagement—one shaped by acts of wandering, writing, witnessing and unlearning. Rather than seeking fixed outcomes or predictable results, it will become a process of learning through immersion, uncertainty, and encounter. This approach demands a reevaluation: what does it mean to truly engage in the field? 

Instead of returning to colonialist and museological models of fieldwork as discovery, this practice embraces its own unmaking. It is a collaborative effort, where the artwork emerges through entanglements with its environment—not as a solitary pursuit but as co-creation with the more-than-human. This process maps the unseen area of our site in Għajn Tuffieħa and opens space for futures already folded within the present—futures that estrange the familiar. 

* How it relates to BWDUA’s curatorial framework and the specific site.

“Fieldnotes on Unmaking” aims to challenge human-centred viewpoints, instead leaning towards ideas of coexistence and collaboration. Drawing on insights from multiple disciplines, the project will integrate them into artistic research, site-specific interventions, and participatory formats such as workshops, sound walks and collective readings. Although grounded in artistic collaboration, its main emphasis is on fostering greater awareness of the non-human environment surrounding the watchtower. Fieldwork will be shaped by the restriction of not accessing the water tower, encouraging experimental forms of research while maintaining respect for the landscape.

* How your work will investigate the intrinsic characteristics of Għajn Tuffieħa.

The project will centre on a series of workshops that invite public and collective participation, gradually building a cumulative and speculative archive of the Ghajn Tuffieha watchtower. Through these workshops, participants will engage with overlooked aspects of the surrounding area by closely examining its sonic, tactile, and visual traces. In its concluding phase, the gathered insights will be accumulated into a shared body of research, presented as a speculative archival record that reflects the site’s past, present, and possible futures.

* Your speculative or process-based approach.

This project also aims to introduce and share the use of ‘unconventional tools’ within the fieldwork workshops. These tools follow a DIY approach, encouraging participants to craft their own tools for artistic research, exploration or fieldwork. The focus lies on their accessibility, offering alternatives to specialised tools that often require licenses or restricted access. The process is meant to be inviting, demonstrating how the tools are made and empowering participants to recreate them independently in the future.

Integrated into the workshop sessions, these tools will be applied directly in the field, allowing participants to engage with the non-human environment of Għajn Tuffieħa through sonic, tactile and visual experiences. 

# Objectives
#* What you aim to explore, produce or provoke during the residency.

During the residency, the aim is to explore the reimagining of methodologies of fieldwork and learning from different disciplines. By letting go of preconceived notions and instead embracing fieldwork with unconventional tools and radical intent, artists and researchers can cultivate new methodologies, creating space for entirely new ways of knowing and learning. A new perspective focusing on reconstructed methodologies could be applied perfectly within the speculative archive of the residency site in Għajn Tuffieħa. 

* How your work will engage non-human narratives and human collaborators.

Fieldwork becomes a multisensory site of possibility, where we encounter the world not just as it is presumed to be, but as it might be imagined. Through unconventional tools, DIY methods, and a recalibration of sensory engagement, the boundaries of field practice expand, making it more inclusive and adaptive. This shift raises urgent questions about preserving what matters—not only to us but to the non-human. Can we rethink documentation not as containment, but as a way to acknowledge and support diverse forms of existence? Asking these questions will help us rethink and engage with the non-human, together with human collaborators.  

# Potential Events / Activities

===== Examples may include workshops, walkshops, talks, screenings, performances, participatory actions. =====
The public aspect of the project will mainly involve workshops, collective readings, sound walks, DIY tool making, tactile exercises and publication crafting. 

===== Outline target audiences and how they will be involved. =====
I want to craft a welcoming environment for dialogue and exploration, open to anyone interested in applying these methodologies within an artistic practice. I envision the workshops as a meeting ground for artistic researchers, archaeologists, archivists, and biologists alike. Bringing together such diverse perspectives could enhance the process of “unmaking” and offer new ways of approaching speculative fieldwork, while still emphasizing the importance of documenting the site.

# Methodology
#* Research methods and collaborative strategies (the production budget can be used to create collaborative events or activities, rather than only on materials).

The goal is to collect as much ‘data’ as possible through the collaborative workshops, creating a space where the perspectives of all participants can contribute to the speculative archive. In this way, the archive evolves as a shared, collective voice rather than the product of individual research and documentation.

===== Low-impact materials or processes you intend to use. =====
Each week, I plan to compile and design a small publication that gathers the observations made during the workshop. These weekly publications will act as records of our process and will eventually come together during the final week as a cumulative collection. All publications will be self-published and hand-bound.

Alongside this, I would like to craft a handmade website to function as a repository for the sounds and images recorded over the four weeks. This space will also be open to participants, allowing them to contribute additional material if they revisit the site after the residency. The online archive will act both as a log of our workshops and as an evolving platform for extending the work initiated on-site.

During the workshops, together with the participants, I plan to experiment with simple, DIY tools such as Piezo microphones, handmade sieves crafted from mosquito nets, and tubes repurposed as telescopes. Most of these objects can be built from recycled materials, with the Piezo microphones prepared in advance using a DIY approach.

=== Tentative Timeline ===
<blockquote>'''Week 1: Sonic artifacts''' 

The first week will focus on the sounds of the nearby area, tuning into the unseen or overlooked non-human aspects. 

The workshop for this week would focus on these steps:

* Introducing examples of open source sonic archives, showing the example of radio Aporee.
* Short introduction to preserving sounds through handmade webpages, showing examples from a workshop I made with Sustain Delay
* Step outside from the lab and start a collective sound walk nearby our site. During this time, participants are encouraged to record any interesting sounds by using their mobile phone. They are also encouraged to gather any artifacts which interest them, these could be rocks or even pieces of dry landscape.
* At the end of the walk, we will gather back in the lab and listen to our recordings.
* In this stage, the DIY tool of that week would be introduced - The Piezo microphone. Participants will be shown how this is made and what components are needed (unfortunately these can’t be made during the workshop because it requires a soldering iron, but I will bring a few ready made ones).
* The Piezo microphones can be used to experiment with our physical finds - the found object will be attached to the microphone, and we will be able to hear the sounds through an amplifier. This is a perfect opportunity for participants to listen, tune in and craft a collection of sound experiences.

The rest of the week would be spent in the lab, dedicating time to compile these observations and findings into a ‘document’ and online repository.  These works in progress will also be shown in open studio moments. </blockquote> <blockquote>'''Week 2: Tactile tracing'''

The second week will focus on tactility, observing the hidden artifacts of the flora and fauna in the vicinity of the watchtower.  

For this session, I would like to invite my friend Erika Ellul, a full-time archaeologist focusing on osteology.

The workshop for this week would focus on these steps:

* Starting off with a collective reading inside the lab.
* Stepping out into the field and introducing our DIY tool of the week: the sieve. The aim for this workshop is to respectfully sieve through surface level material, having Erika with us will help piece together a collective narrative.  
* Gather back findings from the sieving session back at the lab and have a collective discussion.

The rest of the week would be spent in the lab, dedicating time to compile these observations and findings into a ‘document’ and online repository.  These works in progress will also be shown in open studio moments. </blockquote><blockquote>


'''Week 3: Visual'''  

The third week will focus on visual elements, observing the hidden artifacts of the flora and fauna in the vicinity of the watchtower.  

The workshop for this week would focus on these steps:

* Starting off with a collective reading inside the lab. Introducing the notion of photography as a discipline to observe, but asking how we can train ourselves to observe differently, how do we focus on the micro?
* Stepping out into the field and introducing the DIY tool of the week: the telescope/binoculars.
* The prompt for this workshop is to use tube-like structures to help us zoom in onto our observations. If we look closely on the ground, can we find different ways to capture? Participants are welcome to document their findings through drawing or writing.
* Gather back findings from the sieving session back at the lab and have a collective discussion.

The rest of the week would be spent in the lab, dedicating time to compile these observations and findings into a ‘document’ and online repository.  These works in progress will also be shown in open studio moments, while also gradually preparing for the final week. </blockquote><blockquote>'''Week 4: Accumulation''' 

The last week will focus on finalizing the online repository and making it accessible to the public. During this time, I also plan to produce a concluding publication that reflects on the work from the first three weeks. Both the publication and the repository will be presented at the residency’s closing event, offering visitors an opportunity to engage with the documentation and explore the digital archive.</blockquote> 

===== Additional information: =====
<u>Reading list</u>

1. Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving by Caitlin DeSilvey 

2. Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn 

3. Fieldwork for Future Ecologies: Radical practice for art and art-based research 

4. The violence of collecting by Susan Pollock

5. Collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting: Museums as Mediators and Midwives of Meaning by Ivan Karp with Corinne A. Kratz

6. Some thoughts on material agency, urban practices, and collecting strategies by Denise Lawrence-Zuniga
Video reference:

Video reference:

The Persistence of Decay by Sarah Davis Baker.	

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