Dear friend of Arkadia,   You are warmly welcome to Foraging in Central Kurzeme on Tuesday 8.3 at 6pm by Signe Pucena (LV) and Andrew Gryf Paterson (SCO/ FI). Signe and Andrew will present the context, process and outcomes of organising last year’s midsummer ‘Herbologies’ expedition to rural towns of Aizpute and Alsunga in Western Latvia. The presentation shares an example of grassroots, artist-led ethno-botany and cultural heritage production. http://herbologies-foraging.net/Welcome to be bathed in greenery, herbal plant stories, and images of midsummer sunshine!   Warm regards, Ian www.arkadiabookshop.fi The expedition was hosted by Interdisciplinary Art Group SERDE (of whom Pucena is executive director and programme curator), and built upon their experience of engaging cultural heritage subjects as an arts organisation. It took place as part of the Herbologies/Foraging Networks programme of events.   In collaboration with Paterson, they organised a series of fieldwork excursions and ethnographic interviews, for an international and interdisciplinary group of guests, to learn about the contemporary practices and cultural heritage related to the use of wild plants in the local area. Participants include guests from Latvia, Lithuania, various places in Finland, Southern Sweden, Poland, Spain and Belgium. During this Arkadia presentation event, they will present photo and video documentations from midsummer, and the resultant ‘Exercise Book of Traditions’ which was made following the expedition. Physical copies of the book will be available to take away and purchase at a modest price. More information: http://herbologies-foraging.net/ http://www.serde.lv/ The Herbologies/Foraging Networks programme, focused last year in Helsinki (Finland) and Kurzeme region of Latvia, explores the cultural traditions and knowledge of herbs, edible and medicinal plants, within the contemporary context of online networks, open information-sharing and biological technologies. Events were organised in 2010 as a collaboration between Andrew Paterson (SCO/ FI), Ulla Taipale/Capsula (FI/ES) and Signe Pucena/SERDE (LV), in cooperation with Pixelache, Idea House Aizpute, and many other participants in the programme.   Signe Pucena is executive director and programme curator of The Centre for Interdisciplinary Arts SERDE in Aizpute, Latvia, founded in 2001. She has gained her higher education at the Latvian Academy of Culture in Folklore and Traditional Culture, aswell as a MA in Cultural Management. Between 2000-2008 Pucena was project manager at RIXC Centre for New Media Culture, Riga, producing various new media events, festivals and workshops. Since 2005 she has been participating in the expeditions and fieldwork research in the Latvian countryside, learning about the traditional cultural forms still existing in the contemporary age. Her creative and innovative approach to cultural heritage work with SERDE was recognised with the Latvian Folklore Grand Prize in 2007. http://www.serde.lv Andrew Gryf Paterson is a Scottish artist-organiser, cultural producer and independent researcher, based in Helsinki, Finland. His work involves variable roles of initiator, participant, author and curator, according to different collaborative and cross-disciplinary processes. Andrew works across the fields of media/ network/ environmental activism, pursuing a participatory arts practice through workshops, performative events, and storytelling. This year he is coordinating Pixelache’s education programme (Pixelversity), and completing doctoral studies in Media dept. Aalto University School of Art and Design. http://agryfp.info/ A short representative selection of the Arkadia book collection : http://www.librarything.com/catalog/IanBourgeot