Do you love Damper Creek? Are you a bird watcher or naturalist? Are you an “active relaxer” who enjoys the outdoors? Are you curious about outdoor public art?

If you say “yes” to any of the above then you’re invited to join free community “walkshops” to explore the outdoor spaces and community knowledge that exists around the natural parks and waterways along the new Suburban Rail Loop East line.

At Damper Creek Dan Koop is joined by co-host Emily Bowman, who will together guide attendees through gentle activities that deepen embodied knowledge of place to explore the possibilities of artist-led temporary public art in the area. At Damper Creek you can expect to meet some new people, connect your body to place and walk about 2km while doing a little bird watching - bring your own gear or borrow our binoculars!

FLOWING LOOPS ~ LOOPING FLOWS is an outdoor public art work that takes inspiration from the new rail line that will alter the flows of people through our urban landscape. The project will investigate the types of flow that already exist in the region, such as flows of water, exchanges of knowledge and the relationships between human, animal and plant species of the unique catchments of the Mordialloc Creek and KooyongKoot (Gardiners Creek).

More information is below or please see our website at www.flowingloops.com

Checklist to help you prepare and enjoy the walkshop:

To help you have an enjoyable walkshop we have a few quick tips that should help you to anticipate our activities and prepare in a way that suits you best.

Dress for the weather - It may be wet or cold and we will be doing some gentle walking so please come prepared for the outdoors. We’ll retreat to undercover seating areas if the weather gets too much!
Bring your binoculars and camera - If you have your own binoculars or cameras for bird watching please bring your gear, however we will have spare binoculars on hand so that you can give them a try!
Download Bird Apps - There are many bird apps that can help you contribute to citizen science by identifying birds and recording your sightings (we will also have good old fashioned pencil & paper!) Here are some suggested apps you can download on your home wifi to use out in the field:
- Merlin Bird ID from Cornell Lab - www.merlin.allaboutbirds.org
- eBird from Cornell Lab - www.ebird.org/about/ebird-mobile (Here’s what people have been spotting at Karkarook Park lately!)
- Birdata from Birdlife Australia - www.birdata.birdlife.org.au/#birdata-app

Access:

This is an outdoor experience that will engage multiple senses. When booking please advise us of your access requirements and we will endeavour to facilitate universal access to the walkshop.

As we move around Damper Creek the group will move on unpaved surfaces. We anticipate traversing about 2km over the course of the walkshop.

Your feedback about access requirements will help us to prepare Universally Accessible walkshops in October 2023.

About the Artists:

Emily Bowman (she/her) is an Australian choreographer, improviser, performer, and teacher based in Naarm (Melbourne). Emily is passionate about dance improvisation performance, somatic research, pedagogy and choreographic practice, especially in the field of contact improvisation.

Emily’s practice centers around the physicality of her dancing body. Her work explores contact, composition, authorship, dancing with the same person over time, practices of listening and care, agency, labour, sustainability, ecology and more. She works in solo and collaborative contexts in the studio and outdoors. Emily has a long-standing collaboration with improviser/writer Joey Lehrer, called Two For Now, where they practice, teach, and perform CI together since 2012.

Currently, Emily is pursuing a practice-based PhD at Deakin University, where she is researching what the body can come to know through the undertaking of a long-term collaborative dancing practice. She is also exploring the role that contact improvisation approaches to embodied knowledge might have in understanding the human body in the more-than-human world.

Dan Koop is an Artist, Curator-Producer & Facilitator living in Narrm / Melbourne who explores public places and curious spaces to bring communities together through temporary public art.

Having spent much of his life living near Birrarung-ga on Wurundjeri Country and Narrm-ga on Boon Wurrung Country he is inspired by both fresh and saltwater places, ecologies and various water cultures. Since slowing from jogging to walking pace during the lockdowns of 2020, he belatedly noticed the incredible natural diversity along the suburban Merri Creek and now considers himself an emerging bird nerd.

Creatively, Dan has made participant engaging projects along and across rivers, at fresh food markets and in hotel rooms, receiving Melbourne Green Room Awards for his works. Professionally, Dan has worked in Curator-Producer teams for Flash Forward (City of Melbourne), Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Fringe, Sydney Festival and Brisbane Powerhouse. Dan is currently a PhD candidate at Deakin University researching Situation, Participation and the Curator-Producer role in temporary public art, joining the curatoriate for Deakin’s Public Art Commission series of works for Front Beach Back Beach around the Mornington Peninsula. He has a Masters of Art (Public Space) from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Performing Arts from Monash University.

FLOWING LOOPS ~ LOOPING FLOWS is supported by:

Suburban Rail Loop - This artistic program has been supported by the Suburban Rail Loop East’s Community Projects Fund. Please see more about the Community Projects Fund here: www.suburbanrailloop.vic.gov.au/communityfund
Deakin University - Dan Koop is a PhD researcher at Deakin University, exploring the possibilities of Temporary Public Art in urban environments. Please see more about Dan Koop’s research here: www.flowingloops.com
With more community groups welcome to support and engage with the program! If you’re connected to a local community group that loves nature or works to enhance your local outdoor spaces, please get in touch here: dan@flowingloops.com