Midsummer

People and Place

 

Graduation Ceremony

Today is my MA graduation ceremony at the South Bank Centre, London. I have chosen not to attend. I graduated from KIAD in 1991 and did all that then, except it was in Rochester Cathedral and looking back, all very lovely. I shall celebrate my achievement in another way, another time.

Today has been very busy organising the structure of the business, trying to see order in a whirl of ideas, contacts and prospective meetings.

Gathering up on the Saltway for Midsummer.

Clarity

In looking forward to the project that I am working on with Arlette George in Scotland, I have had the chance to reflect on the Saltway route that I used as a case study for my MA project. Looking back to that structure has clarified the methodology of the design system that I am now employing to look at the Ardnamurchan Peninsular in the Highlands.

It has also dawned on me that this case study is an existing project that needs to be completed. It would then become a good example of what the design system can produce and will hopefully encourage other people to engage with the place that they inhabit.

We watched the sun go down on the longest day.

Storywalks

I worked with Christopher Jelley on the Saltway case study to create a narrative which can be accessed as you walk the route. It is a site-specific form of story telling, accessed via a smartphone or tablet. Chris is an expert storyteller and has created a portion of the tale to tell for my MA. Now I am impatient to know how the story ends and want to find funding to allow him to complete the task. It is a valuable part of the design system, a chance for people to connect to place through their imagination.

 

The Saltway seen cutting through the ripening wheat.

Funding

Coming from a design consultancy world I haven’t, before now quite understood the reasoning behind funding! I have always understood that businesses need to be financially sustainable through the work that they do. My work is paid for by a client, mainly based on an hourly consultancy rate. But now, with a project that I have researched and understand to be valuable in people and place terms and have worked on since my MA finished in September 2013, I recognise some form of funding to sustain the project. Creative projects need funding to become realities. It’s that simple. I will be visiting a Trust tomorrow who may be able to advise on this subject.

Next Monday I will be attending a day course in Margate titled ‘Sustainability Projects Accelerator training. An introduction to funding.’

So hopefully, by the next blog entry, I shall know far more about their benefits and understand the application process for funding.

 

Offering blessings to the midsummer fire on the Saltway.

Midsummer

It’s that time of year again, where the longest daylight hours can be witnessed.

Last year, part of the MA research into how people can connect to place through physical engagement with walking a route was put into reality by my creating an event on the Saltway. Many of the participants expressed a desire to meet again at the next midsummer to walk a section of the route again. I thought it was a wonderful idea, so at 8.30 pm on the 21^st of June a group of 7 women walked slowly in procession up the Saltway to the plateau of Golden Hill and watched the sun go down, had a small fire and counted their blessings. It was a very beautiful and special time.

Throughout the time up on the hill we heard curious noises from the sea. We could hear the last performance of the Whitstable Biennale 2014 even there, up on the hill. Their event took place out to sea, it was called ‘Whitstable Sounding’ and was by the artist Richard Wilson. The ships that took part had been modified to become playable musical instruments. One of the ships made a irregular deep, deep noise that sounded like an elephant calling, it was unexpected and quite surreal! As we walked back down the path the finale ‘Whitstable Sounding’ included setting off numerous flares which seemed to go up and hover directly over the path that we were walking down. It was a fantastic end to a wonderful experience.

Flares lighting up the sky over the Saltway path.

I completed my MA last September and recorded the last two months of it in another blog called thesaltwayfarer.blogspot.co.uk

Please feel free to look at that anytime, as it is from that, that I am where I am now.