Jason Hirons: Performance Writing BA(Hons) graduate
My work involves walking the city, exploring the lost meanings, hidden traces and social memories of Plymouth; the monumentality of the cityscape, the nomenclature that fixes the past to an ever changing present.
As a writer and an artist I am interested in cultural geography and the experiences of everyday life. I explore the city as a performed and performative space, a palimpsest that records and rewrites the stories of those who have come and gone through the cityscape. This exploration - trace, place and space - has taken a number of forms including performances, texts, bookworks, installations and film.
I applied to Dartington, and specifically the Performance Writing course, because it was the only place, and the only course, that really seemed to be saying to me what I wanted to hear. At a time when I really needed a new direction, Dartington asked me all the right questions about where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there.
The best thing about the course was spending the first year unlearning what I knew, then the next two years learning what I needed to know in order to start building a foundation for my future practice.
After graduation I planned to continue the "open" project that I started during my second year on the course. This I have done with a number of public and private commissions, all concerned with the nature of the city.
Since graduating, I've lived and worked in Plymouth. I've made a DVD - 'Open: City Project' - together with my fellow-graduate Robert Boucher. This portrays a very particular vision of the city of Plymouth, using the notions Trace, Place and Space. The texts, sounds and images on the DVD were captured or created during our explorations of Plymouth and the surrounding environment.
I am currently planning a series of journeys and adventures around Plymouth under the heading 'Proximity: Walks in search of a city', inviting people to help me discover traces of the past, now lodged in the everyday experiences of the city.
I am hoping to secure sufficient funding to enable other artists to take part in this project, perhaps to provide interventions along the way. If you live or work in or near Plymouth, and think your work might be suitable, please get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.
Email: jason.hirons@lineone.net
Website: www.open-everything.com
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