Take part in an immersive outdoor experience with Allerton Artist-in-Residence Michael Workman at Transitive Landscapes: A Guided Walk & Field Atlas Assembly on Sunday, Nov. 9 from 12 to 1 p.m. Meet at the McCraw Family Visitor Center (park in the Visitor Center Parking Lot on Old Timber Road).
Participants will follow a mapped path through the gardens and wooded trails, and listen to short readings at designated stops that will weave excerpts from Workman’s Transitive Landscapes writings with the natural landscape. At each station, field cards with poetic fragments will be passed out to encourage responses and capture sensory impressions of sound, light, texture and memory.
The event will then move to the Mansion, where responses will be collected into a communal poetic field atlas — a temporary installation and digital record reflecting the interplay between the event’s experience and those who experienced it. No previous writing or art experience is required.
$5/person*. All sales are final.
*Participants should wear comfortable shoes, dress for the weather, and bring:
— A water bottle
— A notebook
— Writing or drawing materials
— A small personal or natural object
If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate, please email Olivia at owarren@illinois.edu.
By attending, you consent to your image being used in Allerton marketing, social media and publications. Please alert the photographer or videographer if you do not want your image taken.
About the instructor
Michael Workman is a choreographer, language, visual and movement artist, dance and performance artist, writer, reporter, and sociocultural critic. In addition to his work at the Chicago Tribune, Guardian US, Newcity magazine, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio and elsewhere, Workman is also Director of Bridge, an artistic collective and 501 (c) (3) publishing and programming organization (bridge-chicago.org).
His choreographic writing has been included in Propositional Attitudes, an "anthology of recent performance scores, directions and instructions" published by Golden Spike Press, and his Perfect Worlds: Artistic Forms & Social Imaginaries Vol. 1, the first in a 3-volume series, was released by StepSister Press in October 2018 with a day-long program of performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Most recently, two of his scores were accepted for publication in a special edition of the Notre Dame Review focusing on the work of participants in the &NOW Festival of Innovative Writing.
About The Farms
The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, offers classes, workshops, and gatherings focusing on art, outdoor education, science, storytelling, and wellness. All experiences value hands-on, experiential teaching and learning, and are facilitated by and for the members of the community.
See the complete Fall 2025 schedule here.
