[-empyre-] week four | engagement with place/from Helen

[Helen De Michiel]

Hello friends,
Happy birthday wishes to Dale!  Both you and I share birthdays around Thanksgiving Day (US), so we both actually have our birthdays before, on or after the holiday. 

I have a few general notes I've made reading and considering the issues that you all have raised this month. These are fragments, unresolved ideas that I'm thinking about these projects people are making…

For me, I see these projects as hacks into the system.  As creative and radical bursts, flares in the dark sky.

As an artist, I'm always looking for a coherency…that's available to any casual visitor, a grounding in a reality I can relate to in my real life.

Can a coherent narrative be available and understood in the abundant, dynamic and decontextualized internet environment and actually have meaning for people beyond the screen?

In the case of Lunch Love Community (evolved across platforms, and recontextualized several times over four years) the 'holding frame' became our live event with the short films, what we call the "Media Social" to gather people together to discuss and share stories about food issues that the films surface for the viewers. From sharing stories, people would gain a greater awareness of the bigger ecology that moved from our bodies, our communities and the environment.

We opened up a dialogue space which leads to awareness and, in time, significant political action.  More on that in another post.

Let's talk more about context and engagement with specific places!

Helen De Michiel 


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