NOTES FROM THE HILL

Here is a rough summary of the notes from the session on Bennachie. I have distributed them around the group to update and expand upon and maybe, just maybe begin to use the Blog a wee bit more.


Rough Notes


"Sound - Ellice looking at the waterfall, using tin cans, bottles, metal, maybe relating to the ale house, would it be possible to create sounds and light using old pipes, could the structure be made into a musical instrument.

Sight - Anne and Susann found Dr Gordons Wood, broken bench on site, looking at plants maybe create Haiku with words on trees, creating cocoons could the words be random and separate light, random like fridge magnets, again illumination may be possible.

Touch - Kern looking at video samples, creating a trail, colour, immersing the viewer in a hyper sensitive environment, looking at synesthesia, removing footwear, creating pathways through trees, distortion using glasses.

Smells. - Conan looked at rotten wood, porous qualities of wood, woodpecker marks, amplifying smells, making smells visual, using large atomisers, using structures between trees to guide people into confined space with strong smells. Can smells be injected into trees. Looking at favorite smells and how they relate to powerful memories., Creating smells that jar in context of the Bennachie environment (Fish, ale, laundry, farriers rock cutting.) Looking at how smells can be created. 

Creating peat reek?

Taste - Louise looked at the edible fruits both human and non human. Bees, Rowans, honey, rabbits, ferns, looked at funghi, insects in decaying wood, tasting burn water, woodpeckers creating marks on wood, looked at ale recipies using worms and wood lice, Nick Nairn and High Fearnley-Whittingstall. Looked at herbal remedies, discussed the idea of a psychic garden. Could we turn this concept into a Pyschogeographic Garden. Agreed this was the hardest sense to convey, further discussions will take place."

WE ARE HERE WEEK 5 - Bennachie Again

On Saturday we went back to Bennachie to look at possible sites for our project. The weather was not as goos as the last time, but it was much quieter for our explorations. I gave each member a piece of paper containing a sense and got them to find a spot and relect on how they would transcribe that sense into a tangible artwork. (See following blog post for a distillation of the notes taken) Some of the senses have ended up providing us with a plan to investigate and follow. Others are proving harder and will require more research. We gathered various found objects and them selected a site and build a group artwork using the objects.

BACK AFTER A BUSY WEEK

We met up in the house two Saturdays ago to discuss ideas for the main artwork of the We Are Here project. After much discussion we had honed the ideas down to working on a project on Bennachie. In keeping with the Pyschogeographic starting point of the project it was decided to attempt to replicate a derive in which the audience are guided around the site with five site specific works relating to the five senses and with a reference point relating to aspects of the hill and its history. 


Ellice has made provisional contact with the relevant people and we will discuss our ideas with them over the next few weeks.


One of the main concerns in undertaking such a project is obviously timescale. It may well be that the project now moves over into 2012 as the production of five artworks is a huge undertaking and may require further funding being sought over the next few months.


As a backup we looked at the position of where we all live and using the map identified a central point between all the houses. The position is shown in the photo above.

Brainstroming Session Saturday 12 o'clock at My House

No class as such today. We are going to have a brainstorming session to try and narrow down our options and begin to formulate ideas for our final artwork in the project. If the rain ever stops we may manage to have a small 3D artwork session.

We Are Here Week 3 - Colour

Back into the studio for a colour session.

Using objects gathered on the Bennachie derive last week we began by spending 3 minutes covering large sheets of paper with lines and marks.

Using a selection of materials we began to cover the sheets in colour. 

A couple of people in the group were unsure about the techniques and use of various materials. Once we had got over the inhibition of trying out new materials the works began to build and some excellent colours began to appear.

This part of the session lasted for one hour with music by *AR playing.

http://richardskelton.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/new-music-wolf-notes-by-ar/

After coffee we moved round one space to another persons drawing and everyone was given  15 x 15 cm template to select and make a drawing of an area which interested them . This part of the session lasted 30 minutes, the music this time was by Moritz Von Oswald Trio.

http://www.we7.com/album/Moritz-Von-Oswald-Trio/Vertical-Ascent?m=0 

Finally we returned to our original drawing and spent the last 30 minutes focusing an area from the drawings above. This time we listened to The Treacherous Orchestra.

http://www.treacherousorchestra.com/

At the end I was blown away with what we achieved in this class. Considering people said they had not held a paintbrush in anger before, the results were awesome. 

This week we move on to discussing the initial ideas for our final artwork and exhibition. Hopefully the sun will shine and we can sit outside and spend a couple of hours dicussing and debating the plans.

We will also spend an hour or so creating an ad-hoc 3D object.

Bennachie Derive Images

Sketchbook Session 2 - Six Walks

Its been a hell of a week. Our car is in the garage and I am running around frantically trying to get stuff done for the Sketchbook Project and organising things for the 45rpm party in Muchalls.

However we are ready to go with week two of the Sketchbook Sessions, meeting up at the Bennachie Centre car park at noon tomorrow and going to do a fine wander through the landscape.