VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.
Abstract
Thinking that she was relocating home, life, work and learning for a new University career in Knowledge Exchange Innovation & Impact, a series of synchronicities led the author to bid for a 3-acre self-wilded Cornish homestead in need of TLC, renovation and renewal. The arrival of covid-19 brought a first wave of unexpected adaptations. A subsequent period of prolonged post-viral ill-health resulted in a second tsunami – unleashing the power of transformation for author, land, and livelihood. This presentation charts the emergence of a Magic Space for artists and holidaymakers to revivify, immersed in wild nature, enwrapped in the earth-sky embrace of traditional Mongolian Yurts. First fabricating as a felt fumbling, then created with clarity as a multi-faceted community arts creative project. The next cycle of iteration demanded new skills and stepping-up as sonic gong artist and integral sound healer. Now, through a series of institutional challenges, the project progresses to business start-up. Ironically the journey has been the reverse of many ‘dream-builders’. Joyfully, it is also a direct embodiment of the author’s then-theoretical model of Pervasive Media and Eudaimonia, which emerged during her doctoral research practice. The struggle to give voice and form (within constraints of a doctoral thesis) to the energies inhabiting her multimodal community arts projects, incapsulated in the coming-into-being of a magical creature. The thesis knowledge now resurfaces, amidst struggles to articulate the living breathing pulsing magical creature of this landscape, creative interactions, sound and silence of the Trevellan Magic Space. Ashram, armitage, acquisition, asset…. artwork?
Dr Jackie Calderwood is a lifelong learner, arts educator (of self and others), creative consultant and researcher. Her research practice spans the richly magical cross-over of community arts, pervasive media, creative facilitation, personal empowerment (self-development) and a deep love of rural landscape – wild nature, humans, trees, rocks, elements, stories. Jackie works in arts education for Trinity College London and Stagecoach Performing Arts. She is the founding Creative Director of Trevellan Magic Space, an emergent eco-retreat, where she co-curates artist residencies and other treats.