14. 12. 2022
Like many others I am so shocked and saddened by the death of Jon Beedell. I was lucky enough to be involved in various enterprises with Jon and The Desperate Men. Deepest sympathies to all his family, friends and colleagues. As a tribute please I have assembled as much of the fabulous Proxi and Peri films and photos that I can find.
Please note this was a large creative enterprise running over a few years in Bristol approx. 2015 – 2017, with input from various individuals and organisations.
Here is information from the Desperate Men website as a screen shot.
Please also note that much of this is also on the My Future My Choice, Bristol Loves Tides website here. But other films and photographs filmed for the Towards Hydrocitizenship: Water City Bristol Project are also included.
Special credit is due to:
Richard Headon who is co-artistic drector of Desperate Men with Jon Beedell, and who was Proxi to Jon’s Peri
Hugh Thomas of My Future My Choice
Nathan Hughes / Roung Glory Films who made most of the films below.
Antony Lyons /Nova Arts who were creative inspirations at the outset.
Proxi & Peri: One Last Job. Film 1
Proxi and Peri, ‘the tides made flesh’, are compelled by the moon, to venture up the River Avon to remind the people of Bristol of the importance of tides to the heritage, history, and possible futures of their city. Redoutable blue-collar workers, they’ve successfully managed the second largest tidal reach in the world since the 1607 Tsunami, but must complete one last job before retiring to the Mediterranean. Commissioned by My Future My Choice for Bristol Loves Tides – a European Green Capital 2015 flagship project raising public awareness of hydro-citizenship (ecologies of people, water and cities). Made in association with the Towards Hydrocitizenship AHRC project and NOVA arts.
This video has to be watched on Vimeo – click on the image below to do that.
Proxi & Peri: Syzygy Oath on Bristol Docks (2015): Film 2
Proxi and Peri Proxi and Peri (Tides Made Flesh) arrive in Bristol on the syzygy (a nearly straight-line configuration of the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) to be welcomed by the Mayor. They lead the assembled throng in a tidal oath, present 10 tidal ambassadors with special objects and charge them to conduct important research. Launch event for Bristol Love’s Tides – a flagship, Bristol European Green Capital 2015 project featuring Desperate Men as P&P.
This video has to be watched on Vimeo – click on the image below to do that.
This is a shorter version, just of the oath.
Proxi & Peri: Ebb of Life. Transcript: Film 3
Proxi & Peri: No Rest For The Fluid. Film 4
Proxi and Peri, ‘the tides made flesh’ wake on a bleak shore, surprised to still be human, as they anticipated a well-earned retirement managing marginal Mediterranean tides. They cross a hostile landscape to ask the moon why she reneged on their deal, and argue the pros and cons of being human en route. Commissioned for Bristol Loves Tides, the film pays homage to buddy movies and Spaghetti Westerns to raise questions about our highly problematic relationship with non human systems.
This video has to be watched on Vimeo – click on the link below to do that.
Short Films
Proxi and Peri Ask about the Various Tidal Themes
The tides have been put into human form by the moon and are on a quest to find out how Bristol values its tides which are the highest of any city in the world. This film explains the six themes that they challenge young people to find out about.
Proxi and Peri ask about Heritage
Proxi and Peri ask about Water
Proxi and Peri ask about Bio Diversity
Proxi and Peri ask about Energy
Proxi and Peri give their Scores
Peri Sings a Song
Extracts form Tidal Turnings: The Continued (Bristol) Adventures of Peri and Proxi
Photographs of Events
Album of photographs of Proxi and Peri at the Benjamin Perry Boathouse, Bristol Docks, 2015
Click on image below to see all photos
Photos of World Water Day Event 2015
Click on image below to see all photos
Related academic article
By Owain Jones and Katherine Jones
On narrative, affect and threatened ecologies of tidal landscapes
A chapter in the book Methodological Challenges in Nature-Culture and Environmental History Research. 2016; editors Jocelyn Thorpe, Stephanie Rutherford, L. Anders Sandberg
Chapter abstract
This is a story about tides, about tides in Bristol, about two characters that were found in the mud of the Severn Estuary-Peri and Proxi. It is also a story about telling stories as a method for the creative accounting of eco-social histories, presents and futures, and material and non-material entanglements of such through space-time. And it is a story about loss: of ecologies, of ecocide, of getting lost, and of finding a way through stories. As so much of life is, this is an experimental mixing. Tides mix things-fresh
and salt water, land and sea. In unsettling boundaries and definitions, they invite a focus on inter-relationships, and on flux and change. Intertidal landscapes are in constant motion, change and cycles, denying fixity and stasis. As such, they unsettle both linear thinking and linear understanding that, in spite of movements to break away from them, continue to shape historical and geographical accounts in many areas of thinking. This chapter is tidal in its approach-ecological. It tells stories of stories
through the tides, an ebbing and waning, from solid to fluid and back again with all that comes in between. It embraces the constant motion of life and understanding, and attempts to bring this into a textual representation. In short, it is a story of an ecological approach to eco-social storytelling.
Tidal Cultures 