the Tree charter bell, Alex drumming and Future Machine

Eco/Art Residency at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park

Furtherfield is hosting Future Machine & When the Future Comes, Zantogola and the Drumming School for an Eco Art Residency at the Commons that includes art, music, planting, and conservation activites.

The Commons Residency Collective is currently being set up to continue this work as an ongoing project, the collective is a collaboration between artists and musicians – Rachel Jacobs, Alexandre Yemaoua Dayo, Dave Kemp and Esi Eshun.

Coming Up…

The Commons Residency Gardening Project

Planning & Jamming at the Commons Saturday 1st June, 1-4pm
Are you interested in helping to transform the gardens outside Furtherfield Commons/Jamboree Hut (the enclosed area by the Seven Sisters Gate in Finsbury Park)?

We invite you to join us for an afternoon of planning, planting and drumming with the Finsbury Park Drumming School. Tea, coffee and cake will be provided.
We will be exploring how to make the garden into a unique place 
for people to come together to enjoy art, music, science, food, medicine, woodland and ecology in Finsbury Park.

The Commons Residency is a collaboration between artists and musicians creating 
environmentally engaged cultural activities in Finsbury Park, 
in partnership with Furtherfield, Finsbury Park Drumming School, 
West African Fusion band Zantogola and the national artist-led project - Future Machine & When the Future Comes.

Email: commonsresidency@whenthefuturecomes.net to book a place or for more information or to discuss accessibility.

Planning & Jamming at the Commons
Saturday 1st June 2024, 1-4pm
We are hoping to transform the gardens outside Furtherfield Commons/Jamboree Hut (the enclosed area by the Seven Sisters Gate in Finsbury Park) starting with an afternoon of planning, planting and drumming with the Finsbury Park Drumming School. We will be exploring how to make the garden into a unique place for people to come together to enjoy art, music, science, food, medicine, woodland and ecology in Finsbury Park. If you are interested in joining please email us at: commonsresidency@whenthefuturecomes.net

Raise the Roof: Building for Change Exhibition at the RIBA’s HQ
66 Portland Place, London
27 April to 21 September 2024

Esi Eshun has been collaborating with Alexandre Yemaoua Dayo and Dave Kemp on her high profile commission for the Raise the Roof exhibition. Their multidisciplinary response to the architecture of Portland Place integrates sound and the overlay of archival imagery to tell the narratives behind specific features within the Jarvis Mural. For more information about the exhibition visit:
https://www.architecture.com/explore-architecture/exhibitions/Raise-the-Roof

Public Workshops for When the Future Comes
We are planning a series of public workshops at the commons exploring the themes from the Future Machine & When the Future Comes project including climate and environmental change. These workshops will combine art and craft making, science, technology and music to find new ways to share knowledge and come together to think about the future. More coming soon….

Weekly Drumming School sessions
More information can be found on the Drumming School website.

Future Machine and the Rainmakers
As we prepare for Future Machine appearing when the Autumn leaves fall in November 2024, we will continue our experiments with music performances of the weather and developing from our ‘weather jams’ at the commons, as summer turns to autumn.

What Has Already Happened…

When the Autumn Leaves Fall…
Every year in November, Future Machine appears in Finsbury Park, people meet together to celebrate the autumn and speak to the future. We celebrate with guided walks, music and dance and an annual musical performance of the weather with Future Machine and the Rainmakers. The next Future Machine appearance will be in November 2024, more information to be announced soon.

Finding Common Ground: Touring Finsbury Park with the London Festival of Architecture
Sunday 4th June 2023
https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/finding-common-ground-touring-finsbury-park/
A guided walk took place in Finsbury Park, exploring landmark trees, ponds and green spaces to learn about the uniqueness and diversity of this place dubbed “The People’s Park”. While visiting community gardens and park facilities, we experienced how diverse visitor activities coexist, at times uneasily, alongside the natural landscape of this popular park. Stories about the park’s human / nonhuman inhabitation, its distinctions between the cultivated and the “wild” species and the complexity of living together in common were discussed and introduced by the walk’s guides, offering a deep appreciation of the “living history” of Finsbury Park.

On Saturday 1st April 2023 we hosted our first Bell Weather Day at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park  
Art, music, ecology, planting, bell ringing and talks, with music from Finsbury Park Drumming School.
The Tree Charter Bell, Tree Planting Ceremony with artist Caroline Locke.
An informal conversation about art, music, ecology and the future.
In the evening we hosted a ‘Future Machine Weather Jam’ led by the Future Machine, The Rainmakers and the When the Future Comes Collective, including special guests.

Monthly Weather Jams at the Commons (Winter/Spring 2023)

Weather Jam
Friday 20th January 2023

The first weather jam started small with just 12 people but had an amazing musical journey with Future Machine and a very cold frosty still night in the park. We played indoors in the warm, whilst Future Machine played the sounds of the weather outside (the weather station was set up outside the back door) and played messages from the past. When we went outside to feel the weather the sky was clear and we could see as many stars as London light pollution let us.

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