Art in the Valley: Come and Create Landscape Illusion with Us!

A taste of what we'll be creating!

Sunday 30th March 3-5pm

Benfield Barn

Although we are holding a gathering outside the town hall on Weds 2nd April from 1pm, we realise that not everyone can make this so we wanted to create an event for those who want to show their support for our campaign and to mark the news of the council standing with us. This will be part community gathering, part workshop, part making an image together. 

Though there may be hurdles to come, this is a get together at the site of the proposed development to celebrate the journey so far. 

Each holding a piece of danger tape taut, we'll release it at the same time and then gather it up to make an image and mini film about the threat of losing a cherished local area, and the reprieve of the council's decision to keep the land for recreation (a promise they hope they will keep).

There'll be a workshop led by artist Rachel Henson about honing how we look so that we notice more and using the mini film as a landscape illusion.

About Rachel and her art:

Rachel makes site-based illusions that shift how people see areas of local wild using a viewfinder device. The illusion merges what you’re looking at right now with footage shot from that exact same vantage point in the recent past through binocular fusion, the way our vision merges the different angles from each eye into a seamless view of our surroundings.  And because we are alert to movement and light in our surroundings, the way the two views merge depends on what's happening live. 

The experience has a discombobulating effect. You know this thing you’re seeing isn’t there, but your senses tell you that it is."You're in this other world, this other realness.” said a participant. “It was like my senses couldn't quite compute it …” 

People report seeing their surroundings more vividly afterwards, and there’s science for that. Michelle Shiota, a professor of social psychology at Arizona State University explains how experiencing awe, a response to stimuli that challenge how we see the everyday world: “…cause the brain to reassess its assumptions and to pay more attention to what is actually in front of it. …The mind dials back its ‘predictive coding’ to just look around and gather information.”

Most of the time, we see only what we expect to see. But once we see something out of the ordinary we begin to notice more. And because memories are anchored in places, this alters how we feel about that location. It ceases to be a mere green background, incidental and therefore expendable, and becomes essential to home.