Saturday saw my first session for voice recordings with my trusty helpers – Islay High School’s art and gaelic teachers Neil Galligan and Jason Bond. We began by using the art department as a location to record voices as it is a very quiet space to record in. Both Neil and Jason spoke and assisted me with recording the creative writing pieces that I have been developing. I introduced Jason to how my recording equipment worked. I recorded Jason then he had a go recording Neil and myself. It was rewarding to do a little skills sharing!
Here you can read Neil’s creative writing contributions that describe his experience at Glen Finglas.
Deer trodden moss
Mountain burn gleaning cold
Finches play in sky above
Young buds reaching upward
Lichen scrunched by fingertips
Drip splutter gargle glopp
Chirp twitter tweet swoop
Crunch snap squelch scuffle
Scrunch rustle flutter muffle
As well as these pieces we also recorded a short piece of text that was written by Royal Mail workers in 1997. They were given the opportunity to purchase, plant and dedicate a tree in Glen Finglas. In 1999 over 1500 trees had been planted and these are commemorated in a book and cairn located in the glen. Here is the text that was written for this project and I have recorded this for the audio work.
The path up to this cairn is past the running burn and trees
Brings you up to this viewpoint where it’s made for you to please
Your thoughts can be of anything, of people of your pet
The young, the old, the rich, the poor, or someone you have met
As we view across the loch at the hills so far away
We remember those we love and loved as we came through life’s way
Some are gone in body but in spirit are still here
And this place can hold the memories we want to hold so dear
After my last site visit I’ve been mulling over how to tackle the audio compositions and how to compose the pieces from my field recordings. I have collected over 30 minutes of content to work with to date.
I like the idea of leading the listener into the recording via a human interaction within the landscape such as walking. The listener hears footsteps and can imagine a figure walking through the glen to then encounter my spoken word text before the composition moves away again from spoken word via footsteps. I’m also attempting to use the sounds of gate latches, walking on wooden walkways and moving over styles as lead in sound for the compositions.
I have walked a significant area of Glen Finglas to date. What amazes me is the sense of space that I suddenly become surrounded by. As you walk, you also become aware of the significance of the water that feeds the glen, wildlife and plant life. My written texts will reflect on these ideas.
Haiku 1
Walk up up and round
Listen to bird call and nature
Sounds are all around
Haiku 2
Water spills from high
Trickle, burn, river, falls, flow
Down feeding the Glen
Contribution from Glen Finglas Volunteer:
Beauty is before me
And beauty is behind me
Above and below me hovers the beautiful
I am surrounded by it
I am immersed in it
In my youth I am aware of it
And in old age I shall walk quietly
The beautiful trail.
On Saturday the 9th of April I visited Glen Finglas again with the idea to walk the same route as the previous day but this time to concentrate on collecting sound recordings that reflected the natural objects and environments that I found captivating during my last visit. I gathered about 30 minutes of recordings with one of my favourites being a burn or stream as it moves underground.
I also learned about a plantation of trees that was planted in the 1990’s by Royal Mail workers. I am keen to expand on this through sound – to combine recordings of postal activities such as a postal sorting office with natural soundscapes from the plantation and possibly some spoken word as well.
Additionally, one of the volunteers is interested to write about the art critic John Ruskin who visited the area in the 19th century. The artist John Everett Millais completed a portrait of Ruskin with a waterfall from Glen Finglas framing his portrait between 1853 and 1854.
Today marked my second site visit to Glen Finglas to develop my audio project compositions. I had offered a informal creative writing workshop to the site volunteers so that they could contribute to the audio project and be more involved in the sound compositions. However, I had no uptake for this workshop so resolved to walk some of the routes and compose writing myself. I did have the company of a family volunteer and of my wee collie dog – shame his tricks don’t involve developing poetry! Lots of fetch though.
I walked a 6k route and collected research photography of objects I will write about and locations I plan to revisit to record soundscapes in. I also did some sound recording to use as background to my future spoken word recordings. I like the idea of using recordings of footsteps and movement to lead up to the beginning of the spoken words – a lead in that will portray one of the main activities that visitors to Glen Finglas enjoy – walking.
Through my discussions with the Glen Finglas site Ranger Gwen, we both agreed that the Audio Interpretation work that is created should have a creative and more abstract slant, rather than being composed of factual information, as the trust already produces various factual leaflets for visitors detailing information about the area.
I plan to develop short sound poems that stem from creative writing exercises. These will include experimenting with Haiku poetry (very short poems that are often inspired by an element of nature, a moment of beauty, or another poignant experience that use 5–7–5 syllable patterns) that is inspired by walking the paths around the glen.
I also aim to try another exercise where I identify a small selection of individual plants, trees or areas to highlight to my audience. Walking to each site, I stand at various distances from the object and describe what I see in one sentence / or collection of words.
For both of these approaches I am hoping that some of the current Glen Finglas volunteers will be interested is attending these creative writing workshops to gain some ownership of project so that it is meaningful for them during the creation of the work and once the audio is installed.
