Bodies and Belonging – Our Summertime Exquisite Corpse Project

In our annual retreat this year, we made a pledge to be more playful. So as a start, we organised a Summertime Exquisite Corpse! If you’re wondering what that is, head over to this excellent article by Roz Ray: https://medium.com/@roz.ray/the-exquisite-corpse-project-84d43b6e14c6

While this Exquisite Corpse project was just for fun and connection, we have also explored it in more depth in our Ocean ArtScience research project - stay tuned for our paper from this soon!

In summary, you start with a jointly agreed ‘seed’ – a word, quote, image, object, anything really – to get everyone going with making a piece of art using whatever medium they fancy. Then everyone has two weeks to make their piece, after which it is passed onto another person who uses that as inspiration for their next piece. And so on. No-one is allowed to show their pieces to anyone. Once the set number of handovers are done, we have the Corpse Party, where all the artworks are revealed and discussed! Here’s the seed we started with:

Musings on connection, bodies, ecosystems and belonging by tumblr user Moose (@bees-with-swords - https://www.tumblr.com/bees-with-swords/702033938936381440/do-you-ever-dream-of-land-the-whale-asks-the?source=share)

Each thread of 3 successive pieces was named after ice-cream flavours to keep the summer spirit strong :-) Check out our creations here:

Our Corpse Parties were reflective, fun and thoughtful. Here’s a few thoughts from some of the players:

“Working with colleagues in the Cobra Collective has always been an inspiring and supportive experience which has taught me so much about how to engage with communities and to develop projects with true participation. What I hadn’t realised, until we started doing the Exquisite Corpse, is the creativity, imagination and artistic skills people had. Sharing the art we have produced has allowed us to understand each other better and explore how we can bring creativity more actively into our collaborations”.

“I think it was a great experience to connect with the Cobra Collective team and at the same time explore feelings, both on a personal and collective level. I reflected on the topic of roots and the interconnection between human beings and nature. It was also a valuable opportunity to take some time to explore my own family roots and to carry out research on a story that belonged to my great, great, great, grandparents. It was also inspiring to see how others reflected on this story and how this, in turn, inspired them”.

“I enjoyed every second of the Exquisite Corpse project. I must admit that, with the hectic pace of modern life, I found it hard to slow down and engage in a creative process, something we unfortunately are becoming less and less used to. One of the most fascinating aspects I experienced in this project is the duality between the solitude of creating your own piece, always trying to interpret your collaborator’s interpretation, and the feeling of unity and community when discussing all the pieces on the final day. During this process of trying to understand your collaborator’s view, I found a fascinating mental exercise, almost like having an internal silent conversation with someone you don’t know, digging for ideas that arise from your inner self. Finally, being able to discuss all these ideas together, as a group of friends, in a completely open and positive environment - that was truly special. Participating in these kinds of spaces for dialogue and creation is something we really need today".