Bik Van der Pol
search
· index · notes · books
Between a rock and a hard place
religion, tradition, feminism, and ecology. From this event, and based on this collective endeavour during these four days, the short film Between A Rock And A Hard Place was made.

Continuing the research on the black rock and their relation with the large and widespread community of Sudbury, this culminates in a series of rock concerts, in close collaboration with the extremely rich music scene of Sudbury. Eleven local bands and musicians of all musical styles each perform on eleven specific locations, which inevitably involves rocks as a backdrop. This takes place on August 18, 2012, and a bus takes the public on this one single day, travelling from location to location. The recorded material becomes a video-film. This day of action thus creates a string of connected locations throughout the wider area of Sudbury, as a way of mapping the area through its physical manifestation: rock.

Focusing on the rock as landmark for experience, this project is not just site-specific. Rather, it makes each chosen site specific through a process of mapping by way of note-taking and note-making that literally maps-out the area.
160
Between a rock and a hard place
Though mapping usually refers to cartography as a way acquire data from a terrain, here the concept of mapping is loosely applied as a conceptual metaphor, creating an inference from one conceptual domain (the territory) to another (creative practice).

"Early in an introductory geology course, one begins to understand that rocks are not nouns but verbs— visible evidence of. processes: a volcanic eruption, the accretion of a coral reef, the growth of a mountain belt. Everywhere one looks, rocks bear witness to events that unfolded over long stretches of time". (Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World, by Marcia Bjornerud, pp. 8)

The project Between A Rock And A Hard Place is a collaboration with producer Mathieu Grainger, designers collective Bureau and evaluator Jamie Gamble, who are all part of the project and play a significant role in the film. Producer is Musagetes Foundation, an international organization that seeks to transform contemporary life by working with artists and other partners to develop new approaches to building community and culture. Musagetes has been working in Sudbury since 2010.
161