During the project (including commutes) I cycled over 470kms (290miles), walked a more modest 70kms (40miles) or so, took some lifts, caught a few buses and travelled on a lot of trains. Things would have been more convenient to do by car but, a) it wasn’t feasible for me, and b) it wasn’t in the spirit of the project as far as I was concerned … besides, even with a car there would have been several miles of walking/cycling to reach the project site on each visit. The remoteness of the site and the effort needed to get there was a big part of the appeal that the project had for me. Maybe there is an act of honouring these landscapes through exertion; in the case of the project this exertion was both physical and creative. One small regret is that I didn’t spend the night in the glen, I had hoped to camp out for at least one night but I think the pace of the project got the better of me on this count! 

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My art practice has always focussed on landscape or sense of place, and hobbies of running, walking and cycling are all about enjoying being in the landscape. I have long been aware of the manifold threats to the environment, support a variety of environmental charities, and have a fascination for ecological concerns at both field and theoretical levels. Over twenty years ago, as I shifted my career from solely focussed in the production of artist’s books to residency/commission work, I worked on a project with Kent High Weald Project (KHWP) in the south of England. With the CCC residency it was great to get back to working with an organisation in the conservation, restoration, ecological research sector and I hope to find/create similar projects in the future (although I fear that they won’t be quite so gnarly!). 

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In a broad sense the site conformed to my expectations, which can be problematic as expectations are always keen to become preconceptions, influencing a response away from the specific. Generalities that are present in much of upland Britain were there, and in many ways this was a project about generalities (water, peat, forestry) … about factors that can be found in Wales, on Dartmoor, in Northumberland, etc.. And I knew all this (and more) from the project call-out and brief, so there was never any possibility of approaching the site with a completely open mind (an impossibility anyway as far as I’m concerned). But, in amongst generalities are always specificities, little nuggets of fascination around which the generalities can be made to orbit. The presence, methods and feedback from the ecological research of CCC became the lever with which to prise open the generalities of the site, along with a sprinkling of desk-based historical research. Links to most of the sources I used can be found below. 

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Spending concentrated time in the glen and with the research in mind it was very apparent that, despite the geographical remoteness, this is a peopled place. In some cases this peopling adds positive colour, in others it is in the signature of upheval. Although I’m familiar with the presence and processes of commercial forestry across upland Britain, I found the scale of operations here ratcheted up the brutality of the process … this of course was visually obvious, but became more important for the hidden impacts on peat and water quality rather than picturesque (although this latter is an area I would like to explore more (and had touched on in that KHWP work all those years ago)). The scale of the infrastructure also became more and more present to me, with a whole industry to facilitate the growth and removal of commercial tree crops, I found it impossible to overlook the insertions of feats of engineering into the terrain. I also became increasingly sensitive to how these commercial plantations gain a life of their own as they self-seed across vast areas of sensitive land, land that is otherwise protected or excluded from direct commercialisation. Land that is vital to human existence through biodiversity and carbon storage but, more crucially, land that should just be allowed to be(come) for no capitalistic quantifiable/measurable reason. It’s a complex issue to confront (much too complex to address here), there is much forward-thinking work being done within the forestry industry but this is frequently not manifesting at ground level (so far). 

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On a more positive note, I felt very lucky, privileged even, to be able to spend time getting to know the watercourses, bogs and hills of the site. To spend time by the running waters of these streams and letting my thoughts merge with their sounds and movements was most inspiring. Also, my brief forays onto Silver Flowe (patterned blanket bog system) were a delight and awe-inspiring in equal measure. From kneeling down exploring the rich flora and fauna of the bog’s surface, to carefully moving across the quaking surface, the place is a marvel … and is also a sign-post to what sites that CCC work on will become given time. 

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My final contribution for the residency took several forms, the core of which was a soundwork called FLOW : SAMPLE. The work consists of five pieces: FLOW, and the ‘samples’ of BLOCK, QUALITY, SOLID and SUPERFICIAL. When played in full FLOW is a sort of background piece, a continuum, that the other pieces can be played over. With more time I would have liked a live vocal aspect to the delivery of the work, but despite this not being possible I’m very pleased with the work of the project. The sounds can be found on my Bandcamp page here. Caution! If listening via headphones beware of some very loud sections. Enjoy!