Walk with Kel Portman, Lucy Guenot, Anna Gillespie, Martin Clarke, Sally Lester and Steve Mansfield along the Ruskin Valley out of Nailsworth,climbing to Horsely and returning over the top into the Newmarket Valley.
We discussed collecting work from the walks. Thanks to Kel for posting on http://www.facebook.com/pages/walking-the-land/284723460929?sk=wall
2nd to 4th August
Making WEAVE animation and putting online. I have found fifteen changes to make, some minor, some more fundamental. There are a number of technical issues to resolve such as speed/length of captions. When put on-line, the space after the captions is decreased and all need more space after them. On the whole the animation is a few minutes too long and I’ve thought of ways to shorten it. The whole end section needs re-shooting to enliven it. There is an end caption which didn’t show.
Arranging Folly Wood “into action” event and also a time to draw with ecologist. Its important to be aware of the time it takes to co-ordinate/facilitate the drawing aspects of the research. There are of course also issues of how these roles will be fulfilled into the future. It raises a question of “capacity building” as opposed to simply raising awareness and engaging people.
Thinking through role of Corsican project in relationship to PhD. Feel that it may be best to use it as a place for making reflective drawings rather than another series of walks with people. This would complement its role as a place to write.
Reading the Handbook of Qualitative Research and beginning to write about my philosophical and methodological framework.
Attachments
After a time away and then ill, much to catch-up with – meetings for the Weave and Folly Wood to help arrange as well as catching up with this site.
Meeting with Val Kirby and Max Comfort to plan the next steps of the Weave. It was important for me to clarify my role in terms of my PhD research and to find ways of contributing whilst staying focused. Undoubtedly I will also “gift” time that falls beyond the strict remit of my PhD but this needs to be carefully watched and seen as “additional to” rather than “taken for granted”. This relationship with co-researchers is a central issue to my practice as an artist/action researcher and I have been reading texts on it from the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research.
22nd and 23rd. Preparing for and running Yoga and Drawing Walk with Amanda Sultan-Black. Collected images and sound recordings. Many participants said that they were nervous of drawing but the progression through breathing, stretching, slow walking, standing, listening, looking and drawing seemed to work well. There was an enthusiasm to do more. I felt we need a quieter wood – traffic sounds intrusive and constant making it hard to hear the wood.
Possibly the most interesting walk from an engaged aesthetic of nature point of view.
Walk with Tom Keating and Kel Portman to complete the 100 mile walk thinking. Decided that we would invite a number of people that we work with to a workshop in December where we will discuss our and their work – using the 100 Mile walk as our example.
Meeting with Erik Wilkinson and Seb Buckton of Transition Stroud to discuss their possible input to the Weave. Their interest is to work with local projects to produce an “audit of resilience”. This seems to be very fruitful generally and in the context of my PhD in terms of researching cognitive and subjective senses of place.
Meeting with Steve Roberts, co-director of Stroud Nature. Organising the Festival on the 10th September, in particular the role of volunteers and setting-up an information tent – a place from which to start my and other people’s walks. Also agreeing accounts.
18th and 19th. Making animation.
Very aware of the time taken to make work on the computer compared to the initial time taken in walking, drawing, photographing and recording sound. This raisesimportant questions for my work about time spent outside and time inside, time preparing for events/meetings with co-researchers, time actually spent with co-researchers and time making work on the screen. Its interesting to consider the core, creative parts of the process – the idea, the drawing. making the drawing machine, establishing the network of people, walking and talking, making the animations, reflecting and reviwing, reading around the various theories…
The River. Walking the Land curated exhibition at The Old Passage, Arlingham. Sales in support of SARA – Severn Area Rescue. Good work from invited artists (see http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2231128 ) but I especially like the link with the Severn Rescue; a good link between the work and people using the River. The work I had in the show was not for sale.
Meeting with Kel and Tom, planning walks.
Folly Wood Core Group meeting – agreed on the next step for mapping the wood as a way of moving from the plan into action.
Reading the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research and writing about research methodology and philosophical framework.
