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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)

Slow Progress is a small selection of documentation of physical practice of Julie Cleves and Robbie Synge, filmed mainly in Scotland within the period of 2015 - 2018.


Sitting on the grass or moving along a forest path together are activities most friends might manage without much effort. Julie and Robbie's practice has involved developing simple but highly effective designs - wooden 'blocks' and 'boards' and a plastic version. Embedding these objects within choreographic actions, Julie and Robbie constantly enjoy searching for new challenges and places to share time together.


Julie Cleves (London) and Robbie Synge's (Highlands) practice and friendship investigates the possibilities of sharing time in different spaces together, over-coming disability access issues with proactive and novel DIY design solutions. Founded twelve years ago in dance studio-based research around the possibilities of moving together on the floor, they soon became bored of the studio confines and took their practice into the public realm. Their adventurous spirit and highly visible performed actions seek to enable new personal shared experiences and to feed into overlapping discourses around access, design, cooperation and embodied actions and solutions.


  • Year
    2017
  • Runtime
    10'17
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United Kingdom
  • Director
    Julie Cleves & Robbie Synge