Feedback from presenters and participants - September 2005

an inspiring, fascinating, life-changing event. For me the strongest aspects of the event were the variety of artists and others who made presentations and ran workshops; the opportunities for participants to interact with each other and with organisers and presenters and the beautiful setting.
Peter Brissenden, Wildwood Office Serivces

my head is still reeling from the thousands of ideas being bandied around. The profile of the event was as high as it gets - with the speakers, the content and the place itself.
Stella Levy, Artist/Designer/ Photographer

A fantastic event. Very thought provoking - and such a lovely atmosphere.
James Marriott, Platform

Thank you so much for putting together such a fantastic symposium. I found Desire Lines and our discussions over the weekend very stimulating and inspiring. I am so glad to have been a part of it and very much hope to continue being involved as Arts and Ecology at Dartington continues to evolve.
Donna Shilling,DCA Theatre Graduate

…..several people at Desire Lines are ending up as collaborators. I thought James Marriott's industry-mapping project addressed politics almost in the language of politics itself. I like that defiant and dangerous close-in subversion. There was a remarkable variety of ways of listening -- in the work of London Fieldworks (again, actually creating a gap and doing the politics), Martin Prothero, Brian Goodwin and the literally astonishing Alice Oswald.
Wayne Hill, Artist

very interesting three days and thank you for the opportunity also to be in such an extraordinarily beautiful place
Michaela Crimmin, Head of Arts, RSA

a huge fascinating, and successful project. I was totally impressed with how well it all went... I made lots of connections I'm wanting to follow up on. It'll be fascinating to see how these lead to big and small contributions to the growing and very necessary field of Arts & Ecology.
Tarin Chaplin, Eco-choreographer, Vermont USA

….the session I enjoyed most was Alice Oswald and it was so absorbing that no one wanted to leave!
Judy Allen, Writer and Trainer

a fascinating and thought provoking conference…it left me with a head full of ideas, particularly for new collaborations…I found it especially interesting as someone working within wildlife conservation to mix and discuss environmental issues with people with such different `practices' and backgrounds. This wasn't without its challenges though, I found at times I was getting quite frustrated (excluded?) with the language people were using. Perhaps I simply need to get a dictionary.
Tony Whitehead, RSPB

I found the whole event a true inspiration, as I think it came at the right time for the questions that I was asking of myself and my own practice. I felt like I had 'come home' in many ways! Living and making sculpture in a rural situation, I have begun to feel that there are not that many other people who work as artists with a similar
passion for the natural world and our place within it. Coming to the desire lines symposium changed that, as I realised that there is a very strong if spread out community of artists dealing with similar motivations. I feel that conversations, opinions, viewpoints exchanged at the symposium are already having quite a profound effect on the way I see my practice as an artist evolving.
Mat Chivers, Sculptor

I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was to give my stewarding hands towards the Desire Lines event. It was hugely successful from my perspective; there was a fantastic relaxed but structured atmosphere and this enabled some really interesting holes to be opened up.
Bryony Henderson, MA Dartington College of Arts

Interesting, stimulating and thought provoking. I wish the unfolding of the new course every inspiration.
Rosie Innes, Solar Wind Harmonisers

I would like to say how much I enjoyed the desire lines event, (especially the saturday) I think it was great and I feel enriched.
Kayle Brandon, Irational

I found the event of considerable interest and generally thought provoking
Oliver Lowenstein, Fourth Door Review

I enjoyed the opportunity and it helped me work out some thinking about the output of art and science collaborative research. I was very inspired by the range and diversity of presentations and how the final panel discussion brought forward the interesting and generative frictions that coursed throughout the 2.5 days. It would be a pleasure for me (and a good use of what I can offer DCA from my own research) to remain engaged with and help sustain this discussion/ debate here at Dartington in support of the new MA and other arts/ science directions that may emerge.
Scott dela Hunta

At the conclusion of the conference I realised that the most interesting and challenging thing for me was to see people coming from such incredibly different places in their dialogue with 'art & ecology'. This was often the difference between people in the applied arts and people from scientific backgrounds, but not always. I think it highlighted for me the gulf that has to be bridged when bringing art and ecology together and how important that is.
Sarah Lawrence, Artist

Just wanted to say how interesting and stimulating the symposium was and how
great to meet old-and-new friends and known-and-unknown artists and their
work...
Gill Smith