The De Beauvoir Labs

August 17, 2014 / Alt Education, Art Writing, Labs, Live, Performance, Research, Sound, Workshop /

The De Beauvoir Labs are a series of public interdisciplinary collaborations; fashioning undervalued skills into hybrid tools to collectively rethink utopian enterprises. The format of the Labs is open to take any form: a text, workshop, discussion, performance, song, diagram, or manifestation of an (im)practical object.

Labs have included a participatory performance with a writer and a recorder instrument player; a workshop with a yodeller and a knitter; a coffee morning with a neuroscientist and a Turkish coffee reader; and a walk with a scent designer and a former community nurse.

DOCUMENTATION and INFO below on
‘Portunalia’ made in collaboration with Sally O’Reilly with performance by an all-women recorder playing troupe:

The De Beauvoir Labs: Portunalia, Lisa Skuret

Portunalia

This collaborative event marked the eve of Portunalia, a neglected festival that honours the Roman god of doors, keys and livestock. As part of De Beauvoir Labs, it was the first speculative and interdisciplinary attempt to revive undervalued skills through collective effort. Over the course of the afternoon a score and lyrics were produced, by way of painless input on the part of gallery visitors, and the song was performed at 5:30pm by all women recorder troupe, the Dolly Mixtures.

Led by artist Lisa Skuret and writer Sally O’Reilly, the score was generated through data produced via gallery visitors keys, a variety of domestic kitchen scales, the textual affects of rooms, and misplaced personal effects.

After the event, a music stand and a recorder were installed in the gallery at PEER as part of the current exhibition. Visitors to the gallery were welcome to throw their ‘keys to the wind’ in offering by playing the communal score.

16 August 2014, 2pm-6pm at PEER Gallery 97 & 99 Hoxton Street, London N1 6QL Map

The De Beauvoir Labs form one strand of Communal Materials; Or, Evolution Isn’t Fast Enough a speculative project by artist Lisa Skuret. Supported by Arts Council England.