NAMING SOME THINGS (2) - MAY 2011

TOPOPHILIA AND TOPOPHOBIA – JUNE 2009
DANCE NOT DANCE CLIMB NOT CLIMB – AUG 2009
SENSING. FEELING. DOING – OCT 2009
CIVILITY AND ALTITUDE – OCT 2009
UNPREDICTABLE SPACES – NOV 2009
TEXTURES IMPRINTS FRAMEWORKS – JUNE 2010
EMBODYING LANDSCAPE AND VERTICAL LEVELS – Sep 2010
THE DAY SNOW CAME - Dec 2010
MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011
THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011
IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011
THE COVE – Mar 2011

NAMING SOME THINGS (1) May 2011

NAMING SOME THINGS (2) - MAY 2011

Stuff

Headland

Sea Moss

Block

Smooth rock

Cracked rock

Pitted Rock

Causeway

Pebble

Lobster Pot

Sea weed

Driftwood

Slabs

Cave

Seals

Grasses

Slope

Buttress

Prints

Sand

Cove

Boulder

Heather

Yellow mos

Red Lichen

Green Lichen

Grey Lichen

Yellow Lichen

Arch

Junk

First time visitor

My first visit to Port-o-doris was a wet and windy affair.

We parked at the side of the road leading down to Shroove beach and descended through a beautiful green meadow to the rugged coast line. Some lovely bungalows with views across to Shroove lighthouse and further over the lough to Downhill. Not much scrambling required but surefootedness at least. There was quite a lot of noise coming from the distance, a shooting range across the Foyle at Magilligan, Steve suggested. Thought of how my parents told us to get off the rocks at Culdaff beach, 'play on the sand'! We were always drawn to rock-climbing though, I had forgotten.

At the foot of the headland, possibilities for the base camp on a small flat-ish area. Alien looking seaweed and algae on the rocks. Beautiful wild flowers. Rusty old fridge. Interesting colours. Purples, yellows and greens against the blue, black and grey rocks.

Entrance to the cove is very special, worth waiting for. Immediate thoughts were very impressed, a secret hideaway, a pirates cove, remote but accessible, step back in time, Planet of the Apes.

Spent at least half an hour or so in Port-o-doris. It's a magical place. Lots to see and do. Rock formations, seaweed, seals, birdlife, pebbles and dragons. Potential for photography, video, crafts. As well as climbing, basic rock-climbing and more serious stuff. You could lose yourself here for a while. Definitely see why Steve and Dan would like to bring people here. But keep it a secret too, not too many people.

A baby seal joined us for a while. On the way back we saw an older seal on a distant rock. Birds fishing. Also a very green fly. Unusual, but maybe I need to get out more?

Getting wetter as we walk back up. Thinking of practicalities now, what's possible, what's affordable in the budget, transport, who we can invite, PR materials, we should use the landscape or natural materials there.

We need to decide everything soon. I need waterproof shoes.

NAMING SOME THINGS (1) - MAY 2011

TOPOPHILIA AND TOPOPHOBIA – JUNE 2009

DANCE NOT DANCE CLIMB NOT CLIMB – AUG 2009

SENSING. FEELING. DOING – OCT 2009

CIVILITY AND ALTITUDE – OCT 2009

UNPREDICTABLE SPACES – NOV 2009

TEXTURES IMPRINTS FRAMEWORKS – JUNE 2010

EMBODYING LANDSCAPE AND VERTICAL LEVELS – Sep 2010

THE DAY SNOW CAME - Dec 2010

MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011

THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011

IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011

THE COVE – Mar 2011

NAMING SOME THINGS (1) - MAY 2011

Climbing routes

Cup Final Alternative

Nelson Drive Special

Dischord

Storm Bringer

Crack a Toa

Micro Wedge

Cream Cracker

Kelp

Toby Jug Wall

Purple Patch

Chockstone Trundle

Juggernaut

Doughin Doris

Strawberry Blonde

Pauline’s Crack

Scarcasm

The Crawler

Novice Outing

Thrills

Straw

Chop Chop

Windy Gap

PROJECT UPDATE - April 2011

Great to see the blog up and running.

We've retrospectively archived email conversations which happened over the months of development since 2009 - so you can follow the topics of discussion below and in the archive links on the right.

TOPOPHILIA AND TOPOPHOBIA – JUNE 2009

DANCE NOT DANCE CLIMB NOT CLIMB – AUG 2009

SENSING. FEELING. DOING – OCT 2009

CIVILITY AND ALTITUDE – OCT 2009

UNPREDICTABLE SPACES – NOV 2009

TEXTURES IMPRINTS FRAMEWORKS – JUNE 2010

EMBODYING LANDSCAPE AND VERTICAL LEVELS – Sep 2010

THE DAY SNOW CAME - Dec 2010

MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011

THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011

IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011

THE COVE – Mar 2011

Here's the outline we drew up at this stage (of course everything is provisional)

Dan’s work has often rooted itself in, and reflected on, his practice as a rock climber and he has consistently linked his artistic research and production to the tradition of landscape painting and environmental, site specific, art. Climbing can be seen partly as a way of engaging directly with the landscape and offering opportunities to relate and create through this direct engagement.

Steve has been creating work with a process that he calls “Embodying Landscape” in various forms since the 1980’s. The process is a refined way of creating “movement poetry” from direct sensory and bodily experience. It involves relatively complex processes of mediation which are controlled and technical as well as intuitive. He has also been interested for a number of years, at a novice level, in climbing.

This project brings this shared interest into sharp focus. It raises questions about the degree to which climbing is really a sportif activity and in what ways it might be seen more as a spiritual or creative endeavour.

The project consists of two parts.

Part one

Dan and Steve will create a “base camp” at Port-a-Doris, Shroove, near Greencastle, Inishowen Donegal. Near to a beautiful and magical cove with an entrance through a natural rock arch. The cove is intimate and yet it has a very wild ambience. It offers a range of rock climbing possibilities and a huge variety of micro-environments where the details of the landscape differ radically from each other. For two weeks, from 27^th August to 11^th September, Dan and Steve will establish their practice here. Climbing, reflecting, writing, developing movement processes, videoing, photographing, creating art objects in relation to and with materials in the environment. A major part of this process will be an invitation for other people to join them in this process. They will invite specific artist colleagues to came to the “camp” at particular times to engage with them and the environment and there will be a open invitation for anyone interested in the work to join it over two long weekends Friday 2^nd – Sunday 4^th September and Friday 9^th – Sunday 12^th September. During these weekends there will be a programme of participation events including climbing, (Dan Shipsides is a qualified climbing instructor) discussion, art-making processes, photography, video making, movement based processes, shared food, and film/video projection.

During this period there will be the opportunity for visitors/participants to camp in the environment. We will provide the basic neccessities to make this public engagement possible while preserving the “wild” nature of the project. The wildness of the environment will be respected and the principle of “leave no trace” will be respected. Any “left overs” of our camp will be fully organic and degradable.

Part 2

Part two of the project involves creating an installation exhibition in a gallery or similar space in Derry/Londonderry as a response to the “base camp” experience and an imaginitive transformation of it. It will involve video, writing, photographic and organic “environmental art” elements created in and collected from the site specific processes. It will also involve the collecting and organising of the “detritus” of the “base camp” materials. Perhaps these might be things such as ropes, tents, cooking equipment, the burnt left overs of a cooking fire. The installation will be a layered creation consisting of objective creations produced as a reflection on the site specific experience, things created in the site specific circumstance and transferred to the “gallery” environment, and objects that echo the practical necessities essential to human engagement with landscape in this way. The installation process will take one week and it will be open to the public for one week.

Background

Vertical. Nature. Base. is a climbing/ art/ dance project produced by Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company as part of its Into Contact programme funded by the Legacy Trust UK Connections programme. The Connections programme has been set up to help build a cultural and sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is managed by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

As a lead partner of the Connections programme, Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company's Into Contact with Dance and Sport programme has been running since 2010 in the build up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The mission of this project is to deliver an innovative public programme of arts and sport events that will bring people into contact, create and develop cultural partnerships, demonstrate excellence in contemporary dance and sport, and leave a lasting legacy for people in Northern Ireland.

The Into Contact programme consists of a wide range of education, performance and production elements. They are linked by a concern with taking a side-on point of view in relation to sport. We have produced The Chess Piece in 2010 (to be recreated in summer 2011) which was a large scale professional production with large community involvement and we will be creating a “suite” of performance, installation and video works in 2012 in collaboration with a number of local artists. 

This year we will be producing Vertical. Nature. Base.

V.N.B. is a collaboration between Echo Echo Artistic Director Steve Batts and Belfast based artist Dan Shipsides.

Dan’s work has often rooted itself in, and reflected on, his practice as a rock climber and he has consistently linked his artistic research and production to the tradition of landscape painting and environmental, site specific, art. Climbing can be seen partly as a way of engaging directly with the landscape and offering opportunities to relate and create through this direct engagement.

Steve has been creating work with a process that he calls “Embodying Landscape” in various forms since the 1980’s. The process is a refined way of creating “movement poetry” from direct sensory and bodily experience. It involves relatively complex processes of mediation which are controlled and technical as well as intuitive. He has also been interested for a number of years, at a novice level, in climbing.

This project brings this shared interest into sharp focus. It raises questions about the degree to which climbing is really a sportif activity and in what ways it might be seen more as a spiritual or creative endeavour.

This blog will follow the creative, research and thought processes of the project including images, email exchanges and more. It is hoped that people with engage with this blog and be encouraged to attend the VNB event in September 2011.

THE COVE REPORT - Mar 2011

TOPOPHILIA AND TOPOPHOBIA – JUNE 2009

DANCE NOT DANCE CLIMB NOT CLIMB – AUG 2009

SENSING. FEELING. DOING – OCT 2009

CIVILITY AND ALTITUDE – OCT 2009

UNPREDICTABLE SPACES – NOV 2009

TEXTURES IMPRINTS FRAMEWORKS – JUNE 2010

EMBODYING LANDSCAPE & VERTICAL LEVELS – Sep 2010

THE DAY SNOW CAME - Dec 2010

MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011

THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011

IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011

PORT O DORIS – Mar 2011

THE COVE 9th March:

We traveled out to XXXXXX for the day with the aim of spending time at the location getting a sense of possibilities and factors which will shape how we approach the project.

It was windy and wet.

Massive rollers coming in from the north Atlantic.

We first went to the top of the headland to walk in from the top. There's parking and a swing gate into a field.

The path is quite short through a sheep field then down steep banking ot the top of much steeper slopes / cliff. It brings you out tot he spur ridge that some of the Toby wall climbs top out onto - there is also a walk down from here. It is a quick way in - but no good in wet, windy conditions or if you are carrying much. Would be worrying in the dark also.

Great views from the top - looking down into the cove.

Then we walked back and re-parked at the bend into Shroove before the main beach. There's parking outside a cottage and another swing gate into another sheep field. This field brings you directly onto a beach 5mins east of Port O Doris. It cuts out much of the clambering from Shroove beach - although that route is quite adventurous and fun. This route is best if we have stuff to carry or are bringing people in.

The walk from this field is ok - some rocks to clamber but mostly a decent path. It's also far enough away from the road that it would prevent casual visitors - especially in the dark - as you still have to venture across a few grassy bays, beaches and headlands. Some of these grassy bays close tot he cove would provide ok camping ground.

Thoughts:

Do we keep the cove as a place of work / investigation - and accommodate ourselves away from it - so it become a place we go to for specific reasons?

or

do we accommodate ourselves in the cove - so it become our habitat?

So – making the cove a place of investigation structured encounter

or

making the cove a place of investigation through habitated encounter

both have strong possibilities. Steve thought the first approaches it as being sacred (making it a place of worship of sorts) the other make's it a place of existence - the everyday.

Ideas about structure in the cove:

Shanty - made from what we find? difficult.... bit Robinson Crusoe set...

Timber and ply - possible - easier and clearer design - would bring stronger sense of purpose.

Non-natural material - really introducing a modern or alien aesthetic - shiny, metalic, reflective etc.

structure:

Low profile

to provide:

Presence and sense of purpose and secondary focus

Shelter (for equipment and possible people)

platform (possibly for dance / movement activity, screenings, talks, meals, bar etc.)

a base

Good area at apex of cove - reasonably flat ground where grass meets the sand - some rocks in way - could build around - into. Could consider building into large rocks and cliff wall.

some low level bouldering - cold.

West wall dries very quickly in sun and breeze - east wall slower. Could easily set up top ropes on this steeper wall tho.

Need to examine and check stakes on west wall - how many where - which routes do they cover.

Idea not to overly use the guide book - so we re-explore potential for climbing...

Is there possibility for new routes?

We also explored the east side rock - over the plank bridge.

Possibilities for over night sleeping on the rocky causeway - noisey, exciting wild. helps to move perspective from the apex of the cove where the structure would be.

Interesting flora - lichens - micro worlds

Different textures, patina and flora of the rocks - depending on sea or land facing orientation.

Big waves.

Would be tricky bringing stuff in via boat - unless very calm....

How possible is swimming??

Need to establish dry zone / spot.

High tide levels - need to check tide tables for sep - see when very high tides are. Would be great to have structure at waters edge of high tide - could be risky if high seas tho...

Time went very quickly.

Dan

IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011

5^th Jan 2011

Hi Dan,

interesting thoughts.... the camp idea seems really good.... dead keen on that... lets do it.... either in Shroove or if we must do it in Northern Ireland then somewhere else. Having a sort of "base camp" for an expedition into ideas and experiences rather than to a "place". It would mean getting a good timetable. The whole weather issue becomes a positive not a negative if we bring the "show" back to a derry gallery space.

Actually Shroove could be argued as the best accessible place for a large number of NI residents actually with its proximity to Derry. I think we could argue this from a strong point if we bring an exhibition component... installation, records, video... etc into a Derry gallery space afterwards. It means we need to get on with finding out about permissions, etc and doing some costings.... and finding an appropriate gallery space. Maybe we can talk to Context... maybe they aren't programmed for then yet... or have a summer gap.... who knows... otherwise maybe there is a city council space.... I'll try to get Sarah to do a bit of research on that. Perhaps we can bring the piece to the Ebrington site.... it will be before it gets all corporate and heritage/tourism/cultural hubbish... because at the moment it isn't more than a building site... so we might not be overloaded with broking people breaking our hearts. I think this might be a way to get a space for free.

Ideas come to mind. Taking individual people climbing on routes we are exploring. Introducing embodying landscape process to small groups or individuals. Discussions about sport, art nature, artifice, creativity... Projections of climbing films ... and movement films... including some rushes from our ongoing exploration as well as some "classics". Also possible to have the other dancers down as visitors for maybe two days (at least one overnight stay) and use this as a basis for creating a group movement work for the gallery installation. This part... 10 - 14 days. i.e. A few days to settle in before the "invitations" are programmed and "days off" for you to be with family. Maybe a few days acclimatsation. A couple of days for you to go home then a week to make open camp.

Move everything from base camp to gallery space and create installation. 10 days. Show in gallery 10 days.

Wow... I am really excited about this now. Somehow this really begins to crystalise a lot of my ideas and addressing a lot of the doubts about context and avoiding a "gallery show" or a "theatre production" it seems to address our questions by including and embracing them.... appeals to my ageing hippy....

I think having a clear outline will energise me to really work on my climbing and on the dancing and to explore more the photographic and video stuff. Also gives a really nice basis for early publicity and getting possible "visitors" up for it at an early stage. I think the other EE dancers will be really into the idea.

Fair Head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That looks very very SCARY to me! I used to go to the borrom and look up when I was a teenager....... the idea of going up it is .......is.... oh dear.... but maybe.... if I knew we were aiming at that I could make my priority to train between now and the summer... to get stronger and more confident.... but still.. Shroove feels more my scale...

let me know what you think

also ... if it is ok with you I will forward this whole thread to Ailbe and Sarah so they know our thought processes.... anything you want edited out?!!....

best wishes from very snowy Moscow,

Steve

P.S. I going to talk to my friend who guides in the mountains about Mount Belucha, August. He is in Moscow for a dance workshop by chance. I saw him briefly today but I'll see him again on Friday.... you wanna come????

S

6^th Jan 2011

Hi Steve,

Very excited that you are excited too! Lets do it!

I'm happy for you to send the thread to Ailbe and Sarah - let's get them working on it!

Ebrington is ok as long as it's not the main focus - I know the space - we had a tour the other month when we were in Derry. If it means a low cost venue - it might work well (also could be interesting contrast natural and highly ordered - from Military camp to "goose stepped" culture comsumption camp!). Have to be careful that the ebrington doesn't become main show tho.....I wouldn't see it needing lots of live performance - I see it more as an after the "live event" scenario.

Where do you see the big costs - if the derry venue is lowish cost and not resource intensive? I know transport, materials, equipment, people costs etc will mount up but.....?

this could be soooo cool....and really could develop exciting stuff.

dan

7^th Jan 2011

Hi Dan,

yes lets decide to go with this idea. I'll send the thread to A + S and confirm that they think it is do-able. Probably need to clear it with the funders but I really don't think it'll be a problem if we present it in the right way for them.

Ebrington I see as a back-up idea really... still thinking we should be looking for the venue that really suits us in Derry. I am with you about the Derry part not dominating the process but actually I'd be rather more worried that it gets neglected! I feel might have to find a creative compromise for the funders in some way... perhaps, for example for me to make a performance piece with some of the dancers from Echo Echo and show it in our studio so it can be conceptually connected to the process but is spatially separate.... not committed to this but just want to think about it because it could impact on the budgeting.

About money: possible big (ish) costs.... transport, insurance, shanty town building materials, fees for work (if any) that echoecho dancers do with us, electricity generation on site, rental of derry installation space, food, publicity (very important to get people thinking of coming to our camp from an early stage maybe already in spring), fee for a "base camp manager" for helping set up, security and for fetching water, looking after electric generation (can we do it eco with photosensitive cells... or wave power and batteries ???? No idea if this is in any way feasible). Some climbing/camping equipment perhaps.... at least some costing of wear and tear on our own equipment.... some replacements of stuff for example...

Steve