22- 25 June

“Are there emotions of the age? If so, do we as artists have a responsibility to approach and work through them?”

“What do you have to get over, to get over yourself and get on?”

Considering these two key questions from the first Syllabus retreat, the final retreat at Wysing will invite the partners, the lead artists and guest artists to reflect on the responsibility of artists to address the ‘age’, but also on how to sustain a practice over the long-term – to continue making work beyond the support structure of the Syllabus. It will feature guest artists Florian Roithmayr and Mark Leckey as well as a day each led by programme leads Milly Thompson and George Vasey. 

Some of the essential reading includes:

Reece Jones, Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move, Verso, 2016, Chapter 1.

Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, Zero Books, 2014, 'The Slow Cancellation of the Future', extract from The Quietus

Academie X: Lessons in Art and Life, Stephanie Syjuco 'A Redactive Pedagogy (Letter from the Field)', p288 -295

Surviving Art School: An Artist of Colour Toolkit: Online here.

Thursday

Artists arrive and install work around the Wysing site.

In the afternoon, there will be time for the artists to have an editorial meeting about George Vasey's proposed podcast for Saturday's session. 

Dependent on weather, we will go for a walk through Wysing's countryside, followed by dinner.

8pm-10pm    

Slide Night in Amphis led by artist Thomas Whittle with E. Jackson, Faye Claridge, Lucy Steggals, Phillip Cornett, Wilf Speller & Laura Hindmarsh and Robert Foster.

Free and open to all to attend.

Friday

We will spend all day Friday conducting crits and seeing new work by the Syllabus artists, or work in progress, across Wysing's site. We’ve invited artist Florian Roithmyr to join us and this will be followed by a catered group dinner. 

Saturday

Syllabus Radio Session led by George Vasey addressing the question: Are there emotions of the age? If so, do we as artists have a responsibility to approach and work through them?

The inital editorial meeting will have taken place on Thursday where the artists will have selected current topics which they think are worth exploring and responding to. They will then be split into groups of 3 and 4 with each group creating a short audio segment in response to their chosen brief. It’s up to them how this is structured during the editorial board.

The content can take any form. Abstract sound, poetry, field recording, music - it doesn’t have to be a narrative driven news piece. It could be that one person is put in charge of developing a playlist of timely songs based on the editorial thematics that could be interspersed throughout the programme. The finished piece will be shared with the group and then uploaded onto Wysing's website. 

After lunch, Mark Leckey will be joining the artists for an in conversation taking into account the two leading questions, sharing his own experiences alongside his and others' work.

The evening will see some one to ones with George and the partipcating Syllabus artists followed by dinner.

Sunday

The artists will continue with one to ones with George throughout the day.

In addition, they will attend a drop in and out surgery with Milly Thompson addressing the question 'What do you have to get over, to get over yourself and get on?'.

Milly will be looking at self-promotion, next steps, representation of your practice, how to keep making without formal support structures and sustaining you practice in the long-term. 

Please note that we have selected the artists for the Syllabus II programme. 

We will announce those selected for Syllabus III in mid June. 

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