We have two days left on the residency before we clear out the gallery space and dissapear almost as if we have never been. Three weeks seems like a long time but once it begins, it vanishes like breath in the wind.
It is quite a strange experiene to have something forming in such a condensed period of time. I hope that the projects we present in September will begin a discursive and critial dialogue with our audience but it seems a bit hard to judge at this point.
We have all taken different approaches to what we plan to include in the exhibition – Sam with stop-motion animation, Valentina with single-channel video and me with a multi-channel sound installation.
Some themes we are all concerned with – the everyday, the event or moment in time, the mundane, the familiar.
After a few days of wet weather I headed out on the 13th of July to climb Schiehallion mountain. Accompanied by my boyfriend Neil, we made good time and spent most of the day in the remote landscape.
The walk was quite quiet and there were a few other groups out on the mountain, couples, families and lone ramblers. What amazed me most was the stillness of the day. There was hardly any wind, hardly a sound and so, I was aware of the vastness on the space around me. What sounds there were seemed to travel across the mountainside to reach me and seemed for my ears only. Maybe no-one else was hearing the sounds I was or were hearing them in a different way than I.
The recordings I’ve chosen are an attempt to express the space of the landscape and my experience within it. My composition (currently) is from the foot to the peak, a form of document of my ascent on Schiehallion.
http://soundcloud.com/kim-walker/clouds_prevented_…
Key Research
The Key to a Fragile Silence by jim crumley
Day 1
Introductions and revisiting Dundee. Familiar faces and new faces. We were introduced to all the available resources at DJCAD and within the University of Dundee and our accomodation at the DCA.
Day 2
First day in the Cooper Gallery and it is beginning to look a bit like a working space. Stuff strewn around, laptops out with fruit, snacks and coffee.
Day 3
KW: I’m developing an experimental sound installation for the residency. This will focus on the site of Schiehallion mountain in Perthshire. The mountain has an unusual symetrical shape – a pyramidal peak. There was an experiement here in the 18th century to calcualte the mass on the mountain and from this, estimate a value for the mass of the earth.
I found this to be a beautiful gesture, both curious and magical, and also slightly mysterious.
At the moment I’m drawing up a schedule to gather field recordings and checking for when it’s not raining. I’m planning to complete the mountain walk, collecting audio material and images as I go. Due to the wind, I have contact mics to try to pick up sound of vibrating objects (fencing, branches, water, e.t.c.) and a stereo mic for capturing the soundscape.
Key Research
Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London
