Bloom Box was a participatory performance produced by mental health charity Many Minds, as part of their artist residency with Windmill Hill City Farm, Bristol, 4th June – 30th August 2024.
In an Access support and performance role with Many Minds, I supported members in their devising of performances in response to the garden at Windmill Hill. We explored our senses and the sharing of stories of human-nature connection.
Also working with artist collaborators, Brian d'Souza (a.k.a. Auntie Flo) and Undergrowth Collective, a number of performances were created around the garden, inviting the audience to move around the space, adding their own movements, sounds and creations, together exploring our connections to both nature and to one another.
Brian d'Souza is a sound artist, DJ and music producer. Using biosonification to listen to the plants in a new way, Brian collected sounds with Many Minds members, converting bio-electrical signals from the plants into sound, through a modular synthesiser. This process supported thinking about breaking down the barriers between us and the natural world.
Undergrowth Collective is a collaboration of artists, makers, activists and educators united by a celebration of the arts as a way to connect the public with nature. Tom O'Shea and Lupa Lux, from Undergrowth, along with Many Minds and the audience, made a collective installation inspired by mycelial networks, making visible the invisible lines that connect us to our natural surroundings and each other.
Some of the photographs on this page were taken by photographers for Many Minds
