Possible Forests

Possible Forests is a body of practice-as-research aimed at transferring Wrights & Sites' practices of urban exploration, surrealistic derambulation, mis-guidance and spatial planning from the city to the trees.

Working in partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World in Haldon Forest Park (which the Forestry Commission are in the process of replanning), the project comprised a number of interlinked elements:

 

1. Forest Drift: September 2006

A public, exploratory drift within the bounds of the forest, exploring the Forestry Commission's new walkways, overgrown tracks and desire paths (September 2006).

 

2. Possible Forests Exhibition: September 2007

Haldon Forest Park is an evolving landscape. What plans would you make for its future?

Throughout the summer of 2007, Wrights & Sites embarked on a series of reconnaissance drifts through the forest with specialists in diverse fields (geography, architecture, psychology, choreography, scenography, organisational development, design and virtual worlds), discussing ways of experiencing, re-imagining and planning the forest landscape.

The exhibition documented these dialogues through maps, texts and video, and gave the public the opportunity to contribute their own 'possible forests' to the collection.

 

3. Practical Forum: September 2007

Wrights & Sites and specialist partners provoked playful speculation and dialogue about the future of the trees.

 

4. DVD Documentation: December 2007

Constructed by Stephen Hodge.

 

Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World
Haldon Forest Park, Exeter, EX6 7XR
T: 01392 832277
E: info@ccanw.co.uk