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As we come to the end of the session, we will meet back on Zoom for any further questions!

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As we come to the end of the session, we will meet back on Zoom for any further questions!

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: ) totally agree!

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often surrounding myself with the collected work helps me to identify what I want to say.

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I also pick up where I left off, when I'm sat in an entirely different location and far removed from the place I was life writing. Picking those fragments back up after time has past in between I think can really draw out the latent potential within these records of experience.

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This is a photograph of a large scale map i drew in the museum of the changing landscape in which Northeye is located, across a thousand years. As a wetland site, the area has experienced huge transformation and was once largely underwater. In 50 years time, it is likely that much of the landscape will return to the sea. So in terms of ‘post’ project, i find it fascinating that Northeye will soon return to what is once was, an island.

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This is really interesting, in the last year I have found using sound of insects and wildlife as well as weather has really helped to engage my audience with the landscape in the comfort of their own homes. .

The combination of the sound and imagery together seems to focus them onto the landscape.

I do prefer the sound to be listened to on headphones though as once again it makes a conversation between the viewer and the land.

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It takes time to finish a piece of writing which requires writers to re-visit the writing during the process. I believe my writing is informed by experiences of place throughout time. By ‘looking back' and re-visiting my writing or re-visiting the place with new intentions or ideas in mind, I will come back with something new which always puts new layers of the writing.

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I usually work in collaboration with a cultural partner, currently this is Bexhill Museum in East Sussex, so there is often an outcome to the fieldwork. More recently, i have been developing ways to bring the landscape into the museum - and to take the museum to the landscape. I’m interested in the way we access places (particularly in the current climate) and developing experiences through ‘remote sensing’ (a term i have borrowed from geography).

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I'm interested in how different sites that I visit become connected through my writing. For example, a site visit that I take 6 months after the first has the ability to re inform the initial site visit and also draw out observations which may not have been fully credited the first time round. Each stage within the research process informs the next, but walking back through the work gives me a renewed understanding of it. Much like visiting a landscape many times, aspects become more apparent with each visit.

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Sometimes revisiting is not always an option for me as often working in land surrounding power plants or land with no human presence there is a reason and I am unwelcome.

Every day I visited this site I had to work out a new way of exploring as even though it was public land the power plant was very defensive to people being in the area and would often stop me to ask what I was doing and move me on.

However I had to revisit as I left recording equipment there over night.

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I continually revisit sites even if its not physically, it's by walking back through my notes generated within that environment. The words connect me back to that time and place but as they're often fragmentary  - it allows the revisiting/rereading or reconnecting process to bring another experience of that landscape.

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It is really important for me that the audience do not visit the site, so working out how to show what the site is whilst also highlighting the importance of them not going there.

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much like how we might re contextualise an image by drawing out observations and permeating through its surface/walking around inside in it, its how I tend to approach site. Looking, contemplating, infiltrating and writing.

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EXITING THE FIELD:
What happens post site visit? Or is there no post?

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So basically all participants will be asked to write towards a same object/keyword/image in a set time. And we will do peer crits afterwards: people read what others have written and share their ideas. Suggestions and comments will be given.

After the workshop, some might want to finalize their writings or do some editing work, but what the workshop itself focuses on is the ideas of ‘no advance preparation, kind of freestyle writing’

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Iain Sinclair talks about the importance of staying still in order to see how a place lives and breathes

Its really hard to understand the land in true form as you are influencing it just by being there.

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Revisiting the site is essential in order to understand how the land is changes.

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It's interesting Eko how you physically take from a site in terms of these decaying objects, whereas El your work relies on not physically taking, just gathering a trace of 'things'

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it sounds like a really great way of focusing in on a space when you create these kinds of writing conditions for yourself. 

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it sounds like a really great way of focusing in on a space when you create these kinds of writing conditions for yourself.

Do these short writing exercises, find their way directly into more finalised writings or is it more a warm up process?

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When I visit the decaying buildings/old communities which are almost forgotten/abandoned, I will collect the objects left there and most of them are daily objects like dirty toys, broken cups, and papers with things written on etc. I am interested in how the collective memories and grief are left in the decaying places, and the objects inside the abandoned landscape are part of them.

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When I visit the decaying buildings/old communities which are almost forgotten/abandoned, I will collect the objects left there and most of them are daily objects like dirty toys, broken cups, and papers with things written on etc. I am interested in how the collective memories and grief are left in the decaying places, and the objects inside the abandoned landscape are part of them.

The two different approaches can be really interesting, I guess Eko with your collecting you are connecting with the object to become part of its narrative, where as with my work there is often not very much there in terms of human materials so taking the natural material kind of feels like I am stealing from the residents who reside there.

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Revisiting a site is essential for me. I like to collect things on each visit - this is one of my favourites;

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I have a series of rules that I apply to every site I visit:

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I have a series of rules that I apply to every site I visit:

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- the collaborators must never meet.

- What is collected must never be changed in size colour or pitch.

- Reproductions must be completely the same size unless scale is indicated.

- The work is a collaboration / observation not a response.

- The method must not leave a mark on the land.

- The collaboration must not impact the collaborator.

- The work must be accessible to all who wish to experience it.

- Analysing the collected material and recombining it happens in the studio.

- Eperience of the work must be a SOLO activity.

- Nothing is too small or insignificant.

- The audience must not visit the site, the work is proof of THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT BEING PRESENT.

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Allowing the land to leave its own mark.

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I totally agree with what you have mentioned above about not having an agenda before site visiting.

Let the ideas/thoughts come as we visit;

let the intuition/initial focus lead the conversation between the observers and the sites.

It’s quite similar to what I do during the time-writing workshop.

Set a timer for about 20-25 minutes

No genre requires, no words account limit

Write anything in mind

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I think making reflections on the conversions happening as they happen provides an opportunities for a writer to show the conversations from their perspective and interpretation via drawing connection between ‘what they have heard’ and ‘what they have observed’.

I have a great passion for discovering the connection between texts, images and illustration and the idea of ‘writing as thoughts come’.

In the timed creative writing workshops that I have organized during the past months, I encourage participants to write down all their observations and random thoughts which come up. It has shown great diversity and focuses as people show interest in different aspects and have various emphasis.

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I guess what is beneath the land is what is informing the lands narrative.

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Taking pictures of the site from different angles is the way I do “close-observing”, which also provides me an opportunity of re-observing the site whenever and wherever I want.
Looking at those pictures from times to times can bring new ideas to me and show new aspects of the places.  

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Taking pictures of the site from different angles is the way I do “close-observing”, which also provides me an opportunity of re-observing the site whenever and wherever I want.

Looking at those pictures from times to times can bring new ideas to me and show new aspects of the places.

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Through the process' shown I see my work as a way of representing the land without taking from it, through gathering a collecting I can form a silent archive of the life within it. It is proofe of the presence of these creatures without seeing them.

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Surveying

I often 'borrow' methods from other disciplines and reenact them in a really amateur way! This is my attempt at a borehole transect (used in geoarchaeology). It doesn't really matter what the outcome is, it's more about seeing the landscape in a different way. I'm also really interested in what's beneath the earths surface. So often in the field we naturally scan horizontally. I like to think about what the landscape might look like vertically.

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snail trail, ink on paper, trail made by the snail

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although many of these actions are used within my research process at some stage or other, increasingly these three have allowed me to bring myself into the work more as a way of articulating or understanding the landscape.

writing on location allows me to contemplate an alternative presence for the landscape - beyond being just a physical place. The material I gather from a site exists primarily as words, phrases or details which reconsiders the traditions of site specificity as it is less about arriving at a place and just simply 'taking' and 'leaving' again. The words are fragments mean i'm continually revisiting that site through those observations.

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observing

archiving

fictionalizing

Eko, from a previous conversation we had - writing on location using timed exercises seemed to be an important way of getting acquainted with your site. Could you give us some insight into what these exercises involve?

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selecting
researching
walking
sitting

observing

reading
surveying
watching
listening
finding
leaving
tracing
collaborating
recording
recording
isolating
understanding
connecting
lending
gathering
collecting
taking
generating
unearthing
extracting
leaving
contemplating
experiencing
studying
archiving
sequencing
processing
writing
editing
sketching
fictionalising
personifying
reflecting
constructing
de-constructing
interpreting
representing
re-visiting

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connecting:

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scenario - you're in the field/your site, what do you do next?

choose three words from the list of verbs which describe your actions when in the field.

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Where do you first look in the field?

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From George Hayford-Taylor to Everyone: (2:26 pm)
unexpected- birds eye perspective and worm perspective relevancies....

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unexpected- birds eye persective and worm perspecitive relevancies....

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E, do you have any observations or questions based on the conversation above?

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I frame my work as an un-concentual collaboration with the land,

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I am framing my final PhD outcome as a landscape biography (a term coined in the 1960's in cultural heritage studies). It moves beyond the idea of a dominant voice in landscape narrative and seeks to encompass a multi layered approach to documenting place. Who or what are authors of the landscape?

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Walking is also really important but for me its more the act of observing during absence. What I am looking for will not materialise if I or anyone else is there.

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Ideas of loss, absence, decay and entropy are central to my work. I'm really interested in Caitlin De Silvey's writing on this and that the physical degradation of a site can generate new narrative, rather than simply serve to erase what there once was

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Before I do anything I look at the ground.

I use a piece of equipment called 'audiomoth' that was recommended to me by a bioscientist working in bat conservation in the Amezonian rain forest.

She has also helped me to identify much of the footprints I collected in Wales last summer.

I see this as a conversation between conservation and environmental science, it is evidence of the presence of wildlife when not observed or disturbed.

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what methodologies (often used in research projects outside of illustration) also sit within your practice?

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what methodologies (often used in research projects outside of illustration) also sit within your practice?

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Similarly to how a geologist deconstructs a whole or reads rock formations in order to formulate a narrative, my process relies on getting underneath the surface of a place and drawing out from it.

The act of walking is also employed as a vehicle/symbol or metaphor within my work, much like how it is used within literature (E.g Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway). A way of showing a transformation through time and space.

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most of my work is about what happens when we are not there, I know you expand into archealogical and geographical areas of research, where as with me its about how the land is healing without the presence of humans.

We are almost working in the same physical site but with different intentions and outcomes.

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This is why I title my practice 'The Importance of NOT Being Present'

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This is why I title my practice 'The Importance of NOT Being Present'

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So many of my projects are consecutive; one place leads on from another. I quite like that together they form their own geography, or an alternative map..

The thing that they often have in common is a conversation around (in)visibility. Whether geographic or cultural - i think as image makers, it is an interesting challenge to consider how illustrators use methods to reveal lesser seen subjects

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the chosen site usually derives from the initial research, for example - most recently quarried or scarred industrial landscapes which bare visible trace of the human as I was interested in them as sites of sculpture. It's about taking the research out of the studio and into the landscape itself. How does experience within it help to drive or develop the initial focus. It's important to not have an agenda before going as it inhibits the value of primary experience.

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Discovery and exploration is very important, in my footprints project I had a 6 mile area of land that I had to explore, in the end I found the most data I collected was from a small church yard that was so desnly populated with vegitatton and that I spent 4 weeks just in there every day.

It was so over grown that it was really difficult to access and I had to use long sticks to put my foottrack pads into the undergrowth.

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that's really interesting how you use your own observations too as method of understanding. Is this typically drawing upon just what you see or do you draw upon any of your other senses too ?

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that's really interesting how you use your own observations too as method of understanding. Is this typically drawing upon just what you see or do you draw upon any of your other senses too ?

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How do you find or choose a 'Field'? what is the process of finding the site? 

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How do you find or choose a 'Field'? what is the process of finding the site? 

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This photo shows the only impact of the village must be where the water sits where the land can't absorb?

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This photo shows the only impact of the village must be where the water sits where the land can't absorb?

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Yes, so the only visible evidence of Northeye, the abandoned village, is a series of earthworks which are really hard to see. In certain weather conditions (heavy rain, sea mist and winter evening sun, snow) can you see them more clearly

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I think increasingly for me, i'm interested in non human voices too..and that the landscape itself can be the main character

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The land is scarred by all that touch it
We are constantly influencing the land by being present in the space.

This is a remote dis-used quarry in Wales where the cigarette filters form a surface for new life to grow.

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so I guess here we are talking about how we are interpreting field as a space, it is different to everyone who visits? They have their own narrative.

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so I guess here we are talking about how we are interpreting field as a space, it is different to everyone who visits? They have their own narrative.

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It reminds me of what the Chinese writer Wang-Guowei has written in his book titled "Poetic Remarks on the Human World":

In the personal state, the poet views objects in terms of himself and so everything takes on his own coloring. In the impersonal state, the poet views objects in terms of objects and so one cannot tell what is the poet himself and what is the object.

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That's a great question. I think my work always hovers between fact and fiction and bringing together collected fragments, whether from interviews, archival material, local history groups and my own observations on site. In a sense, the 'truth' is less important. I'm more concerned with the idea of authenticity - and the cultural identity of a place.

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That's a great question. I think my work always hovers between fact and fiction and bringing together collected fragments, whether from interviews, archival material, local history groups and my own observations on site. In a sense, the 'truth' is less important. I'm more concerned with the idea of authenticity - and the cultural identity of a place.

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I think the same, the field for me is evidence of life, it doesn't matter that we can't see what is there it matters that what is there is there because of what we can't see.

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I think the same, the field for me is evidence of life, it doesn't matter that we can't see what is there it matters that what is there is there because of what we can't see.

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is it about developing fictional narratives from the remains or are you concerned with real stories from real people Leah?

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This was one of the first photographs i took of my PhD case study; a deserted medieval village in East Sussex called Northeye

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it's interesting El how your work is about collecting or evidencing the trace of something within the landscape, whereas my work begins with the visible trace left behind on the landscape's surface.

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I often leave mics around new areas for 12 hours over night, if when I collect them the next day there are animal or insect recordings I know that I can collect evidence of life there. 

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I often leave mics around new areas for 12 hours over night, if when I collect them the next day there are animal or insect recordings I know that I can collect evidence of life there. 

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I interpret the word field literally (my PhD looks at an empty field) but also as a narrative space that can be filled with voices, stories, images.. 

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I interpret the word field literally (my PhD looks at an empty field) but also as a narrative space that can be filled with voices, stories, images.. 

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I fell in a pond once trying to measure water levels

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I fell in a pond once trying to measure water levels

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There are some amazing stories that comes from working outside, my car broke down outside a nuclear power.

Got some some amazing sound recordings

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For me, fieldwork is the primary research method in exploring, experiencing and understanding a site. Over the years, my methods have moved on from sketchbook work to encompass drone photography, LIDAR imaging, pigment making..all sorts! 

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For me, fieldwork is the primary research method in exploring, experiencing and understanding a site. Over the years, my methods have moved on from sketchbook work to encompass drone photography, LIDAR imaging, pigment making..all sorts! 

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Part of the process of finding a site often comes from a long drive or walk.

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Leah? How do you approach 'The Field in your work'?

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Leah? How do you approach 'The Field in your work'?

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fieldwork is where I begin to take an initial area of research/interest and start to explore it through experience within a landscape. The landscape or site I'm in becomes a sort of studio space where I select appropriate tools in relation to that place. The type of fieldwork methods I use are informed by my exploration and reading which happens as I walk through a space

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For me its the act of visiting and observing the field in the context of a canvas

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Where do do you see field work within your illustration research practice?

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Where do do you see field work within your illustration research practice?

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For me, fieldwork is the primary method i use in exploring, experiencing and understanding a location. Over the years my methods have moved on from sketchbooks to drone photography, LIDAR imaging, performance, pigment making..all sorts!

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[Enter Illustrators] : Caitlin Kiely, Eleanor Wemyss and Leah Fusco 

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[Enter Illustrators] : Caitlin Kiely, Eleanor Wemyss and Leah Fusco 

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Location > Zoom / Padlet
2:00 - 3:30

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Caitlin Kiely, Eleanor Wemyss and Leah Fusco will be discussing their approaches to Illustration as Research. They will also be joined by a guest writer Eko Binyao Liu.

Their conversation will be in three acts. They will each draw upon some of the research methods and processes in which they use when working with the landscape.

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An exploration of fieldwork within Illustration Research 

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An exploration of fieldwork within Illustration Research 