Murmur Land Studios is an experimental field school initiative offering event-based pedagogy in art, philosophy, movement, ecology and temporary camping community for the post-anthropocene era. Our attempt is to curate spaces of creative inquiry which attract diverse makers, thinkers and doers together around thematic concerns relevant to the challenging times which lay before us. We are interested in exploring the varied human and more-than-human relations that weave and co-compose new possibilities for joy and survival.

Our week-long field school residencies are held as camping-based opportunities to (mostly) gain a reprieve from the grid and reconnect with the land. This is our first ecological gesture to open up a differential space for group investigation and self-directed inquiry.

These are hybrid events, oriented around morning sessions of group activation, kinaesthetic practice, and critical dialogue in the style of roundtable discussions, followed by open studio sessions in the afternoon for event participants to pursue individual creative projects connected to the event theme. Finally, through meals, shared space and the like, the actual living-together of the residency itself becomes a key component of how we dynamically explore the potentials of each thematic gathering.



Wander Lines: Mythodological Escapism
August 2017, Saysutshun – Newcastle Island, BC


Our inaugural programme of events is titled Passages: Beyond Futuring. Following our extremely successful 2017 field schools, The City in Reverse: Diagramming Intelligent Systems and Wander Lines: Mythodological Escapism, we are excited to extend these calls for participation in 2018:


Unruly Infolding: Reconsidering Naturecultures
(July 1-7, 2018, Miguasha National Park – Gaspé Peninsula, QC)

What is artificiality if not an incredible authenticity? Science is the ‘symbiotic agreement’ that we cannot know until the event takes place—and even then this agreement is not contractual since it is always already in transition and transduction. From the multivariate projection points of our historical present it is now certain that the divisions of artifice were always porous, transitional, interrelated and bleeding.


Reanimation and Unsettling: Politics of Exhaustion
(August 12-18, 2018, ‘Urania / road trip via Saskatoon, SK)

What is history if not an unbearable half-life? Pulling futures forward, we dwell in the energetics of the half: half-way, half-thought, or the half-life of political disaster. Radiating futures means entering the half-life of our collective history. This might be exhaustion. Exhaustion is what the land speaks, if only one would listen openly. What are the coordinates of care for the coming planetary burnout and post-anthropocene landscape?

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Deadline for applications has been extended until February 28. Rolling applications will be considered for available spaces after this time. Please see the Apply page for further information on submitting an application, or the FAQ to learn more about any specific questions you may have. Our events are open to participants from all educational backgrounds.

Due to the remote locations and variable geographies of our field school locations, we cannot guarantee accessibility in all cases. However, if you are an experienced camper with mobility-related questions or concerns please contact us for specific inquiries.

We look forward to you joining us!

Thank you and warmest wishes,
the MLS Curatorial Collective

Web: murmurlandstudios.net
FB: facebook.com/murmurlandstudios/
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The City in Reverse: Diagramming Intelligent Systems
July 2017, Sherbrooke, NS


The MLS Curatorial Collective and the origins of Murmur Land Studios emerge primarily from a durational project in June 2015 curated by the Department of Biological Flow research-creation collective. Channel Surfwas an open platform for arts-based research and alternative pedagogical expression that unfolded during a 200km journey paddling from Kingston to Ottawa along Canada’s Rideau Canal.

For the participants of this ambulant atelier, the canal of Channel Surf metaphorically assumed the role of digital information channel, and the paddlers that of data packets invested with inventive agency in a durational co-compositional transit. The event concluded with a performative exhibition of works at Gallery 101 in Ottawa.

Channel Surf was one of 5 projects worldwide accepted for the 2014-15 cohort of Project Anywhere, a peer-review system for arts-based research-creation inquiry.