The Test: “how will we know what it is that we are doing?”

Abstract

The Test outlines a public art project developed by ROARAWAR FEARTATA titled The Crossing, undertaken as part of Melbourne City Council’s 2019 Test Sites program. Drawing on the figure of the ferryman from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, as well Henri Lefebvre’s concept of Rhythmanalysis, this project sought to occupy the everyday practice of the pedestrian crossing, utilising the position of the artist within this everyday practice to develop a methodology for conducting a rhythmanalysis of public space. Through the process of performative adventure and the reading of rhythms, the project aimed to strategise a process for art to participate in the practice of the everyday whilst maintaining the tension of the question: “how will we know what it is that we are doing?”