PROJECT // What’s Collective?
Part residency, part workshop, part research project, What’s Collective explores ways and means of making that promote shared agency and authorship.
To participate in this research workshop, click here. (Deadline September 11th)
October 4 – 7 2022, 1-5 p.m. (Tu.-Fr.)
+ 5@7 with some participants on Friday Oct 7th, 17h.
ABOUT THE PROJECT //
In this ongoing project Public Recordings researches ways and means of making that promote shared agency and authorship. Using the framework of a co-facilitated workshop, each iteration of What’s Collective? stages an artistic exchange through which collective approaches to art making can be shared, questioned, and renewed. The result is a gathering in which participants can more deeply consider their own artistic contexts, and develop new questions and ideas in response to the project’s title.
What’s Collective? is co-facilitated by associate artists of Public Recordings. This iteration will take place October 4-7, 2022. Participants will explore systems and strategies borrowed from past Public Recordings projects and the personal practices of the facilitators, to uncover common issues of group work. The sessions will include physical practices, sound-making, listening, discussion, reading, writing, and reflection. The goal with What’s Collective? is to hold a space in which participants can reflect on past experiences of group work, better understand and articulate important aspects of collaborative and collective practices, and consider how we can work together better–inside and outside of art making.
Public Recordings is an artist-led collective based in Toronto. We develop and present hypotheses about group work using dance, theatre, music, publication and other collective gestures. And our work has been shown and distributed in theatres, art galleries, museums, bars, clubs, civic, outdoor and digital spaces across Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Public Recordings is a non-profit, registered charity. Founded in 2003, the challenges and possibilities of collaboration and shared leadership have been a perennial subject, touching all of the work we do––within artistic projects and in the evolving structure of the organization itself. In 2015 Public Recordings officially adopted its current organizational model: an interdisciplinary collective led by its associate artists, two of whom also work as producers and lead administrators. Working and managing resources collectively, this team supports each other to produce their work together, and help cultivate new projects.
Who is Public Recordings
Artistic Producers: Evan Webber, Christopher Willes. Associate Artists: Brendan Jensen, Bee Pallamino, Germaine Liu, Evan Webber, and Christopher Willes. Board of Directors: Chris Dupuis, Lee Henderson, Lauren Vandervoort. Design: Jeremy McCormick. Bookkeeping: Emma Walker. Public Recordings was founded in 2003 by choreographer Ame Henderson and new media artist Daniel Arcé.
BIOS //
Bee Pallomina is a dance artist making and performing work for stage, installation, film/video and puppets. Bee’s work often explores themes of relationship, identity and belonging and her practice is centered on movement, care and the everyday. She is an artist, educator and mom. She is an associate artist with Public Recordings and an active performer and collaborator who has worked with many choreographers over the years. She also has an active teaching practice and is certified to teach Open Source Forms, and Modo, Yin and Restorative Yoga. She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theater, holds an MFA in choreography from York University, and is currently studying Expressive Arts Therapy.
Brendan Jensen is a dancer, choreographer and teacher who lives and works in Tkaronto-Toronto. He is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada and has worked with many dance artists and companies including the Toronto Dance Theatre. Brendan’s artistic work has been presented at P.S. we are all here, Flow Chart and the Fluid Festival. He was a recipient of the DanceWeb Europe scholarship in conjunction with the ‘2008 Impulstanz’ festival in Vienna, Austria. He is an associate artist with Public Recordings. His current research project investigates ‘practice as performance’, in relation to his work as a dance and movement teacher, and his ongoing training in Alexander Technique.
Christopher Willes is a multidisciplinary artist, musician/composer, facilitator and dramaturge. Moving across experimental music/sound, dance, and visual art forms, his work focuses on the subject and practice of listening. He is an associate artist and producer with Public Recordings, and has worked in dance and theatre as a dramaturge and sound designer for over a decade. He studied music at the University of Toronto, and holds an MFA from Bard College (USA). He is currently studying Conflict Mediation through the University of Waterloo and he likes to bring this learning to his work as an artist and facilitator.
Evan Webber is a writer, playwright, performance maker and dramaturge. His theatre, dance and interdisciplinary projects explore the limits and potentials of shared experience and common narratives. Evan’s an associate artist and producer with Public Recordings and studied acting at the National Theatre of School of Canada. From 2014-17 he was curator and facilitator of the HATCH performing arts residency at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre.
DETAILS //
What’s Collective? Was initiated by Liz Peterson, Christopher Willes and Evan Webber. Facilitators: Brendan Jensen, Germaine Liu, Bee Pallomina, Christopher Willes, Evan Webber, Liz Peterson. Print Design: Jeremy McCormick.
Developed with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and The Centre for Expanded Poetics at Concordia University.
Previous presentations: The Toronto Dance Community Love-in (2021), Studio 303 (2020), and the Milieux Institute / LePARC Concordia University (2020).
More information: