biennialFreerunner: Free Running / Parkour Definined

Friday 25 April 2008

Free Running / Parkour Definined

Hi Jo I found this information at http://www.thefreerunningmovie.com/freerunningnf.php and found this useful:

"Originally founded in France by David Belle as parkour, Free Running is an artistic physical discipline of human movement, focusing on uninterrupted, efficient forward motion over, under, around and through obstacles (both man-made and natural) in one’s environment. Such movement may come in the form of running, jumping, climbing and other more complex techniques.

The goal of Free Running is to be able to adapt one’s movement and progress to any given scenario so that any obstacle can be overcome purely by using the human body and the ‘athletes’ own physical abilities.

According to David Belle, the ‘spirit’ of parkour is guided in part by the notions of ‘escape’ and ‘reach’; that is, the idea of using physical agility and quick thinking to get out of difficult situations, and to be able to go anywhere that one desires. However, fluidity and beauty are also important considerations; for example, co-founder Sébastien Foucan speaks of being ‘fluid like water,’ a frequently used metaphor for the smooth passage of barriers through the use of parkour.

Free Running is often connected with the idea of freedom, in the form of the ability to overcome aspects of one’s surroundings that tend to confine – for example, railings, staircases, or walls."

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The Project

Traceur Tag
De La Salle School in collaboration with St Helens College

The theme for the schools project, Future, Fiction and Fantasy, seemed to instantly form a connection with our idea to produce a piece of work using Parkour and the virtual world as the concept. This film was a collaborative effort between De La Salle School and St Helens College and it was only through this collaboration that the desire to create a film based on the computer game genre was realised.

It was at the initial stages of the collaboration that contemporary artworks such as Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle proved influential along with the film Jump Britain and a variety of computer games such as Halo and Unreal, which helped us to establish the kinds of environment that could form the basis for the film.

Without a doubt the vehicle which supported this project’s creative growth and encouraged clear communication throughout was this blog, instigated by Dave Wood. This blog became a hub of activity which maintained consistency in content during the six month period. Ideas, thoughts, concerns, artistic references and discussions were posted daily, hourly and often by the minute in pursuit of our collective goal.

The most interesting element of the blog, from an educational perspective, was the innovative approach to formative assessment, providing rapid responses to creative problems in a contemporary manner aiding motivation and communication. Both De La Salle School and St Helens College are now exploring ways in which blogs can impact upon student’s development and bring assessment methods into the 21st Century.

This film explores a passion for an activity that in society can be considered as subversive or anti social and channels that enthusiasm into a creative medium. From a school’s point of view the boys were given an opportunity to express themselves in a language that is comfortable to them but in a safe environment, they worked with students witnessing the creative process in action but also what vocational links art can provide.

Finally, working on the School’s Project with the Biennial team has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to investigate contemporary approaches to schemes of work, work collaboratively between different institutions and the community and develop effective forms of communication, all of which have supported our personal development for the delivery of new initiatives such as the re-launch of the Secondary Curriculum and the introduction of the Creative and Media Diploma.

Joanne Millea

Whois biennialFreerunner?

biennialFreerunner Productions is the creative collective formed out of this Biennial project. It soon became apparent to Dave and Jo that the pooled talent, the excitement and the dedication of the students and graduates had naturally formed into a "Hot Group" of multi-disciplinary creatives. As such, the project Jo had brought to Dave had evolved beyond its original scope and remit. It was therefore only natural to give this multi-disciplinary team a collective identity. The biennialFreerunner blog had actually become biennialFreerunner Productions.

There are 6 core collective members and 1 associate member of this collective: co-founders Dave Wood and Jo Millea, Adam Hamilton, Matt Frodsham, Dave Bentick and Stas Krakiewicz. Jose Flores is based in Brighton and his opening scenes were produced remotely.

Already one member of this collective has gone onto make a music video for a band as a result of his experiences as part of this collective.

See www.biennialfreerunner.com for more information or email info@biennialfreerunner.com.

Books by Dave Wood