FIGMENT :: Governor’s Island :: June 27, 28, 29, 2008 :: Ferries run from The Battery Maritime Building located adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry in Lower Manhattan. Find a schedule here ::

FIGMENT is a celebration of creative culture from June 27-29, 2008 on Governors Island in New York Harbor. It provides an open forum for artists, helps build a creative community, and fosters participatory and public art. A broad spectrum of arts are represented, including sculpture, performance, music, installation, dance, costuming and activities. It is free and open to the public.
Among the projects planned for this event are:
Starlight on the Island—A series of solar panel powered, spherical steel sculptures that will absorb sunlight to light the island at night.

The Rose Petal Pool—The creators of this multi-media, interactive sound installation encourage children of all ages to enjoy the rich sensory experience.

Arbor Animus (Spirited, Courageous Tree)—The artist collective will bring their 16-foot tall, multi-media (metal, wood, LED lights) American Willow Tree to Governors Island as part of the sculpture’s 2008 national tour of major art festivals.

FIGMENT 2008 will also offer a range of offerings by video and film artists sharing both their personal and collective expressions—often influenced by Governors Island— including the documentation of the construction of an elaborate reclaimed wood sculpture and one NY native’s 1979 marriage in the island’s Trinity Church.

Other FIGMENT art installations will incorporate such innovative materials and resources as telescopes, a teepee, 2,000 silver colored flags, and a pair of five-foot tall wooden lips! The majority of sculptures and art pieces are touchable and climbable—resulting in much art that is interactive and child-friendly.

The work of both emerging and established choreographers will be featured as part of the many dance performances taking place throughout the 3-day event. Similarly, FIGMENT 2008 will have a range of performance art offerings, including such original and unusual unions as the merging of creative writing with art and improvisational drama exercises with therapeutic movement, sound, and role-play. In addition, visitors to the island can participate in the creation of pop-trash poetry done karaoke style, Ukrainian body painting, private readings at the “Poetry Brothel,” and the “intrepid” use of cameras to record various urban explorations.

The musical offerings of FIGMENT 2008 are extensive, as well as exceptional in their variety and innovation. They range from boogie and classic rock to futuristic Brooklyn hip-hop to the “healing” sounds of electric keyboards to traditional bawdy German songs about murder, madness and mayhem—to the accompaniment of an organ grinder! Many of the performances are also representative of the collaborative spirit of multiple disciplines working together: a sound installation incorporating restaurant kitchen recordings, live electric flute accompanied by modern dancers, a mix of acoustic and electronic dance music resulting from remixes of Rwandan mass and folktronica.

Finally, humor permeates many of the offerings, as probably best represented by the Celtic vocalist who will be singing her heartfelt songs about love, loss and indigestion.

FIGMENT will include City of Dreams Mini Golf, a nine-hole mini golf course that will be installed on Governors Island from June 27 to October 5. It will be free and open to the public throughout the season. Each hole will be conceived, constructed and installed by a different artist or group of artists, all variations on the theme “City of Dreams.”

The following principles guide the development, production and experience of FIGMENT:

PARTICIPATION
FIGMENT is committed to the spirit of participation. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play.

DECOMMODIFICATION
We seek to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

INCLUSION
Anyone may be a part of FIGMENT. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

SELF-EXPRESSION
Self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

SELF-RELIANCE
FIGMENT encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

GIVING
FIGMENT is devoted to acts of gift giving and volunteering. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

COMMUNAL EFFORT
We value creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
We value civil society. Each participant in FIGMENT is responsible for helping to create a civil environment for all other participants. We will endeavor to produce this event in a way that fosters a civil society and that is socially responsible.

LEAVE NO TRACE
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves to leave each place in a better state than we found it.

IMMEDIACY
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.