It will probably comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the ambitious multi dimensional, multi disciplinary work of Pacitti Company that the next event at the Company’s new Ipswich Think Tank HQ will involve performance art and take away food, with social and political undercurrents of course.

Gorge on September 5th is being staged by I’m With You who are London-based Americans Christa Holka, R. Justin Hunt and Johanna Linsley. As with most things that Pacitti Company and their collaborators are involved with it’s bound to be illuminating, surprising and challenging, though whether these three courses will be served seperatley or in various combinations it’s impossible to say.

Last week I made my first visit to the clean, light and very active Think Tank, to meet artist writer and researcher Johanna Linsley who, along with John Bowers, a technologist and sound artist, and and Lucy Walker, an archeologist, has been invited to work as one of the first Think Tank Associate Artists.

“Gorge is the result of a long standing collaboration with my colleagues in I’m With You. We put on events, we put on performances and we put on things that are not so easy to define. It started as a one off thing when we were sharing a house together in London. We’re all really good cooks but the event itself is going to involve a take away ! We’re exploring the idea of delivery – the food is coming from a local South Indian restaurant. At its’ base level it’s going to be a meal and people talking. The participation is going to be light – passing food around the table and making conversation with someone you maybe don’t know – but that hopefully highlights the social and emotional undercurrents involved in eating in a group.

“There will be some more scripted, choreographed elements but we don’t want to give too much away. It’ll be a little bit weird and a little bit experimental but hopefully very exciting too !

Johanna had been familiar with Robert Pacitti’s work for several years before working as a writer on the company’s Spill festival at the Barbican in 2011 and she and I’m With You clearly share many of the company’s values and practices.

“We try to combine disciplines. Two of us are performance makers and academics and our third collaborator is a photography. It’s a meeting of media, a meeting of ideas and we value openness and experimentation but we’re also really keen to celebrate skill and training and passion. That’s something where I feel a kindred spirit with Pacitti Company.

“They do absolutely defy definition but they’re also so generous and supportive and they create really clear structures for engagement. It’s a danger sometimes when you’re moving outside of set boundaries: things get chaotic, they become inaccessible because there’s nothing to grasp onto. I think something Pacitti Company does really well is to maintain a line of communication where there’s something to hold on. Myself and my collaborators are trying to work in the same vein.

“In terms of my practice its so important that Robert is from here and he has such a connection, and everybody who works here are really grounded. There are connecting threads and I’ve had a lot of support and introduction.”

Johanna has lived in the UK for over six years and first visited Ipswich for the 2012 Spill Festival before returning to develop her own project at Think Tank over the course of this summer and early autumn.

Ipswich is a very interesting town. In a certain sense it feels like Ipswich is a microcosm for Britain – the history of Britain is stamped onto the physical landscape of Ipswich, from its most ancient settlements, the industrial age, post-industrial, the neo-liberal, New Labour stamp. It’s all there.

“I’ve been walking around Ipswich, talking to people and out of that I’ve developed my own response to Ipswich – it’s going to take the form of a science fiction documentary. In terms of what I’m working on and where I’m taking a fantastical premise and looking at Ipswich through a science fiction lens, it’s a really good case study. ”

Her positive view of Ipswich seen through fresh eyes is definitely a useful counter to more outdated cynicism about the town.

“One of the big themes that’s running through my project is potentiality, feelings of possibility, and feelings of missed opportunities, how it feels to make something happen on a local level.

“There’s so many possibilities and it feels like they are being grabbed by the throat. There’s a great energy here.”

Plenty to get your teeth into on September 5th, and at the Pacitti Company’s other upcoming events  at www.pacitticompany.com. Tuck in !

Doug Coombes

The Pacitti Company Think Tank is in the Victorian Wing of the Ipswich Museum and Art School, High Street, Ipswich.

Tickets for Gorge:Feast on September 5th cost £10 and must be booked from [email protected] or call 01473 216 545

I’m With You’s website is at http://imwithyou.me/