Playing Ways

Playing Ways is an art project that explores the ecological impact of an artistic way of life and offers a digital journey as a response to excessive pollution resulting from the so-called mass tourism. The project primarily explores how to travel responsibly, sustainably and digitally, and at the same time presents some of the possible methodologies for digital or more sustainable, travel. Artists have employed travel as a means of broadening horizons and inspiration for centuries. From troubadours to renaissance painters and forwards to Gaugin’s voyages to the South Pacific and Paul Klee’s famous trip to Tunisia, up to today’s devoted pilgrimages to the oh-they-happen-so-often biennales of the Global North, and more recently, the Global South, art has always found a way to travel.

2020

Playing Ways I, still from video

Travel is seen as a way for an artist to gain new experiences and inspiration, gather new perspectives on the every day and allow for time to create, especially in time of residence... Then, as it is now, travel was not just a means of escapism and inspiration, but also a means of job security, as it still provided the needed time to focus on a new body of work and the connections to succeed in the art world.

But is it ecologically minded?

Playing Ways (2020), Fuzhou to Taipei [digital travel], video

All videos documenting the journey can be found through the www.playingways.eu website or the Playing Ways YouTube channel.

Presentation

The project was presented on a stand-alone website, accessible through www.playingways.eu

The website consists of many facets of the project: from scholarly texts, conversations between the artists, and calculations of physical vs. digital travel emissions to a collection of digital videos, visually journaling the travel path from Helsinki, Finland, to Taipei, Taiwan.

Kazan - Ekaterinburg (2020), still from video

Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk (2020), still from video

Krasnoyarsk - Irkutsk (2020), still from video

Ulaanbaatar's border - Zamiin-Uud (2020), still from video

Erenhot - Beijing (2020), still from video

Thank You

The Playing Ways project was conceived by artists Alan Bulfin, Saša Nemec, and producer Johanna Fredriksson and wasfirst proposed and accepted as part of the Creative Talents Residency 2020 at Bamboo Curtain Studio (BCS) in Taiwan. The project and creation of the website www.playingways.eu was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

The text of Playing Ways was written by Saša Nemec and revised by Alan Bulfin. Translations by Anže Kavčič.

All videos were created using the Google Earth web platform, and all copyrights and attributions are reserved. All audio files used in the digital travel video series are freely available at www.freesound.org unless otherwise noted - all copyrights and attributions are reserved.

The digital journey between Helsinki and Taiwan was carried out by artists Saša Nemec and Alan Bulfin; the journey was filmed and edited by Saša Nemec.

All videos were created using the Google Earth web platform and google.com or ecosia.org browsers - all copyrights and attributions reserved. All copyrights and attributions of the websites visited are reserved.

Special thanks to Landsat 8.