Impossible Perspectives 2024

Abandon Normal Devices, Cheshire East Council and Tatton Park are excited to announce two new creative collectives selected for the Impossible Perspectives commissions

We are pleased to announce that CAN and Peut-Porter have been invited to develop new commissions over the next year, in response to and taking inspiration from Tatton Park’s rich landscape, collection, and connection to the Italian painter Canaletto whose paintings are part of the National Trust’s collection in Tatton’s Mansion.

These new commissions form part of Impossible Perspectives, an Abandon Normal Devices XR development and commissioning programme with its first iteration in collaboration with Cheshire East Council and Tatton Park.

Throughout the year Peut-Porter and CAN will devise proposals for a new digital, site-specific immersive experience and XR artwork. After recent research visits to explore Tatton Park both artist groups are busy developing their proposals and planning in-person workshops at Tatton Park in Autumn 2024. These public workshops will inform the commissions, which are set to premier at a future site-wide exhibition at Tatton Park.

“We are excited to commission CAN and Peut-Porter for this unique arts engagement opportunity at Tatton Park, which will help us develop innovative XR led immersive experiences for our visitors.

This is a unique chance to explore Tatton Park’s collections, parkland, gardens and mansion, to find out about the fascinating story of how ‘Canaletto came to Cheshire’ and be part of an exciting new arts venture in this wonderful setting.”
Carole Hyde – Head of Rural & Cultural Economy, Cheshire East Council & Tatton Park

“This commission is an important step towards developing opportunities to push the boundaries of traditional practices, which both collectives exemplify. The combination of CAN’s distinctive and idiosyncratic approaches and Peut-Porter’s fashion and movement hybrids introduce new containers for exploring Tatton Park’s landscapes and collections. The opportunity to work with Tatton Park—a place steeped in rich history and natural beauty—also provides a unique canvas for our artists to ask new questions in response to Tatton’s collections.

This is an ambitious piece of work that promises to create rich immersive experiences, blending the physical and digital in new ways for visitors.”
Yinka Danmole – Creative Director, Abandon Normal Devices

As Impossible Perspectives evolves we would like to thank Angela YT Chan, Enorê, Baff Akoto, Thomas Buckley and Kialy Tihngang, who took part in our labs in 2023 which created a space for sharing, learning and expanding their practices in scale and technologies of production, such as augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies (XR).  Their contributions to the development of ideas and explorations as part of Impossible Perspectives at Tatton Park in 2023, have played a key role in uncovering and interrogating the ambition of the commissions and wider Canaletto exhibition.

About Peut-Porter
Peut-Porter are a London-based Design Collective who develop participatory live-experiences. Headed by Alexa Pollmann and Bine Roth, the studio works with fashion, textile and silversmithing techniques and crafts wearable artefacts that expand the realms of wearable technology, meandering the fine line between gadget and garment, costume and avatar, and the interdependence between self and other.

Peut-Porter’s work was exhibited and performed internationally and has shown at the Venice Biennale, Design Museum London, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Museum of London, Jerusalem Design Week, BFI London, Deutsches Technikmuseum, De Doelen Theatre Rotterdam – amongst others.

About CAN
CAN is an Architecture and Ideas studio founded by Mat Barnes. Since its formation in 2016, CAN has built a reputation for creating striking and idiosyncratic projects, underwritten by cultural and historical research. CAN designs projects that subvert and amplify their social and cultural contexts, using unexpected materials and seemingly familiar but re-mixed forms. CAN’s work has been published internationally, receiving numerous design awards including the 2021 RIBA Rising Star award and inclusion in the Observer’s Top 5 international architecture of 2020.

About Tatton Park & Cheshire East Council
Tatton Park is managed and financed by Cheshire East Council on behalf of the National Trust. This impressive heritage visitor attraction receives in the region of 720,000 visitors every year, all of whom come to enjoy its picturesque Parkland, 18th century Mansion, medieval Old Hall, award-winning Gardens, and rare breed Farm.

Impossible Perspectives is a new UK XR commissioning programme. ‘Edition 1: Tatton Park’ is produced by Abandon Normal Devices, commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices and Cheshire East Council. Supported with public funds from Art fund and Arts Council England.

Image credits
1. All That Could Have Been (CAN), Photo credit Tim Bowditch
2. Peut-Porter: Multi-Play-Performer, 2018. at Siobhan Davies Dance,  Reality Remix, an AHRC/EPSRC Next Generation of Immersive Experiences Award led by Ruth Gibson.
3. Mountain View (CAN), Photo credit Jim Stephenson
4. Peut-Porter & Gibson/Martelli: DAZZLE – A Reassembly of Bodies, 2022. – at DeDoelen Theatre Rotterdam, Immersive Tech Week