Flag Fen Visit

I travelled to Flag Fen today only to find that it was closed. However, i was able to explore the surrounding area and marsh lands. The entire landscape arround fleg fen seems earlily flat, making the sky seem enormous. When this is coupled with water i can see why, to the cetic people who built flag fen, this was a sacred place for connecting with their environment in many different ways. I felt able to see for miles arround, to take in the earthliness of the place, also there was a sense of heaven meating earth with the expanse of horizon. I found my own site not far from flag that i think would be a perfect site for my exhibition. This site not only has all the aforementioned qualities but also ecological monuments such as wind tubines and electricity pylons. This landscape brings together ancient and modern feelings about the environment, if the visitors to the exhibition do feel connected to the environment through the art work that i present, then perhaps these man made structures enfource the message to consider mankind's and the individuals relationship with nature.

Photos and videos of the site to be posted shortly. 

Link- Marina talks about Rhythm 10 , 1999

I am interested in the performance pieces because it explores the use or ritual, also as marina explains in the link it alludes to the coming together of past and present. This peice would fit the idea i want to be apparent in my exhibition.

Turner prize winner this year Susan Phillipz works in sound art, here is a video of her pieces lowlands. Phillips sings old traditional folk songs like lowlands but places them in the urban environment , thus changing the shape of the sound and describing the space where we live.

environmental performance project in Liverpool.

Acoustic Ecology.

To me this seems to be the category that craig colorusso's sund boxes fit into. Heres a deffinition i found on wiki.
Acoustic ecology, sometimes called ecoacoustics or soundscape studies, is the relationship, mediated through sound, between living beings and their environment^[1]. Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murray Schafer and his team at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) as part of the World Soundscape Project. The original WSP team included Barry Truaxand Hildegard Westerkamp, Bruce Davies and Peter Huse, among others. The first study produced by the WSP was titled The Vancouver Soundscape. The interest in this area grew enormously after this pioneer and innovative study and the area of acoustic ecology raised the interest of researchers and artists all over the world. In 1993, the members of the by now large and active international acoustic ecology community formed the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology.^[2]


Ide like to look at more art of this kind, its ethral presence and feeling of oneness i feel it creates with the space is exactly what i wanted from the experience of the exhibition, however there are technical issues, unlike the sun boxes many eices of this kind would trail wires, and carry installation issues, the fact is that sound art like this although perfect to express a connection with nature it is ironically an extremely modern and technical medium.Therefore teh curator is left with a choice , to bury the wires and hide the high tech aspect in favour of a "natural" as possible looking space or leave all wires and electical gubbings bare,  and in that way comment on the inescapable amalgabation of man and machine.

Development of chosen site.

After more research into the meaning and use of stone circles, i have found that the common belief among archaeologists is that rituals at these sites focused on death and rejuvenation rather than specifically the connection between man and nature. other sites to consider that focus on this much more specifically include Flag Fen.


Flag Fen-  http://flagfen.org/ this archaeological site on a marshland, is accepted to have been an area where Celtic people would make offerings, sacrifices and perform rituals. This site is different to a henge because there would have been more interaction between the people and the land, physically, spiritually and mentally due to submersion into marshland and its enveloping qualities.
I will be visiting Flag Fen this week to see if this site could work as an exhibition space as well as a spiritual site.

Sun Boxes are an environment to enter and exit.  It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently each powered by solar panels.  There is a different guitar sample in each box all playing together making the composition.  The guitar samples are all of different lengths so the whole piece keeps evolving. 

Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers. It sounds different inside of the array.  There is a different sense of space inside.  Certain speakers will be closer and louder therefore the piece will sound different to different people in different positions throughout the array.  Creating a unique experience for everyone.

There are no batteries involved.  The Sun Boxes are reliant on the sun.  When the sun sets the music stops.  The piece changes as the length of the day changes.  Making the participants aware of the cycle of the day.