Washington DC!

I've just returned from an excellent week in Washington where I stayed at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies as a visiting artist. The Center itself is amazing - tucked away on a glamorous street amidst the fairly extraordinary-looking embassies (it's on the same road as the Italian Embassy which is just as superbly stylish as you'd want it to be). It sits opposite the Clintons' house which unfortunately they still have much use for, rather than being able to move in to Pennsylvania Avenue...

Inside the Center there's a fantastic library and - more importantly - a fantastic collection of academics who are all passionate about their fields of expertise. The academics aren't catalogued in the same way as the books - I'm pretty confident they get to move around freely and I didn't see any barcodes on them but they themselves were an amazing resource for me. I talked to them about all manner of things which I could not do justice to now, but included ancient physiques, sensory reaction to sculpture and the migration of prayer and religion in the ancient world.

I was there to start preparing for Out of Chaos' next project. We're making a show inspired by the Aeneid, exploring the story of Aeneas after the fall of Troy and his struggle to find (and found) a new home. More details to follow but you can read a little more on this link:

https://kleos.chs.harvard.edu/?p=8972

Proof that I was in Washington. I'm the one on the left.