Testing Ground Micro residencies

In November 2020, we began a new series of week-long artist residencies to support and test new ways of making and sharing work within times of restriction, limited access and limited resource. Testing Ground was developed as a direct response to impacts that COVID-19 continues to have on the arts and artists. In November 2020, In-Situ began a series of artist residencies to support emerging and established artists as they trialled new ways of making and sharing work. Testing Ground was provided as a direct response to impacts that COVID-19 continues to have on the arts and artists. Testing Ground is, as a platform, experimental by nature; allowing us to test contemporary ways of working in the context of COVID-19, where geography, access and public engagement are considerably altered. This platform encourages creative risk-taking, prioritising learning as its outcome, and this allows for ideas to fail, be reflected upon and adapted. Testing Ground residencies will continue until the end of March 2021, marking a full year since the pandemic began to drastically impact the way we live and work. With this in mind, the conclusion of these residencies will provide an opportunity to pause, as we learn from the challenges of the experience. To open this reflection up to artists and the community, so they can share their experience, is a privilege and something that is key to the In-Situ way of working. Each artist has taken a different approach to creating work and sharing the process with audiences. These outcomes and processes are shown below, where each artist has a space to share the trajectory of the work created, and their further responses to it. Expect to see new artworks, reflective texts, experiments with Virtual Reality, activities to be carried out at home and unfinished works too. We embrace and support the transitionary tone of work made by artists at this time, as they have looked to adapt their practice and research new ideas.