Introduction to Field Work
From recording the numerous rock outcrops in my immediate area to 6 months travelling in the uplands of Spain I have been investigating and recording as I walk, scramble, and climb my way through natural environments, including both mountainous uplands and the downwards chasms of the subterranean.
Being active in the landscape underpins my practice and supports themes of the dynamic body moving and experiencing, recovery, extension of the self into landscape, scale, mutability and the temporal.
Whilst recording with sound, camera and pencil, I am looking for deeper understanding of processes that have evolved the rural landscape, the marks left by man, and how curiously now, in another revolution of change, often abandoned by man too. The truly wild is rarely seen.
For me the act of recording has several functions - it concentrates my mind, it places me in the here and now and in this very place - this vantage point at this moment in time. It is not only the point at which I place myself and look but the point at which that moment is recorded and then remembered and scrutinised later for clues and connections.
Drawing allows me to observe deeply and take the time to notice.
Sound recording brings alive a whole new dimension of the landscape and just like drawing, records a unique moment in time and location.
An opportunity arose to travel for 6 months, a break from work and a recovery. But why not just enjoy it, relax and be a tourist? For me field work, fulfills a need to observe and a need to be creating something, and making more of the experience to fulfill potential future needs. The text accompanying the images is a journal of sorts, and provides the metadata.
Click the image to access the fieldwork pages
