archaeology - Page 7 of 7 - a-n The Artists Information Company

I’m delighted to say that my project, in addition to the Travel Bursary from The Artists Information company, is now also supported using public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.  This means I can afford some really […]

  Place-names, church dedications, archaeological finds, even the street pattern – all these give clues to where the Danes lived and worked. A thousand years ago, Norwich was a truly Anglo-Scandinavian town. http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/home We have arranged a meeting, to discuss […]

So then we had the post mortem and the ‘What next ?’ conversation.  The characterisations are sound and need filling out and heightening by adding another layer of narrative, such as a celebration or a heartbreak.  Then we can go back […]

Last Wednesday, I gave the first talk about this project as part of Fringe Arts Bath #FaB16, entitled Drawing towards Orkney. It gave an account of how my recent practice has been building up to the residency on the Ness […]

Now the focus has been on more research, assembling props and refining performance details. Research came from lots of different sources: George Anelay, the Director of Archaeology, Stuart Needham, the Subject Specialist for the period, Kathrin Pieren, Petersfield Museum Curator, […]

We did some experimental run throughs on site.  We tried performing in parallel, and performing in turn and then pausing whilst the other one does some. The parallel performance works much better, the serial one is a bit pedestrian and […]

So I’ve done more thinking about where work is going and there are two choices: I could make a series as in photography, or settle on one direction to focus on. At the moment, a series seems to be the […]

Barrow 16 turns out to be Barrow 20, and is not included in the excavation this time. So my planning for the site and measuring the space was for nothing. However, the barrows being dug this time include Barrow 8, […]

Things are moving really fast. As well as talking through the ideas around the piece with Gemma, I have also spent 2 sessions with another artist working alongside me. We have experimented with different approaches to the work, and I […]

We started the day with a visit to the site. We talked about what a significant space it felt with the trees all round it. It is the first time Gemma had seen it so it was useful to get […]

I will spend the day tomorrow with my dramaturg, Gemma Williams. It’s the first time to show her the site where my piece will be performed in May, and the archaeology has not started yet, so all she can see […]

I’ve called this blog post ‘Landing on the moon’, as that was kind of how it felt walking around the island of Swona. Five of us spent two days there at the end of August (here’s a brief video of […]

Today we made it across to Swona in a cute yellow boat called Sheila C, captained by two lovely chaps both called Magnus! The crossing from Burray Pier to The Haven at Swona took about 30 minutes and was really […]

Yesterday the sea was still too rough for us to make a crossing to Swona. Both mornings we had psyched ourselves up – packed the kit, food supplies, dressed in warm layers of clothing and head-to-toe waterproofs – and arrived […]

Here is a wonderful guest post (part 1) from my collaborator, archaeologist Keir Strickland: Hi, I’m Dr Keir Strickland, and I’m a lecturer in archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, based up here under northern […]

We were due to take a small boat to the island of Swona this morning (Monday 18th August), but unfortunately the weather was not on our side and the dangerous high swells meant we couldn’t sail. We are hoping to […]

I leave for Orkney in just two days time. I’ve decided to drive up from London, visiting my Grandma on the way in Preston and then up the A9 through the breathtaking mountains and Highlands. Driving will allow me to […]

I am a photographic artist, interested between the relationship between photography and archaeology. For this a-n New Collaborative Bursary project I am collaborating with Keir Stickland, an archaeologist working in the Department of Archaeology at Orkney College. Keir’s primary research […]