COMING UP: RUNNING DISCOURSES in London, Lancaster and Leeds.

What a sensational + sunny + stormy summer it has been – literally,  metaphorically- and meteorologically- speaking. Summer is still going on (?), but let’s make hay while the sun (?) shines (?). As hay (?) is being churned out, let’s make a few announcements of upcoming RUN! RUN! RUN! events:

3 UPCOMING PREVIEW / RUN-UP ACTIVITIES:

EVENT 1:

RUNRUNRUN_Kai_Stratford

RUN! RUN! RUN! London (Stratford).

When: 20th September Saturday 1400hrs – 1500hrs. 

What: A running discourse in which we talk about running while we run. This one is entitled A Light-Footed & Light-Hearted Rundown of the Olympic Leg-acy and Other Tales of the Exotic East. Come run with Kai in this hands-on, or rather feet-on, exercise. Does running make us see, hear or imagine London differently? Can running create a sense of ownership of the city, as if we ‘run’ it too?’ Hear of Kai’s legendary adventures as ‘Kaidie’ who ran for 1000 days in search of the Meaning of Life in the city of ‘Nondon’ as well as her time as a ‘Nondon’ Ambassador’ during the 2012 Olympics. Also learn about Hitchcock Lane, International Way and why they are thus-named. No running experience required, no running clothes needed – even shoes are optional. Book tickets nowPart of Dr Hillary Powell’s Popup Popup.

Where: Meet at the entrance to Stratford International Station (WH Smiths side). Run ends at Sugarhouse Studios, 107 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 2QQ.  

EVENT 2:

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RUN! RUN! RUN! Lancaster.

PART I:

Title: The RUN! RUN! RUN! International Body For Research: A Rundown.

When: 22 September Monday, 1-minute paper 1645hrs-1715hrs

Where: George Fox Building, Lancaster University

About: In this performance-lecture, Kai presents a preview of RUN! RUN! RUN! International Body For Research, a spanking-new research institute that she has just set up. In highlighting – in all of 60 seconds! – the key points of its Grand Manifesto, she is also issuing a call for new members, associates and partners-in-crime from different fields. (Neuroscientists, technologists and cartographers, apply now!) Sponsors, of course, are welcome too. This is part 1 of a 2-part performance that explores running as a creative process and how it can function as a playful toolkit for us to re-imagine our world. Dr Kai Syng Tan is an artist, curator, researcher and educator whose work has been exhibited around the world. This event follows the critically-acclaimed RUN RUN RUN! An International Festival of Running 1.0 and is part of a series of academic and artistic acvities co-curated with Dr Alan Latham. She is Junior Research Fellow at Leeds College of Art. The event is part of Lancaster University’s Synergize2014. 

PART II:

Title: RUN! RUN! RUN! Lancaster: A Hands-On Feet-on (More Than An Academic) Exercise

When: 23 September Tuesday 0800hrs-0830hrs

Where: Meet outside the George Fox Building, Lancaster University 

About: Come come come get on your feet and RUN! RUN! RUN! with Kai (Kai Kai), the International Body For Research, and together we can create (something of) a new movement. We will walk the talk or rather run the talk, by running and talking – about running and talking. All are welcome – any discipline, and any level of experience in running. The run itself will last for all of 3 minutes, and we will be on time for coffee at 0830hrs. You will leave buzzing for the rest of your day and, indeed, lives. This is a variation of a performance Kai ran at dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012. This event is part of Lancaster University’s Synergize2014. This is part 2 of a 2-part performance that explores running as a creative process and how it can function as a playful toolkit for us to re-imagine our world.

EVENT 3:

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RUN! RUN! RUN! Leeds

When: Thursday 25 September 
What: A run in which we run and chat and Cross Borders with Dr Dan Robinson.
Where: Meet 1620hrs at reception, Leeds College of Art (Blenheim Walk), Leeds, LS2 9AQ 

Above: See you later / see you soon. A still from a video taken by the wonderful, kind and patient Balavan Thomas, a Chi-Running master of Run & Become, who’d given me a lesson in chi-running. Hopefully from now on my gait is less funny… 

FLOPPY REMBRANDT HATS, SAVING LIVES and CHANGING THE WORLD.

With Professor Susan Collins, Director, Slade School of Fine Art. 2014 London.

Flying in Ryanair / Easyjet. (Take your pick). Someone suffers a heart attack. (As one would, if one travels on said plane). Steward(ess) asks: Is there a Doctor in the house. (Plane, they mean). I raise my hands. Enthusiastically. And tell dying person all about my Practice-Related Fine Art PhD. I take hours to run through more than 100,000 words. Including Appendices. They heal instantly. Everyone claps. Lives are saved. Worlds changed. Plane touches down. I flap and flop gently on my floppy buttocks with my big floppy hat acting as my parachute. I leave London and land in a new land. A new chapter begins. To be continued.