I visited the Isle of Wight to find out more about the Art ecology group and their #vertipool project (and generally chat about moss and urban / eco design). They have an Interesting ideology of hyper-local working and employ a methodology that resists consumerist mass production models (many #greenwalls and moss tiles are patented technologies that require energy and are tied into maintenance contracts. Alternatively Art Ecology take more of an open source socially engaged approach, working with communities and training people to help make the pools (which are best made by hands). This hand making approach allows for a greater speed of making and building in complex structural features, nooks crannies and overhangs, that would not be possible with
Tag: fieldwork
Field Station at ARTBOMB 22
Joana Chicau - Chris Dobrowolski - Antony Hall - Jola Kudela - Rob La Frenais - Loré Lixenberg - Dave Lynch - Matthew Rosier - Sidney Sparks - Filipos Tsitsopoulos - Miranda Whall Inari - Linda Cassels We are in a Climate Emergency and our festival will help you consider what you can do to help. ArtBomb 22 is Doncaster's experimental arts festival and designed to help provoke debate across current environmental and ecological thinking...by commissioning world-class art to spill onto the streets of Doncaster with a programme of performance, film, music, talks and workshops across multiple sites - including the architectural jewel in the crown - Doncaster's Unitarian. View this post on
Proximity- Residency at Rogue project space
Proximity Collective In Residence at Rogue Project Space: 11th April - 5th May 2022 Proximity is a collective of 6 artists interested in the spatial and social elements of practice-as-research (established May 2019). Through a series of in-person residencies across the north of England and regular virtual meet-ups, we have developed our approach of “convivial aesthetics” and provide one another with professional, creative, and emotional support. During our residency at Rogue Project Space we will continue to explore different ways in which our proximity to each other can create new ideas, ways of thinking, and strategies for making and thinking art. View this post on Instagram
Moss walks
During a residency with Gallery Oldham (2021) I worked with bryological (moss) specimens collected from the local area 150 years ago. This inspired a series of meandering walking workshops focused on revisiting and recollecting mosses from my local area. Meandering is a form of walking fieldwork where participants engage in a series of “focused distractions”—activities like collecting, sampling from the environment, and microphotography—to redirect their attention and uncover alternative perspectives. These workshops explore Manchester's post-industrial and regenerated urban spaces. By employing macro photography and ground-level perspectives, we investigated overlooked areas and subtle aspects of the urban environment, encompassing both architectural and biological elements, as well as human and non-human interactions. Participants also collected small samples of moss to create micro-terrariums, serving
BIOBLITZ – Platt Hall
Platt Hall and Garden Open Day Saturday 2nd April Field Station set up outside the wonderful Platt Hall as part of their open day. I invited people to take part in an intensive BIOBLITZ. That is, documenting all living things in the area, from trees to moss and microorganisms. We placed a series of quadrants [square metres] to see where the most biodiverse sites are around the building]. I shared techniques for hunting and documenting creatures and provided ID resources; microscopes and macro-lenses to get close-up views of what we found. All the results were logged throughout the day on iNaturalist. See https://uk.inaturalist.org/projects/field-station-bioblitz-at-platt-hall Images from the BioBitz at Platt Hall and some wildlife recording prep at Debdale park a few
The sound of Moss
Recordings of the sound of dry clumps of Moss rehydrating [various species] growing in the woods Alderley Edge, absorbing the moisture from a fine vapour, using hydrophones put into the soil underneath the moss. See https://www.invisibleworlds.ac.uk/ . This is a technique I developed through the bryophytes project at Gallery Oldham. Antony Hall · bio-crust study: Moss rehydration
Contouring the boundary – 35mm photographs
Results from the Photography experiments, taken during the Contouring the Boundary Photography walk with Alison Loyd and Glass ball studios
On Decomposition and Interspecies Collaboration (Work-In-Progress) Various-Authors
A Live feed (the sound of woodlice eating and communicating) as the keynote presentation for the 'Hopsitality' symposium/conference 2021. This text talks about how this came about, and outline the presentation and details of the 'paper' that was produced. As part of 'Hospitality' a residency project with Proximity hosted by the UoC Fine Art writing group, a conference was organised as a final outcome and reflection on the project. The idea was that we would speak about our various practices and explore cross overs concerning the theme of Hospitality. Unfortunately, as the deadline drew near, we found ourselves having to find a keynote speaker at the last minute. At the time, I had been working on some sound recording experiments, listening
The sound of terrestrial Isopods
[the humble woodlouse] On my various moss bothering escapades, I have found myself exploring shady riverbanks of the Medlock, damp brickwork and stones, the crumbling remnants of industrial architecture, canals locks, and old cotton mills. Rummaging around on the forest floor, damp rotten logs the details of tree bark and rocks. Each of these different environments has its own acoustic ecology (or 'eco-acoustic'). Mossy sites seem to have quietness to them, the moss visually muffles and envelops the sharp rocks and chaos of broken sticks. There is also a softness to the sound, like the effect of a fresh snowfall. I decided to take my sound recorder on some of my field trips. When making field recordings, I have to stand perfectly
Contouring the Boundary
Reflections on Contouring the Boundary I took part in ‘Contouring the Boundary’ a walk with Alison Lloyd [part of ‘Guide Lines’ [https://guideline.org.uk] and Glassball as part of their Guideline project. Alison described the walk as a 'micro navigation. We slowly walked part of the Peak District National Park boundary. During the walk, we were introduced to the idea of navigating using contours and a compass. It was good to be out with others since I have become so accustomed to working at a distance from others in recent times. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Glassball Studio (@glassball.studio) In particular,
Fieldwork: Kinder scout vai Mermaids pool
Nostoc
Fieldwork: Bryophytes collected in a neglected building site
Fieldwork: Bryophytes at Snipe Clough
Para-Lab moss collecting Meander
A walking workshop with para lab. I created this bottle with instructions and hand-drawn illustrations, a different one for each bottle. We walked around manchester and collected mosses from some unusual sites, the route took us through some back streets and along the canal. Finally, we stopped at 'Home' constructed bottle gardens while chatting and drinking coffee.
Para Lab – Meander~Delta
On the 28th / 06/2020 para lab met up at Brunclough reservoir. Everyone was tasked with creating ’a device to test the material properties of a thing’. I produced an edition of 15 Meander~Delta objects [drawings and text contained within a petri dish] with which to collect things and make notes, I also brought a homemade tardigrade extractor [salad spinner]. The wind and rain on occasion proved to be too disrupting to do any detailed work – or too difficult even speak to each other… https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-3MrkllD6/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://www.instagram.com/p/CCBafc3F-2n/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Meandering and delta objects – walking as research
Meandering is an experiential research method enacted through walking in the natural [or urban] environment whist being tasked with a specific activity [collecting, experimenting, sampling the environment]. The aim is that this process may lead to new ideas and discussions which cause the participants to meander from the planned course of action and in doing so reveal alternative routes and different ways of looking. During the meander, notes are made, and the process is recorded; The sorting of residual material generated become a "Delta object" an archive of the event. Meander 1. To slowly wander from a given course. 2. (of a river or road) follow a winding course 3. a journey that has no particular direction: ~Delta 1. The accumulation and sorting of material as
Fieldwork under the ‘Darkest sky’
I was invited by Annie Carpenter and Nicola Ellis to Allenhead Arts for a few days of art and science during the night of the Orionids meteor shower, hoping for clear yet dark skies. They had been resident artists there over the last few months https://www.acart.org.uk/ . In a continuing effort to make my activities more sustainable and portable, I decided to cycle from Penrith to a remote location in the heart of the North Pennines which boasts the darkest skies in the UK. I was one of the most hellish bike rides I have ever endured. And I am no stranger to big hilly bike rides. One of my typical problems when taking part in this kind of open-ended participatory creative
Fieldwork / Night walk
I teamed up with artist Annie Carpenter to pull together a small group of artists and friends for a night of ‘fieldwork’. We organised an overnighter to do some experiments and have discussions together in the relaxed atmosphere of Middlewood Trust study centre; an off-grid permaculture farm. I had worked here before with [Annie and Sam Illingworth] doing some workshops with their students on a previous 'field research' style project. The concept captured my interest. We wanted to create a situation where we could work as well as have time and space to chat about ideas with others. My equipment consisted of my laptop, Arduino, [with a relay shield for experiments] and some electronics, GoPro, 360-degree camera. Also a heavy rechargeable