WLDN / Joanne Leighton

WLDN is a project and a philosophy at  the same time. The title references the renowned book Walden by Henry  David Thoreau (1817-1862), American essayist, teacher, philosopher,  naturalist and poet. This novel, published in 1854, influenced many  schools of thought and served as a reference for those seeking to  reconnect with basic values. Thoreau recounts his two years experience  living independently in the middle of nature. 

WLDN can be portrayed as a kind of ‘transcendental striptease’, which  represents for me coming back to the fundamental essence and a  simplifying of work, of stripping down, but also, back to the most  elemental, even the most primordial aspects of performance in terms of  dance, movement, and site. This simplicity can and does involve stage  work and public space work but also includes productions of the kind of  work that can easily be documented and published with the tools at hand  which includes platforms such as social media : iphone, internet,  facebook…

What is it in Thoreau’s action that can be mirrored in our  changing cultural landscape with the contemporary tools we have in  creating, recording, notating, publishing, dissemination ?