audio and live performance development
I had done a lot of writing on my last fieldtrip to Kimmeridge and have combined this with my field notes and written research into stories of Kimmeridge into a pdf document of words here.
I want to make a soundscape using some of these words together with music and field recordings of place - sounds of the sea, wind etc. I did some research on folk songs collected in Dorset and concerning local populations. I have not go very far with this and am not sure what piece I will finally use but in my test piece below I have used a recording of Shirley Collins a renowned traditional folk singer from Sussex singing a song collected in Dorset from a Mrs Marina Russell in 1907. This information was sourced from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library online archive held by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (https://archives.vwml.org/songs/RoudFS/S269637). I wanted to have a female voice and I feel like this particular recording is atmospheric and transporting.
My first 'draft' of my sound piece is here
I feel like there is too much going on in this recording and have decided I will pare it back considerably in its next iteration. I want there to be space for people to think about the content as well and relate to fragments of sound and spoken word. I think I am 'telling the story' rather than creating an atmosphere and an impression of place.
I plan to do a live performance of this sound piece at the festival. Ideally this will involve cutting pieces of background sound with my own live voice over the top. I plan to wear my pigment cloths and I hope this will connect me back to place but also give the audience an opportunity to consider what makes up place, where it is situated in this work and perhaps an idea of what the place means to me. I plan to make a short set of notes to go with this that give the full words of the performance.
publication development
I was interested in responding to the audio piece by finding a publication form that links to a mapping of place. Without being a 'map' I wanted to use the collagraphs from my MA show as a background 'wallpaper' to hold stories from the audio. Because I wanted to have the audio and the 'publication' displayed together they would connect the viewers experience of place. Indeed I see the publication as an experiential piece that the viewer travels around looking at various elements/chancing across things - as you might in a map.
I researched a few artists work in this area and had already seen much of Richard Long's work, referenced Cat Horton and Nazia Khan in Unit 2. Below are my initial sketches and mock-ups of the publication idea. My plan is to collage onto these collagraph sheet backgrounds, the prints I am making of people and place, including soft ground of hair, photo litho of location shots, collagraph of cliffs etc discussed in documentation section (link).
Sketches and mock ups of map/book publication
My initial idea was to have this folding out on the wall using a collagraph as a 'cover'. But I felt this was too flat on the wall and wanted to get a sense of an undulating landscape. Having it supported on a shelf or surface and letting it fold over 'the edge' was the mock up I liked best. I also hope to have a large circle background which is made up of painted pigment (either grey or red) - perhaps using a method where the trace of the pigment is left behind after painting it on over a cloth. I will have to see if there is time to do this during the installation. This echoes Richard's Long use of circles and it is a motif I have also used in previous work symbolising a universal/whole.