In A Shetland Landscape

(Joseph)

My memento mori for the trip – recorded out of the window late last night at high tide. I’ve applied a lo-cut filter to minimise the sound of the nearby harbour boats and the constant generator hum that comes from them.

Goodbye Shetland until next Spring!

(Joseph)

Almost done and definitely half a mind (most of the time) on going home now… It felt like the Open Studio was the last proper day of the residency. Today was taken up with admin at the booth, followed by a series of short film showings at Mareel and finally a visit to Clickimin Broch, one of the finest examples in Shetland after Mousa. We took some more footage for our crowdfunding video and set off back to the booth to begin packing for our ferry home tomorrow.

(Joseph)

A day off…

A chance to explore and be tourists for a day – with the mics ever present, recording as we go… First stop, the Horse Fair at Cunningsburgh, on the same site as the recent agricultural fair. A little difficult in terms of recording, with the main road so close by – it’s amazing how the background noise of the fair covered this up the last time we were here.

Next stop Jarlshof… The site of several important historical finds all layered together on one site, stretching back some 4,000 years. The site, described as “a pile of stones” by the man in the gift shop, as he tried to persuade me to take an audio guide (which I generally detest), was in fact a feast for the imagination; as we wandered around exposed underground, circular buildings and later rectangular Norse settlements, trying to comprehend what life would have been like in the various historical eras represented here.

We left the site and took off into a field and up the coast to look at the landscape and came across a rather fearsome bull who kept a watchful eye on us the whole time. Grabbed a few bird recordings on the way back.

And then the treat of the day, we saw a group of birds (not sure if they were ducks or geese???) who were huddled together in a field next to the Sumburgh Hotel and we followed them around in a comical dance, with me recording and Kay filming. Surprised they didn’t just fly off. They didn’t really seem to mind us, but didn’t like us getting too close hence the ‘dance’ around the field.

The day ended with more landscape porn near the Spiggie Hotel on the way back to Lerwick to see a film at the Screenplay film festival.

Not posting any sounds today as almost everything I recorded has the sound of (unwanted) human intervention or overwhelming sea and wind!!! C’est la vie.

(post by Kay)

Open Studio Day…

The last leg! Setting up took all day in the end. We turned the basement room into an exhibition space. I put up a display of maps showing which walks we went on and a selection of my microscope photographs of some of the specimens found in each place.

Joseph set up a sound system with a continuous run of the various sounds he has been recording around Shetland in the basement space and headphone sets with iPods upstairs, where I set up the microscope for people to play with. It proved to be very popular!

The opening was well attended from 4 until 8. Familiar faces turned up and we met loads of new people too, so all in all it was a lovely, successful event. We are both very happy!

(Joseph)

Only 3 more days to go until we leave the Shetland Isles for now and time has literally flown… We spent the morning clearing out the downstairs painting studio (which we have never used) in preparation for our Open Studio, where we show off our work-in-progress to the local community.

In the afternoon we decided to revisit Vementry as the weather had perked up, buying some supplies for the Open Studio on the way in Lerwick. And oh my… what a view. We climbed to the highest point and looked out over the various lochs and hills and marvelled at this wonderful place we have been exploring for the last month. Going back to the city is going to be an odd experience after such quiet and peace…