Forms of Circulation Project Information

 This is an ongoing project by Paul Stewart and Sarah Perks that uses workshops and 16mm film to create moving image works that communicate specific environments and relationships in new ways. Projects can take place in a variety of locations and with different types of communities, our philosophy is to follow the lead of the people and places involved. Workshops use a variety of methods tailored to groups including creative writing, performance, collective action, creating artworks and karaoke. The series is designed as both a short film for theatrical / festival exhibition and as a multi-channel installation in a gallery. Forms of Circulation #1 also has a special ‘seal rave’ workshop, first performed at Losing the Plot, a film retreat in Northumbria.

Forms of Circulation takes its title from theorist Jacques Rancière’s Aisthesis(2011), about what we consider to be art and an anti-elitist approach to aesthetics that flattens hierarchies of life and art through the processes of production and reception. 

This project continues Sarah’s extensive research into artist film (see Artist Moving Image in Britain since 1989 published by Paul Mellon Centre/Yale University Press), work on socio-economic relations, environmental collaborations (‘Natural Futures’), and her current practical research into filmmaking as a curatorial strategy. This project builds on Paul Stewart’s socially engaged practice using film, performance, and sound on how environments and histories are created and shared (Art, Critical Pedagogy and Capitalism, Routledge 2021, Educational Aesthetics, 2024), and how knowledge can be embodied when working with multiple voices and communities (‘Assemblies of Action’, ‘Gentle Gestures’). 

Contact us to discuss commissioning a future Forms of Circulation!

Paul Stewart and Sarah Perks are filmmakers and curators based in the North East of England. They regularly collaborate on workshop and film-based projects and work in collectives including The Ignorant Art Schools (both), Gentle Gestures (Paul) and Freedom Women Collective (Sarah). Sarah has worked extensively in artist film including as writer, producer, distributor and programmer, and is known for expanded and international exhibitions with artists from Rachel Maclean to David Lynch. Paul co-founded the Middlesbrough Art Weekender in 2017, and has developed works and community projects across the UK and Europe including commissions from the Hatton Gallery, The Newbridge Projects, Tate, BALTIC, ZdHk, Circa Projects, MHKA. Both have screened films at multiple festivals including Rotterdam International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival. And they both are senior researchers at Teesside University and based at MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art).