Possible Forests

Haldon Forest Park (UK), 2006-2007.

Possible Forests was a body of practice-as-research aimed at transferring a decade of 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 (3,500 acres of woodland which the Forestry Commission was in the process of replanning), the project comprised a number of interlinked elements:

•Forest Drift, a day-long, public, exploratory drift within the bounds of the forest, exploring the Forestry Commission's new walkways, overgrown tracks and desire paths;

•a series of documented reconnaissance drifts/dialogues, discussing ways of experiencing, re-imagining and planning the forest landscape with specialists in eight different fields (sculpture, scenography, organisational study, psychotheraphy, architecture, geography, Second Life and choreography) - each drift followed by a session in which the specialist and a member of Wrights & Sites construct new plans for the forest;

•4 Screens #4: Possible Forests, a split-screen DVD video documentation of a simultaneous drift in the forest by the four core members of Wrights & Sites;

•a public exhibition of maps, texts and video at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World's forest base;

•a day-long symposium and practical workshop, bringing together Wrights & Sites, partner specialists, forestry experts and the public;

•DVD-ROM documentation of the constituent elements.

Images: Stephen Hodge, Simon Persighetti, Phil Smith, Cathy Turner.