Performing the Outside World brings together short films by UK-based artists and performers that explore themes of access to nature. Through simple, shared actions, the films evoke different sensory experiences - of touch and tactility, movement through landscape, shifting colours and textures. They question how elemental phenomena may be experienced when disability and limited infrastructure restrict access, and harness experimental, DIY solutions to negotiate these barriers. The films share a sense of wonder and fascination with the natural world, and joy in the freedom to explore, touch, and interpret these environments.
All films include subtitles for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The title of this film programme is borrowed with gratitude from Abi Palmer’s article ‘A flat-packed forest’ (wellcome collection, 18 October 2021)
Be Different Today was filmed over seven visually described sunrises on Portobello beach in February 2019. It has grown from Juliana’s passion for equal access to the arts and her experience of working with visually impaired audience for the last 15 years in Scottish galleries as a visual describer Consequently she considers visual description a creative practise akin to the making of a painting, and of equal benefit to visually impaired and sighted audiences alike.
Juliana and Ruth’s collaboration speaks about the difficulty of describing the indescribable (such as colour, such as grief, such as love) and operates on the cusp of the personal and universal, drawing on each of the artists’ life experiences. They have also been inspired by a shared love of Portobello beach, ASMR youtube videos and transcendental meditation. The resulting film speaks of the dualities of living: of simultaneously keeping close and letting go.
Ruth Barrie and Juliana Capes are artists and friends who both live and work five minutes from the beach in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Ruth Barrie (1979, Glasgow) trained as a filmmaker at Edinburgh College of Art. She has directed documentaries for Channel 4 & STV and regularly collaborates with musicians and artists to produce moving image work.
Juliana Capes (1974, Grimsby) is an award-winning multi-disciplinary visual artist. She has worked in the arts in Scotland for the last 23 years, exhibiting most recently at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy and Edinburgh Art Festival.
The film was commissioned by LUX Scotland in partnership with BBC Scotland and Creative Scotland as part of Now & Next.
- Year2019
- Runtime4'40
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited Kingdom
- DirectorRuth Barrie & Juliana Capes
Performing the Outside World brings together short films by UK-based artists and performers that explore themes of access to nature. Through simple, shared actions, the films evoke different sensory experiences - of touch and tactility, movement through landscape, shifting colours and textures. They question how elemental phenomena may be experienced when disability and limited infrastructure restrict access, and harness experimental, DIY solutions to negotiate these barriers. The films share a sense of wonder and fascination with the natural world, and joy in the freedom to explore, touch, and interpret these environments.
All films include subtitles for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The title of this film programme is borrowed with gratitude from Abi Palmer’s article ‘A flat-packed forest’ (wellcome collection, 18 October 2021)
Be Different Today was filmed over seven visually described sunrises on Portobello beach in February 2019. It has grown from Juliana’s passion for equal access to the arts and her experience of working with visually impaired audience for the last 15 years in Scottish galleries as a visual describer Consequently she considers visual description a creative practise akin to the making of a painting, and of equal benefit to visually impaired and sighted audiences alike.
Juliana and Ruth’s collaboration speaks about the difficulty of describing the indescribable (such as colour, such as grief, such as love) and operates on the cusp of the personal and universal, drawing on each of the artists’ life experiences. They have also been inspired by a shared love of Portobello beach, ASMR youtube videos and transcendental meditation. The resulting film speaks of the dualities of living: of simultaneously keeping close and letting go.
Ruth Barrie and Juliana Capes are artists and friends who both live and work five minutes from the beach in Portobello, Edinburgh.
Ruth Barrie (1979, Glasgow) trained as a filmmaker at Edinburgh College of Art. She has directed documentaries for Channel 4 & STV and regularly collaborates with musicians and artists to produce moving image work.
Juliana Capes (1974, Grimsby) is an award-winning multi-disciplinary visual artist. She has worked in the arts in Scotland for the last 23 years, exhibiting most recently at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy and Edinburgh Art Festival.
The film was commissioned by LUX Scotland in partnership with BBC Scotland and Creative Scotland as part of Now & Next.
- Year2019
- Runtime4'40
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited Kingdom
- DirectorRuth Barrie & Juliana Capes
