ANTEBURN and AFTERBURN - JUNE 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
SOPHORIFIC RAIN - JUNE 2011

ANTEBURN and AFTERBURN - JUNE 2011

Hi Steve,

Anteburn Afterburn:

what you bring with you and what you take away?

We were discussing thoughts about what “content” might be generated at the cove.

Obvious ones were those which were a direct response to what is there – the natural environment, and activities people do there (climbing, camping, easting looking, moving, sleeping etc). This would seem to be the core “content” – but then idea came up which to me is important as it connect this place to everyplace we inhabit in our lives – and makes it especially resonant and relevant. It also helps this place not to be over revered or something – too otherworldly. This idea was about what you might bring to the place – not just physical (body, clothes, equipment, food etc) but also in terms of the thoughts, emotions, concerns and predilections of your daily life – routines, relationships and beliefs. Also culture – songs, music, poems etc. The question then was how to incorporate this – what might be interesting and also how long do these things remain (e.g. thoughts, concerns, worries related to work. So this is a bit about how long things take to dissolve into the background or disappear when you are in such a different place – what remains, what stays important. Lets call this the “Anteburn”.

The following flip side of this is when you leave the cove – how long does the experience take to subside – as you go about your daily activity? What could be done to extend this, continue this or even help it subside? There’s a kind of half-life effect – when the experience is slowly degrading away from being a foreground to a background then just a memory. For me there’s a physical memory and mental memory going on as well both having an emotional connection and both fading –physical memory quite quickly the mental memory stays and modulates and probably changes significantly from the actual events. This sounds very sad – but it needn’t be – it resonates (good word) the need and value of these kinds of experience as an integrated element of life patterns and routines. It also makes it connected to the office the home the studio and any other place we habit. So I’d call this the “Afterburn”.

I guess the obvious and usual modes of extending the half-life is photography (holiday snaps), writing and other artforms, collecting materials – all these are in some way souvenirs. But is this the real effect or mode of art? I think that’s a secondary (tho very important) function – the art primary result should (and always does – the challenge is to develop this) offer something different – a new experience (related maybe to the source) but new and fundamentally different. – tho we still could see it as extending the experience – but must accept it will not offer that related potential for people who didn’t have the experience…..

So anyway enough noodling. Can we think of ways to work with both these ideas – Anteburn and Afterburn. Exercises to explore or focus on this?

Dan

SCALE / EDGE / THRESHOLDS - JUNE 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
SOPHORIFIC RAIN - JUNE 2011

SCALE / EDGE / THRESHOLDS

Immediate thoughts after two nights at the Cove.

Hi Dan,

I am also digesting... many thoughts and feelings. I really enjoyed to just be there and wander around... scramble... sit... enjoying being wet... I think a lot about the scale issue... that really at the "big" scale there is no impetus to "do" anything much... just eat... sit... clean.. wander... think... so the small scale details become the scale of creativity... of dynamic engagement... already I started to get deeper and deeper into the incredible amount of variation in the textures, colours, formations, sounds, smells, in what is a comparatively small area... noticing my affective responses to the variations... the topophilia/topophobia.... I like the rounded, dolphin rocks at the edge of the sea near the archway... they make me happy... the rock at the top of the slope on the west side, the big block seems perched ready to fall, it makes me nervous... the grey wall on the west side? I don't trust it... it beckons me but feel it may betray... I feel the relief coming out of the cove into the east side every time... the sound is less intense, the light more welcoming. There is an intensity in the cove itself... it doesn't feel like a peaceful place. I don't feel like meditating there. Dancing on the pebbles, rolling sliding, jumping.. the texture is very playful... on the edge of discomfort but the sound is a joy. The crunching, gentle grinding, the crispness of the sound... mmm. Going over the wee bridge feels like entering another world... "The Peninsula"... the feeling you could just keep going walking into the sea beyond the perched cormorants. I watched you go along there from high up above... you seemed very very far away... further than the real distance. I liked to scramble to feel myself slowly getting to know my way on rock. My feet gradually more keen and my rhythm more practical... one extremity moving at a time... taking time in a balanced place to appreciate, enjoy and consider...

let's skype Wednesday night around 9...

I enjoyed spending time with you. I feel I'm learning a lot. Thanks

Steve

Hi Steve,

Scale:

The cove has a scale which isn't massive but because of it's aspect is quite daunting somehow - it carries an anxiety and edge. So I don't fully feel the draw of small scale as a space of activity - or the main attraction in terms of activity.

The larger scale and it's edge for me brings that element which we avoid in manageable and nice experiences - but something I crave for and get through climbing and sometimes art. It maybe goes back to those thresholds you have talked about before - moving from one level to the next from lying to kneeling, from crouching to standing(vertical levels)- it takes a commitment decision to cross a threshold. In away this is my reading of the potential resonance of the threshold concept - but it works for me. The cove demands something from you to encounter it - and it's something that isn't necessarily gentle and might not be nice... So this in a way is not about small scale (although it's the attention to small scale that might enable you to tackle the big scale). I should say at this point in terms of climbing the cove is tiny - but even so it has something intimidating - especially in wild or wet weather as we have mostly encountered it. I also felt the scale is something to negotiate - as it is complex and has various elements.

The peninsula drew me because of it's scale - a thin strip of rock leading out into the Atlantic ocean. On the thinest part the sea seemed massive and swelling and about to swallow me up. I was quite anxious there but felt logically I was ok - I know a bit about waves and could gauge things - but no the less the further i dared myself to go the further i needed to go until sensibleness decided enough was enough....

On a much smaller scale then the scrambling we did was gentle, warm, playful - but still had a sense of space and scale which for me wasn't about looking it was about moving, holding touching, sensing and negotiating - not a lot about deep looking - it had a focus which probably closed out the deeper observation you talked about.

So scale is relative - the range of scales is amazing and fascinating however beyond fascination I'm drawn to the spatial excitment of the spaces, things and relationships that are bigger than me or that encompass me....Freud would have field day! Time, height, weight, swell, light, weather, rock, sky. These are things that manifest the edge and the thresholds that presents. The cracks, legdes and corners I climbed in the wet in boots offered some thresholds but mostly I avoided facing anything too challenging. But that's the nature of climbing inthe wet - you avoid the risks (thresholds) you might more readily take in the dry because of better friction and grip. Also a threshold I didn't really get to was being properly warmed up to climb - this for me is important - until I'm warmed up i usually feel and climb like a sack of spuds.

For me two words seemed to resonate: the edge and the threshold.

I agree outside the cove has a totally different sense - softer, lighter, quieter. Much better for camping and existing in a happy state - even in the rain. No anxiety there. I loved that. Here there was a different set of questions in terms of the project. These seemed to do with accommodating others that might join us - so we started to talk about simple ideas based around people's pleasure and own directions (and responsibilities) - "we expect you to do what you want".

The discussion around video was useful - we don't make faithful narratives of experience - it's impossible - but then this is a state of lens based artworks - especially in relation to a lived or real experience. I think the emphasis should be on thinking and accepting the limitations of this technology - rather than somehow believing they can capture and represent the whole. So the video offers a fragment shaped by the means, techniques or mode of its making. So then how to embody the viewer? - or share, committ them to an experience that carries them somehow beyond the visual? This is not a question purely for video art - all audience, spectator based art models i guess have this issue to differing degrees. i think installed video can do something, as can the editing in terms of visual stimulus. How can you transfer something non visual through the visual? empathy? tapping into others lived experience? hypnotics? power of aesthetics? Poetics?... I like to keep it simple and accept the idea of something either works for me or it doesn't......I can't predict that confidently.

But it's got to be funky.

for now,

dan

SOPORIFIC RAIN - June 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

SOPORIFIC RAIN - June 2011

Steve and i spent two nights at the cove.

We camped outside the cove on the softer flat grassy banks by the small rocky beach. It was dry when we arrived Saturday aft. we explored bouldered and scambled about like young kids thinking we had forever there.

Then it started to rain....

It rained all day sunday. It became an event to be dry as apposed to getting wet being the event. It didn't matter - we were there to spend time no matter what the weather. We needed to see if it was ok.

It was ok. No actually it was brilliant.

My face was still tingling from the rain two days later.

When do you get to sit in a tent and do nothing.

The pitter patter on the tent fabric was soporific - SOPORIFIC RAIN. Beautiful.

We saw and did so much but that's perhaps another post.

mostly we scrambled about, made hot food and drinks and slept.

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.