Black Pond explores the activity within a common land in the south of England. Previously occupied by the 17th century agrarian socialists, the Diggers, the land is currently inhabited by a Natural History Society whose occupations include bat and moth trapping, mycology, tree measuring, and botanical walks. After two years of filming on the land, the footage was shown to the members of the Society. Their memories and responses were recorded and subsequently used as part of the film’s narration. The film does not offer a comprehensive record of the history of humans within the area. Instead, it explores more intimately human’s relationship with and within land and nature. “Humanity is in symbiosis with its surroundings, and the open wings of a moth rest in the open hand of its researcher, as if his body was an extension of the landscape; another cut down tree, or another boulder, maybe. This common effort is a testimony in itself, but combined with the oral narration of the film, it becomes a double strategy where language is also the protagonist of the movie itself, rendering its condition of documentary in 16mm to a different piece of moving image akin to a pulsing metaphor, a manifestation in the materic support of celluloid, a call to arms of sorts, the necessity of listening with our own eyes to achieve a further understanding.” (José Sarmiento Hinojosa)

A performance which further explores the process of research undertaken for Black Pond, an odyssey across a common land in the south of England told through the hands of the members of the local Natural History Society. The performance uses yearly town hall meetings, historical maps and laws, letters of complaint, e-mails, and footage shot in the same location years before, to paint a wider picture of the social history of the area and the relationship between the artist and the Natural History Society.