Here is the text from the task book that can be found in a black box at the start of the woodland walk at Steward Community Woodland.
We invite you to print off the text and use it wherever you go for a walk.
TWO ARTISTS, NATASHA MACHIN
AND EVE HOUSTON CAME TO LIVE WITH THE STEWARD WOODLAND COMMUNITY.
THEY EXPLORED THE WOODS AND MADE UP TASKS INFLUENCED BY; THEIR STUDIES
AT DARTINGTON COLLEGE OF ARTS, THE NATURE OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF STEWARD
WOODS AND THE ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY LIVING PROJECT.
THEY WANTED TO MAKE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MUCH LOVED STEWARD WOODS.
THEY WANTED TO FIND NEW APPROACHES TO MAKING CONNECTIONS AND DIALOGUE
WITH THIS SMALL PART OF THE WORLD.
THE TASKS THEY HAVE LEFT BEHIND ARE FOR ALL TO USE ON THE WALKS AND COULD
BE USED IN OTHER PLACES TOO. LIKE YOUR BACK GARDEN, THE HIGH STREET, IN
THE PUB, ANYWHERE.
MOST OF THE TASKS ARE IN RELATION TO THE PARTICULAR THINGS YOU FIND IN
THIS WOODLAND BUT CAN BE INTERPRETED ELSEWHERE. SOME OF THE TASKS CAN
ONLY BE USED IN CERTAIN ENVIRONMENTS FOR INSTANCE YOU COULDN'T DO TASK
NUMBER 5 AND THROW LOTS OF TEA CUPS IN THE AIR INSIDE A CHINA SHOP AND
MAKE A WISH, AS THAT TASK IS FOR USING LEAVES AND STICKS AND STUFF FOUND
ON THE WOODLAND CARPET, IT COULD BE CHANGED INTO USING LOTS OF PAPER WITH
THE WISHES WRITTEN DOWN, PUT INTO THE CUPS AND CHUCK THE PAPER UP INTO
THE AIR.
THE ARTISTS HAVE DOCUMENTED THEIR PROCESS OF WORKING AT THE WOODS AND
THE RESULTS OF THE EVENTS THEY DID ON 29TH AND 30TH NOVEMBER 2003. THEY
WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE THEIR DOCUMENTATION OF THE MAPS THAT HAVE BEEN
LEFT IN THE BOXES. THE DOCUMENTATION CAN BE FOUND ON A LINK ON THE STEWARD
COMMUNITY WEBSITE AND THEIR WEBSITE:
www.stewardwood.org.
www.woodwalk.org.uk
We hope you enjoy your walk!
All the best
Steward Woodland Community, Natasha Machin and Eve Houston
TASKS FOR WOODLAND WALK
Making a physical, poetic and cognitive map of place.
You are invited to use the woodland walk and make your own map by following
or interpreting the different tasks that are created to sensitively make
a relationship to the different aspects of the woodland walk. The tasks
can be used at any area of the walk. We have provided pens and paper for
you to document your own individual map, you are welcome to take your
map with you and leave the pencil behind in the box when you leave or
you could put the map you have made in the box for others to see. Please
put this book back when you have finished discovering the woodland walk.
WISHING YOU A GREAT ADVENTURE AND LOVE FROM
Natasha Machin, Eve Houston and the community of Steward Woodland
1 Two places at once
Stand or sit in one place , close your eyes and imagine you are looking
at a shopping centre, a city or town. Follow people with your eyes into
shops. Notice the busyness of consuming. Watch people walking fast upon
the concrete slabs on their pilgrimage to the churches of consumer worship.
Hear the beeping of a security machine, smell the air conditioning and
heat convector at the threshold of a department store.
Now open your eyes and what do you see?
Imagine you are in two places at once.
How do you feel in two places at once?
What are the obvious differences?
What do you want to say to these two places?
Could you put a price on what you see in the woods?
Change the other place again as often as you like and repeat, you might
find you ask different questions. The places could be a favourite place
where you live, it could be your living room, it could be a place you
love, it could be a place you hate.
2 Gifts
Pick up a small object. Give it to the person you are with as if giving
it with all your heart. If you are alone, you could put it in your pocket
and save it for someone, you could leave it there to surprise your self
in another place from here, you could take it away and wrap it up. Whatever
way, its yours to give.
3 Making Connections
Look at a single area or spot for a while, ask your self in relation to
it and it in relation to you:
What are you?
Where are you from?
What do you remind me of?
Write the answers on your map. Tell someone everything you know about
the spot, without letting them know exactly what it is you have found
and been discovered by.
4 Dear Mr and Mrs Badger
Write a note to an animal as if you were just passing and the animal wasn't
at home.
Fold it up into a small shape, find a large leaf and wrap it up using
the stalk to tie and tuck it in so its secure, if it doesn't work, try
using another leaf and other organic found material to fix it. Find a
place where the animal might see your packaged note and leave.
5 Wishes for the Future and Present
Make a wish list for the world and your home.
Making Wish Rain:
Collect leaves and strands of organic matter, anything that is not very
heavy or harmful to other people. If you are with many people stand in
a circle and throw handfuls of materials up in the air into the middle
shouting one of your wishes for the future and present. If you are not
with people throw your wishes with the trees and their wish leaves.
