Skip to main content

DIY: 2018 – Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari: Tiny Revolutions

How to make a working political theme park for babies and early years

Deadline for applications: 5pm, Mon 18 June
This DIY is supported by Folkestone Fringe

Project summary

Every weekend, throughout Britain, families visit theme parks, museums, National Trust houses, cinemas, shopping centres and generic, branded, money-making ‘experiences’ to have “something to do with the kids”. These are perceived as politically “neutral” and are unquestioning of ideology, our colonial legacy, gender politics and global concerns – such as climate change. 

We will explore the ethics, process and possibilities of making politically engaged work for early years children and their families.

We want to visit two popular attractions – at either end of physical scale – to consider the question of whether a live art alternative space could be made that would be equally as exciting for early years but also engage them politically.

  • Day 1: We will visit Bekonscot Model Village in Buckinghamshire and ride on the miniature railway.
  • Day 2: We will visit Diggerland in Kent and participate in the JCB dumper truck racing competition.
  • Day 3: We will prepare a Teddy Bears picnic in Folkestone and ask the participants to bring in an object they find comforting and reassuring. And we will present, discuss and interrogate our ideas for potentially exciting politically engaged projects for babies and small children.

Is it possible to make a live art attraction for families, that in its very nature questions the society we live in, whilst giving the children, parents and carers a wonderful day out that is sought every weekend by people in pursuit of a lovely time?

How to apply

There are 10 places on this DIY, and participants can be anyone with an interest in making work for early years. 

The online application asks for a CV and a short statement of interest in this DIY. If more than 10 applications are received, names will be picked out of a hat.

Dates, times and location

Dates: 27-29 Jul 2018
Location: Buckinghamshire and Kent

The cost of entry for attractions and activities is covered for participants.

The artists

We are Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari. Our work encompasses Live Art, experimental performance and site responsive practice. We are passionate about political engagement, making work accessible to new audiences, experimenting with new hybrid forms and putting the audience at the centre of the questions we are exploring. We make work for adults, families and children of all ages. Nigel is an associate artist of SABAB, making radical work that straddles the cultural divide between the Arab and Western World. Louise co-founded pioneering cult performance collective shunt, in 1998. We have been working in partnership for the last 12 years, since working together as members of shunt and founding, running and curating radical art bar and club – the shunt lounge. We are winners of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2015 with “The Body' at the Barbican, and our last major work was Party Skills For The End Of The World for the Manchester International Festival 2017 and Shoreditch Town Hall in February 2018. www.nigelandlouise.com

For questions about this DIY, please contact Louise.

Banner image credit:

Image courtesy of the artist

We are looking for a better quality image for this page or to replace it if it's missing.

Part of DIY: 2018

Professional development projects – by artists for artists – across the UK.

DIY: 2018

DIY

Professional development projects – by artists for artists – across the UK.

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Ana de Matos & Ria Hartley: Queer.Actions.360

DIY

Exploring possibilities of presence, sense and sound in VR performance

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Ania Bas with Sally O’Reilly & Kit Caless: A New Career In A New Town

DIY

Explore the performative potential of co-produced text in the context of a new town

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Brian Lobel, FK Alexander & Season Butler: FUCK PERFORMANCE ART, GIMME MY BOXSET

DIY

Exploring television, Live Art, and the relationship between binge watching and durational/endurance performance

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Call for Participants

DIY

Professional development projects conceived and run by artists, for artists

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Call for Proposals

DIY

Apply to lead a professional development project as part of DIY 15

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Documentation

DIY

Images, films and feedback from the 23 projects in DIY15: 2018

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Documentation Action Research Collective: Transformance

DIY

Blurring the lines between live performance and documentation

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Hamish MacPherson: We Robot

DIY

We will transform ourselves into an interconnected cyborg entity

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Helena Hunter: Encounters

DIY

A residential for artists working with environments, organisms and geologies

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Joanne Matthews: Wild Philosophy: Raving, Running, Reading

DIY

theory and philosophy for women channeling punk, rave energies and radical sensitivity

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Joshua Sofaer: Artists and their Families

DIY

Artists working together with non-artist family members

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Katie Etheridge & Simon Persighetti: DIY Twin Town

DIY

Connect, exchange, celebrate and create a Live Art Twinning Ceremony!

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Liz Rosenfeld: (Un) Doing Cruising Practice(s)

DIY

Creating a space for women in queer cruising culture

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Marikiscrycrycry: SH4ME/[N0 SH4ME]

DIY

Giving form and function to the dance party

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Mary Paterson & Deborah Pearson: Homme de Plume

DIY

Become the privileged human you’ve always wanted to be

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Nando Messias: Art & the Self: What did Narcissus see?

DIY

A self-reflective workshop on the play of narcissism in creativity

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Nwando Ebizie: Afro Diasporic Ritual as Afrofuturist Technology

DIY

Exploring neuro-mythology, Haitian Vodou dance, and atypical perception

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Owen G Parry & Angel Rose: Luv 2 H8 U

DIY

A hangout for ‘haters’, anti-fans and the uninitiated

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Sorryyoufeeluncomfortable: Black Drift Walking

DIY

Black study, being in space and black bodies navigating space

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Toni Lewis: PUM

DIY

A pleasure party experience by Black Womxn, for Black Womxn

Read more

Also

DIY: 2014

DIY

Unusual professional development projects conceived and run BY artists FOR artists

Read more

DIY: 2018 – Joshua Sofaer: Artists and their Families

DIY

Artists working together with non-artist family members

Read more

DIY: 2010

DIY

Unusual professional development projects conceived and run BY artists FOR artists

Read more

DIY 2020: Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin & Jamila Johnson-Small/SERAFINE1369 – A VAST AND INCIDENTAL KIND OF HOLDING

DIY

Conversations on expanded multi-dimensional ideas of anatomy, divination, geography and language, seeking to bring transformational movement to ideas of trauma and healing as they are shaped by oppressive systems and given form in our bodies

Read more

DIY: 2019 – VORTESSA (Lady Helena Vortex and Miss Giovanna Maria Casetta): GILF Island

DIY

Pack your cases, ready to embark on a Dark Romance of the ageing self, Exploring, releasing and adoring the inner GILF

Read more

Donation

£