关于环流
“Gyrecraft” is a term made up of the two words “gyre” and “craft”. The word “gyre” refers to creating a circulating environment similar to “ocean circulation”, in search of cultural exchange and potential connection between urban communities around the world. The word “craft” refers to conducting field research deep into the local areas, in search of local knowledge and situations bred by specific regional customs, sceneries, skills and memories.
Gyrecraft 2024 focuses on the new contexts and presentations that emerge from images that circulate within and across different cultures and regions. Gyrecraft 2024 will be a series of screenings, exhibitions and public events taking place between March-May 2024 in cinemas, schools and cultural industries across the UK. Through Gyrecraft 2024, we aim to foster a discourse from a multimedia perspective, showcasing the contemporary practices of those working at the intersection of image, craft, and place.
“环流GyreCraft”由“Gyre”和“Craft”二词结合而成。Gyre，意指“迴环”，试图营造一种如“大洋环流”般的流通环境，在全球范围寻找城市社群之间的文化交流与潜在关联；Craft，意指“技艺”，朝向一种将田野深入本地，寻访特定地域风土/风物/技艺/记忆所共同凝结而成的地方性知识与情境。“环流”不同于简单的流动，它意味着去而复返的双重运动，可以无限往复。在循环的过程中，事物、人和观念彼此流通。因此，“环流”意味着一种渐进的视角，而不是已经形成的结构和观念在空间上的简单复制。
环流Gyrecraft于2023年在厦门发起成立，不仅立足于中国南方的海岛城市以及周边社群，也希望以影像为媒，借助“环流”，寻求更广泛的地方联系。环流采用“双城”的影展模式，以期打造一个推广和展示地方影像的多元平台，搭建社群，并促进影像工作者之间的区域交流和合作网络。环流Gyrecraft 2024 将于 2024 年 2 月和四月期间在中国、英国各地的电影院、学校和文化产业举办一系列放映、展览和公共活动。聚焦在图像、工艺和地域交汇处工作的人的当代实践，并关注构成人类生活多样性的文化和社区。
Gyrecraft Film Festival focuses on:
1. Documentaries and short films about regional cultural, environmental ecology and the conditions of crafts.
2. Self-initiated “action record” of local customs and folklores produced by local filmmaker.
3. Interviews and videos on local communities, migrants and events related to modern manufacturing that had lasting impact on local life.
4. Starting with craftspeople and local crafts, we would focus on artistic or design project documentaries initiated by innovators and collective.
5. Artistic films that allow artists to respond to subjects such as “locality, modernity and ecosystem”.
环流关注的问题包括：
1. 关于地方文化、环境生态、手艺与工艺的生存状态的纪录片、短片；
2. 由当地拍摄者所自发进行的有关地方风土、民俗知识的“行动记录”；
3. 有关在地族群、迁徙者及现代生产对本地生活产生了深远影响事件的采访或录像；
4. 从手艺人与地方技艺出发，由创意人和团队发起的艺术或设计计划的记录式影片；
5. 探索个体或地方视角下有关起源故事、知识、本地神话或宇宙观的实验影像、动画。
群屿南方
The 2024 Gyrecraft Film Festival will take place in London, UK, and Xiamen, China. Both cities have rich territorial waters and vibrant waterfront communities, fostering a unique "culture-environment". This year's curatorial theme is "Starry South" (群屿南方), where we aim to use "islets" as a contextual cue to underline a peculiar "Southern" sensory structure. The emphasis is on new contexts and expressions derived from images across various regions.
The water body is the intermediary between continents and even different world views, whereas the “islets” scattered in the sea are inseparable from each other, generating different communities, cultures and societies. And the flow of the water body itself can also be regarded as a paradigm, tide and ocean current, which bring about different terroirs and phenology within and between waters. The term “South” is a comprehensive survey that starts from itself and contains three layers of meaning: it is not only a place, but also a geographical location that is constantly migrating, separated, and flowing. It is even the life history of the migrants or the people who live there as well as the speech, perception, memory and skills shared by the community.
Gyrecraft features 4 sections and a total of 17 films, which deal with a huge amount of skills, techniques, habits, experiences, songs, legends and myths. And they are all combined with specific regions and local knowledge that are used to respond to the surrounding environment in reality. For instance: how to make a piece of papyrus, how to write a letter, how to weave a product, how to operate a canoe, how to make pottery, how to paint a touch of makeup. All of these actions of production, the invention of tools, the tradition of use, the spread of skills and transitive craftsmanship all point to practical knowledge in essence. These knowledges continue to spread, distribute and accumulate from one place to another and then arrive at the more inner and more subtle side of local and social community. We are referring to certain “embodied” copies or containers such as temples, royal cruise, patrols, god, puppets, paper sticks and ticks. Together they constitute the whole process from superstition to the self-reflection of memes and that ultimately formed an invisible image zone of the “South”.
Following this dynamic process of continuous generation, the complex and traceable visual atmosphere leads to the genealogy behind people and local matters. The sense of place is once again transformed into a field for imagination (situational markers), gradually opening up the local flavor (culture-environment created by local customs) and the open rhythm and geographical story initiated by cross-regional interaction, and finally through the repeated perception created by images saved in tertiary retention.
2024环流影展(Gyrecraft Film Festival)将在中国厦门和英国伦敦两座城市进行，这两座城市都有着特殊的水域背景和滨水社群，也滋生出丰富的“文化-环境”。借助独特的影像语言和议题延展，本次环流影展的策展议题为“群屿南方”，希望以“群岛”作为情境线索，牵引出某种“南方”的感觉结构，以此聚焦影像在跨区域间及地方内部的过程里所生成的新语境与表达。
水体是各大洲之间，乃至不同世界观之间的中介；而大海里散布的“群屿”，它们彼此若即若离，生成着歧异的社群、文化与社会，而水体流动本身也可被视为一种范式，潮汐与洋流，在水域内部和水域之间带来了不同风土与物候。“南方”则是作为从自身出发的综合测量术，包含了三重含义：既是地方；也是不断迁徙、离散、流动的地理⽅位，更是迁徙者或所居之人的生活史，及其社群共享的言说与感知、记忆与技艺。
本次影展4个单元17部影片，其中包含了大量的技艺、技术、惯习、经验、歌曲、传说和神话，且都结合着具体地域，是在实情中所找寻到的应对周围环境的地方性知识，如：如何制作一刀草纸，如何书写一封信札，如何编织一件制品，如何操纵一叶轻舟，如何制作一个陶器，如何描绘一抹妆颜......这些制作的行为动作、工具的发明、使用的传统、技艺的流传与及物的手艺本质上都指向为实践的知识；而它们从一个地方到另一个地方持续流传、扩散、分布、积累，又进入到地方与社会群体更内在和细微处，即一些“具身”副本或容器，如庙宇、王船、巡境、人神、乩童、木偶、扎纸、蜱虫......它们构成了从迷信到迷因（meme）的自我映射，最终形成了一种无形的“南⽅”影像地带。
追随这个持续生成的动态过程，复杂且莫可踪迹的影象气息，牵引出人与地方事物背后的谱系。地方感再次被转变为可供展开想象化的领域（情境标记），逐渐打开本地的地方气息（风土构成的文化-环境）和跨地域交流的开放律动与地理故事，最终通过影像创造的重复感知保存在第三持存（tertiary retention）里。
The Place of Revelation and Disappearance
环流精选：显隐之地
The “development” of various media states overflows from the surface of material under the influence of southern light and shadow, and is projected into the imagination of time and space, becoming an image of shadow. The Southern terroir and light and shadow area are where people gather to enjoy cool weather and to stay temporarily. It is also where witty words are exchanged and the intersection area for many dieties and strange objects from the terroir/mythological world. Gyrecraft From 300 submissions, Gyrecraft Film Festival selects 6 films that are very characteristic of the Southeastern coastal region and the cultural customs of the South. Using films as a medium, we strive to build a video connection spanning the time difference between the two harbor cities of London and Xiamen.
不同媒介状态的“显影”，在南方光影的作用下从物质材料的表面溢出，投射到时空的想象中，成为关于影的影像；南方的风土与光影地带，那里既是人们相聚乘凉、暂且停留、妙语连珠之地，也是风土/神话世界中诸多影神异物的交汇地带。环流影像周从300部影片中，精选出6部极具东南沿海地域和南方文化风土的影片，以电影为媒，在伦敦与厦门两座海港城市之间，建立一条跨越时差的影像连线。
Chance Encounter and Separation
萍聚雾散
The coastal, island and floating communities enable water dwellers to adapt their lifestyle and cultural memories based on the patterns of the sea. Early coastal residents and sea travelers revealed the harmonious situation between nature and artificiality: building boats and operating sails were enough to lead to the ideal of traveling afar, but the rituals of gods and floating water buildings also enable their bodies and souls to be concerned about the flowing waters for their entire life. These special social and geographical conditions along the coast have gradually lead to states of gathering and dispersion for these special local ethnic groups in history, which are potentially related to local customs, beliefs and terroirs. This section covers experimental and drama films, taking a deep dive into the collision between traditional beliefs and life destiny.
沿海、岛屿和水上社区会使水居之民的生活方式和文化记忆适应海洋的模式。早期的沿海居民、海洋旅行者，揭示了自然与人工之间的相互调和的境遇：造舟与操作风帆足以引远行的理想，但神明的仪式、漂浮的水上建筑又让他们一辈子身体与魂都牵挂在流动的水域中。这些沿海特殊的人情社会、地缘与地理状况，在历史中逐渐生成了本地特殊的族群聚集与离散的形态，这些都与当地的风俗信仰、风土人情有着潜在的关系。此单元涵盖实验影像和剧情片，深入探索民俗信仰、生活命运的碰撞。
Natural Scenery
风物地方
Folk arts and scenery are inextricably related to the climate and nature of a particular place. These local characteristics are transformed into naturally resilient and translucent materials through the rubbing, twisting and blending of hands. Between the gap of memory and perception, the natural scenery is vividly painted. Like bees collecting honey, documentary directors go around everywhere gathering local information and thoughts that are gradually overshadowed by modern society. This section covers genres such as ethnography, documentary and essay film, while exploring the intersection of traditional crafts, folk art and contemporary art.
民艺与风物都和一个地方的气候、自然有着千丝万缕的关系，这些极具地方性特征的，经由手的摩挲、揉捻与调配转变为具有自然韧性且透光的质料，在记忆与感知的缝隙处，栩栩描摹此间的风物光影。纪录片导演如同蜜蜂采集一般，处处寻访，收获这些逐渐被现代社会覆盖的地方信息与思绪。此单元涵盖了民族志、纪录片、散文电影的形式，探索了传统工艺、民间艺术和当代艺术的交融。
The other side of the South
他方南方
In the opening chapter of The Classic of Poetry: Guofeng, there are two Nan (literally means South), namely “Zhou Nan” and “Zhao Nan”. “Nan” was originally an ancient sound and later evolved into a specific name for a local dialect, called “Nanyin” (literally means Southern Sound). This refers to the collection and recording of folk songs from various places during the journey to the South. In the South back then, it was almost impossible to find either the “location” or the “tone”. During the passage of time and eternity, one could only continue to search in the direction of the wind. “Collecting wind” was just like “collecting poetry”. Poetry is closely related to the sound of each place and constitutes the visual poetry of other places, just like the Southern wind touches things and makes them flourish.
在《诗经·国风》开篇中有二南，即“周南”与“召南”，“南”原是一种古老的声音，后来演变为一种地方的言语调的专名，称作“南音”，就是在寻访南方的过程中，对各地民歌的采集与记录。当年的南方，无论是“所在”亦或者“音调”早已再难寻得，流逝与永恒，只能随着风的方向继续寻觅，“采风”也是“采诗”，诗歌与每一处地方的声音息息相关，构成了他方的影像诗，恰如南风触物，物皆畅茂。