LUMIN

Throughout 2022, LUMIN (Sadia Pineda Hameed, Beau W Beakhouse and an open collective) have been a central part of Casgleb at Platfform 2.

Using autonomy, friendship and collaboration as guiding principles, LUMIN have considered how these three concepts relate to the different areas of their practice. Thinking of the station as a space of relation and interconnection, LUMIN invited in local and international collaborators including artists, researchers and writers.

During their time, LUMIN have collaborated on projects between Wales and Poland with artist Diego Gutierrez Valladares and his project Making Milpa, continuing a shared interest in the possibilities of friendship, conversation, collaborative practice, community engagement, alternative pedagogy, schools, food, rivers and more. During Casgleb, they used the themes of friendship, hosting and informality as a way into these topics, documenting them in the form of a text based dialogue and in situ sound recordings.

After a chance connection in Oxford, LUMIN invited artist Mort Drew to help shape LUMIN’s ideas for an anti-colonial radio station. Mort’s experience creating temporary radio stations as well as live field recordings and broadcasts, and their knowledge of sound design and installation has enabled LUMIN to map out the physical infrastructure for a form of decentralised, itinerant radio that builds on their occasional digital broadcast Local 37. A first experimental broadcast is scheduled for November at Platfform 2.

Adjacent to this, LUMIN have begun a collaboration with artist, writer and DJ Marva Jackson Lord to discuss radical anti-colonial radio. After working with Marva to share her sound project ‘The Adventures of Rip Van Winklette in the 21st Century’ as part of LUMIN’s 24 hour radio broadcast Local 37 x Solstice Radio, they initiated a text based dialogue that will archive her history at radio stations in Toronto, feminist and anti-racist radio principles, interviews and sound recordings with figures like Dionne Brand and bell hooks, as well as Marva and LUMIN’s current radio and sound work.

 Spending time together at Platfform 2, artist Lauren Craig helped to shape LUMIN’s approach to work and rest. Mapping out the work LUMIN have already been doing and making the less obvious connections, they discussed pleasure, slowness, syllabi, basins, care, writing and the future of these alternative ways of working. Lauren’s connections to Wales will also form the basis for new writing in relation to flowers, family history and landscape.

Having worked with artist Owen Griffiths on previous Peak project Storm Kitchen, LUMIN and Owen discussed the importance of long term, non-extractive work, especially as it relates to place, community and rural settings. After researching socially engaged work and anti-colonial arts practices at Documenta and the Berlin Biennial, they thought through the importance of friendship, food, pedagogy, international practice, gleaning and canals, planning futures for collaborative and embedded projects.

Previous work and continued conversations with Ke ba Kehara, blaxTARLINES, Umulkhayr Mohamed, Radha Patel, Cecelia Graham and others have also shaped LUMIN’s understanding of friendship, collectivity and collaboration. 

In creating this project, LUMIN responded to the current realities of exploitation in the arts and in work more broadly. Racial capitalism, exhaustion, overwork, hierarchy, marginalisation, extraction, institutional deadlock, labour co-option, short term thinking, and a host of other issues (most notably the ongoing train strikes and the cost of living crisis), changed the way LUMIN approached working with organisations. Prioritising safety for their collaborators, finding ways to be self-organised, working slowly, making space for tangents, friendships, informality, distance - have all been integral to this project and its experiment in work. 

Bio: LUMIN is at the intersection of curation, collaboration and collectivity. Initiated by Sadia Pineda Hameed and Beau W Beakhouse, LUMIN forms an open collective to consider language, print, radio, pedagogy and place. They publish LUMIN Journal, a space for anti-colonial and experimental writing and art, intermittently broadcast as Local 37, and undertake residencies, research and other long-term projects.

Trwy gydol 2022 mae LUMIN (Sadia Pineda Hameed, Beau W Beakhouse a chasgleb agored) wedi bod yn rhan o raglen Casgleb ar Blatfform 2.

Gan ddefnyddio ymreolaeth, cyfeillgarwch a chydweithio fel hanfodion gwaelodol, mae LUMIN wedi bod yn ystyried sut mae’r tri pheth hyn yn berthnasol i wahanol rannau o’u hymarfer. Gan feddwl am yr orsaf fel gofod sy’n galluogi perthnasau a chydgysylltiadau, gwahoddodd LUMIN artistiaid, ymchwilwyr a sgwennwyr lleol a rhyngwladol i gydweithio.

Yn ystod eu cyfnod yn gweithio gyda Peak eleni, mae LUMIN wedi cydweithio ar brojectau rhwng Cymru a Gwlad Pwyl gyda’r artist Diego Gutierrez Valladares a’i broject yntau Making Milpa, gan barhau â’r diddordeb maen nhw’n ei rannu mewn posibiliadau cyfeillgarwch, sgwrsio, ymarfer casglebol, ymgysylltu cymunedol, addysgeg amgen, ysgolion, bwyd, afonydd a mwy. Yn ystod Casgleb, buont yn canolbwyntio ar gyfeillgarwch, ymwrthod â ffurfioldeb, a’r ddefod o groesawu fel ffyrdd o fynd at y pynciau hyn, cyn eu dogfennu drwy gyfrwng deialog ar ffurf testun a recordiadau sain safle penodol.

Wedi cyfarfyddiad ar hap yn Rhydychen, gwahoddodd LUMIN yr artist Mort Drew i’w cynorthwyo i lunio syniadaeth LUMIN ar gyfer gorsaf radio gwrth-drefedigaethol. Mae profiad Mort wrth greu gorsafoedd radio dros dro ynghyd â recordiadau maes a darllediadau byw, ynghyd â’u gwybodaeth ynghylch dylunio sain a gosodwaith wedi galluogi LUMIN i fapio isadeiledd ffisegol ar gyfer ffurf o greu radio mewn modd datganoledig, crwydrol fydd yn adeiladu ar eu darllediad achlysurol digidol Local 37. Bydd y darllediad arbrofol cyntaf yn digwydd ar Blatfform 2 ym mis Tachwedd.

Law yn llaw â hyn, mae LUMIN wedi dechrau cywaith gyda’r artist, sgwennwr a’r DJ Marva Jackson Lord er mwyn trafod radio fel cyfrwng gwrth-drefedigaethol radical. Ar ôl gweithio gyda Marva i rannu ei phroject sain ‘The Adventures of Rip Van Winklette in the 21st Century’ fel rhan o ddarllediad radio 24 awr LUMIN, Local 37 x Solstice Radio, ysgogwyd deialog ar ffurf testun a fydd yn archifo hanes Marva yn gweithio mewn gorsafoedd radio yn Nhoronto, egwyddorion radio ffeministaidd a gwrth-hiliol, cyfweliadau a recordiadau sain gydag unigolion fel Dionne Brand a bell hooks, ynghyd â gwaith radio a sain presennol Marva a LUMIN.

Bu cwmni Lauren Craig ar Blatfform 2 yn gymorth i LUMIN wrth iddynt ystyried eu ffyrdd o ymwneud â ‘gweithio’ a ‘gorffwys’. Wrth fapio’r gwaith mae LUMIN eisoes wedi ei ddatblygu a sylwi ar y cysylltiadau llai amlwg, buont yn trafod pleser, arafwch, meysydd llafur, basnau, gofal, sgwennu a dyfodol y ffyrdd amgen hyn o weithio. Bydd cysylltiadau Lauren â Chymru hefyd yn sail ar gyfer sgwennu newydd mewn perthynas â blodau, hanes teuluol a thirlun.

Ar ôl gweithio gyda’r artist Owen Griffiths ar broject blaenorol Peak, Storm Kitchen, trafododd LUMIN ac Owen bwysigrwydd gwaith hirdymor, sy’n osgoi tynnu-oddi-wrth bobl, yn enwedig mewn perthynas â lle, cymuned a llefydd gwledig. Wedi iddynt ymchwilio gwaith sy’n canoli’r cymdeithasol ac arferion celfyddydol gwrth-drefedigaethol yn Documenta a’r Berlin Biennial, buont yn ystyried cyfeillgarwch, bwyd, addysgeg, ymarfer rhyngwladol, casglu a chamlesi, gan gynllunio dyfodolau ar gyfer projectau newydd ar y cyd a rhai sydd eisioes wedi’u hau.

 Mae gwaith blaenorol a sgyrsiau sy’n parhau gyda Ke ba Kehara, blaxTARLINES, Umulkhayr Mohamed, Radha Patel, Cecelia Graham ac eraill hefyd wedi siapio dealltwriaeth LUMIN o gyfeillgarwch, casglebrwydd a chydweithio.

Wrth greu’r project hwn, roedd LUMIN yn ymateb i’r realiti presennol o ecsbloetio sy’n digwydd o fewn y celfyddydau ac yn y byd gwaith yn ehangach. Bu cyfalafiaeth hil, blinder llethol, gorweithio, hierarchiaeth, gwthio pobl i’r cyrion, echdynnu, llwyr-gloi sefydliadol, cyfethol llafur, meddwl mewn ffyrdd byr dymor, a llu o broblemau eraill (yn fwyaf nodedig y streiciau trên parhaus a’r argyfwng costau byw) yn gyfrifol am newid y modd y mae LUMIN yn meddwl am weithio gyda sefydliadau. Mae blaenoriaethu diogelu eu cydweithwyr, darganfod ffyrdd o hunan-drefnu, gweithio’n araf, creu gofod ar gyfer hela sgwarnogod, cyfeillgarwch, anffurfioldeb, pellter – oll wedi bod yn ganolog i’r project hwn a’u harbrawf mewn gweithio.

Bio: Mae LUMIN ar y croestoriad rhwng curadu, cydweithio a chasglebrwydd. Wedi’i ysgogi gan Sadia Pineda Hameed a Beau W Beakhouse, mae LUMIN yn ffurfio casgleb agored i ystyried iaith, argraffu, radio, addysgeg a lle. Maen nhw’n cyhoeddi LUMIN Journal, cyfnodolyn sy’n ofod ar gyfer sgwennu a chelf gwrth-drefedigaethol ac arbrofol, yn darlledu fel Local 37 o bryd i’w gilydd, ac yn ymgymryd â phreswyliadau, ymchwil a phrojectau tymor hir eraill.