Jury Day 1945. Foreman Ernest Jones and Wilfred Saddington hammer in a new stake, photographer unknown

Programme

Saturday 6 September 2008

Nottingham–Laxton–Nottingham

Part I

11:00   Meeting in Mount Street, Nottingham. A bus tour of Nottingham’s former common lands and open fields led by artist and historian Chris Matthews.

11:45   Departure to Laxton. Screening of a 23-minute documentary video narrated by John Beckett (1984) providing an insight into how the open field system has been operated over the years by the Gait and Common and the tenant farmers.

12:30   Arrival in Laxton, followed by lunch with pig roast, local produce, vegetarian option and medieval recipes. Location: Mike Jackson’s barn

13:30   Introduction to Disclosures II: The Middle Ages

13:50   Lecture by John Beckett, Professor of English Regional History at the University of Nottingham and author of Laxton, England’s Last Open Field Village (1989). Followed by questions.

14:30   Guided walk around Laxton Castle, Laxton’s strip farming and manorial system led by Prof. John Beckett and Stuart Rose (Laxton farmer, Clerk to the Gaits and Commons and trustee of the Laxton Visitor Centre). Departure from Mike Jackson’s barn.

15:45   Screening of Bring Back Robin Hood by Olivia Plender (30 min).

Part II

Choice A

16:15   Choice A
Individual presentations followed by a panel discussion around themes of land control and ownership, history and environmental sustainability as dealt by cultural producers.
 
With Neil Cummings (artist and member of the research cluster Critical Practice, London); Jai Redman (artist, activist and Creative Director of Ultimate Holding Company, Manchester, a radical art and design studio); others speakers tbc. Location: Mike Jackson’s barn.

Choice B

16:15   Artist Olivia Plender introduces Set Sail for the Levant, her board game inspired by the 16th century Royal Game of the Goose. The public are invited to play and help shape the rules of a game in the making. Location: Mike Jackson’s cowshed

Part III

18:00   Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) use Declose, the vinyl battle tool created for Disclosures I, to make music for a party in the barn.

Declose is a copyleft licensed 12" vinyl scratch tool containing a range of samples, beats and extracts made from out of copyright blues, jazz and folk housed in the Open Music Archive (www.openmusicarchive.org) Declose was made in collaboration with music producers from the burntprogress community (www.burntprogress.com).

Download the Declose record from: www.openmusicarchive.org/declose or request your free copy of the vinyl from: info@nottinghamcontemporary.org

21:00   Return to Nottingham.

Meeting point: the Dovecote Inn car park.

Please note there is no public transport from Nottingham to Laxton but if you are making your own way there, please see Travel page on this site, email book@nottinghamcontemporary.org, or call 0115 9242421 for more information. Booking is essential for this event however you travel, due to health and safety regulations.