ARTISTS
Collaboration
Kate Foster
An artist based in the uplands of Southern Scotland whose long-term project Peat Cultures serves a way of learning about the skills and knowledge surrounding peatlands. Kate also creates histories of Dutch peatlands, which have largely been drained or dug away.
Kate created the beautiful logo for our project, and was commissioned to respond to the World Congress of Soil Science with our peatlands in mind.
Alan McClure
Alan McClure is a writer and musician based in Galloway, south-west Scotland. His creative output is eclectic and prolific, encompassing oral storytelling, poetry, songs, novels, short stories and audio sketches. He is a founding member of Lost Wasp Records, singer and chief songwriter with Alan & the Big Hand, occasional member of The Wee Folk Storytellers and a solo performer.
Alan composed our wonderful project theme music.
"I wanted to write a piece that suggested both the wide open skies above the moor, and the trickling, flowing water which is so much part of the landscape. The music has an upbeat tone because the thought of the peat mosses always puts me in mind of getting out and about, experiencing the plants and animals in an ancient setting and getting away from the stress of daily life."
Lee Patterson
Driven by a fascination with the unheard, Lee seeks out hidden sounds in things and places by using contact microphones, hydrophones and pick-ups, employing them as extra-sensory tools to test or probe for artistic and transformational potential.
His pioneering approach has led to a variety of projects both solo and collaborative, ranging from music theatre, environmental sound work, improvised music to radio broadcast, film soundtrack and installation.
Ongoing research starting in summer of 2022 includes 'wire-tapping' brownfield, meadow, heath and moorland plants to listen in to unseen and perhaps never before heard insects inside their herbaceous and grassland homes within calcareous and acidic environments. Lee has recorded peatland sounds for this project and will be performing them in November.