in progress
Working the Territory: Creating an Ecosystem
"Having a territory means not being alone, and knowing that among the people, in the trees, in the earth, there is something of you that, even when you're not there, is waiting patiently." César Pavese
The territory Pavese speaks of cannot be seen. It is made of things other than the material from which roads, walls, and houses are made. It is an intimate world, which we take with us when we leave, made of the desires, expectations, dreams, habits, fears, and hopes that we have placed there, when we work there.
The territory is not just a space. It is a particular experience of the world, which can only be had here. An intimate user guide, shared by all those who inhabit it, and which tells what it means to live and work in this place. Stories are needed to convey this intimate voice of the territory: for this intimate dimension to find expression, to be embodied in the concrete material of future spaces.
Pioneering Species takes this notion of territory as a starting point for telling these stories, using video as a means of "exploring the field."
By filming those who actively work on and with the territory, the project explores the ways in which collective actions transform both spaces and imaginations.
With Pioneering Species, Jack Farman delivers his first documentary series, in three episodes. Conceived as a serial work, an evolving documentary form composed of several video essays, each focusing on a specific gesture or relationship between humans, environments, and living matter.
Rather than a single linear narrative, the project resembles a sensitive catalog, where each fragment interacts with the others, gradually weaving a complex landscape of our relationship with the living. Each episode/essay focuses on an embodied artistic practice—those of Fabrice Hyber, Thierry Boutonnier, Olivier Darné, Alan Sonfist, and Stéphanie Sagot—that engages in a transformation of territory, gestures, forms of cohabitation, and perception. The series unfolds in three thematic parts, which form a trajectory that is simultaneously material, political, and narrative.
The first episode of Pioneering Species questions the agency of collective and artistic practices in the transformation of urban environments. It is available on the LABOCINE platform and will be screened—followed by a discussion with Jack Farman—on Tuesday, May 27, as part of the AD•Rec conference — Art and Design Research 2025 Making, again at the Saint-Étienne School of Art and Design (ESADSE) at the Cité du Design during the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennale, whose 13th edition is entitled: Resource(s), Predicting Tomorrow.
Jack Farman is a filmmaker and researcher specializing in environmental anthropology. Trained in philosophy at McGill University (Canada) and then in social anthropology at University College London (UCL), he is interested in the narratives we weave with the environments we inhabit, particularly in contexts of ecological transition. He develops a hybrid audiovisual practice, at the intersection of creative documentary, sensory ethnography, and research-creation.
duties
audit, benchmark, monitoring, research, prospective
monitoring, research, cartography, editorial positioning, coordination
strategic direction, conception / writing of speaking engagements, communication plan, media planning, operational implementation, influence (targeting, press and public relations - and mediation - promotion, partnerships
consulting and action centers: monitoring, research, mapping, financing, fundraising, prospecting, call for projects, competitions and applications, networking, partnerships