Uncategorized – the PLACE Collective

By Harriet Fraser

If you have any interest in the way art works within environmental education and has the power to influence change and broaden options for action, we’ve no doubt this book will hold something for you. It has been thoughtfully put together by an editorial team from the Ecoart Network and its content – a series of contributions from members of the network – embraces a range of approches to education and many different art practices.

The book explores a diversity of approaches and brings together different streams of thought from artists who share the overarching goal of reframing and addressing ‘the most pressing social and environmental problems of the Anthropocene.’ This multi-stranded approach is something that appeals to us at PLACE since, in reality, there is always way more than one way to engage with a subject, to learn, to develop ideas and to have an impact.

The editors of the book define ‘ecoartists’ in this way:

‘Ecoartists bridge formal and informal knowledge and experience, both inside and outside the field of art, and make connections, relationships, and systems visible.’

“Regardless of the form an ecoart work or project might take, the practice is as follows:

hybrid, relational, and inter-or transdisciplinary
embraces ecological and systems thinking
shifts culture and raises awareness through individual, collective, local or transnational action”

The book shares activities and case studies that show how artists work with curiosity and creativity. It demonstrates how arts in practice can nurture communities and further discussions about the way humans relate to the living world – and, crucially, the place for artists to highlight problematic issues, disrupt harmful ways of thinking, and stimulate positive change. You can travel from Aviva Rahmani’s Blued Trees Symphony to Cathy Fitzgerald’s Hollywood Forest, from a classroom to a back yard or local park, from ancient philosophies to contemporary activism, from experimentation to tried and tested research tools, from stories of personal transformation to manifestos for environmental justice, and you can delve into philosophical, ethical and conceptual discussions. There’s so much in here to inspire, and to seed new ideas and actions … it’s a book to keep returning to.

I’ll close with some words from the book … a form of invitation:

“You hold in your hands a field guide or road map to contemporary ecoart practices … along this journey, there are many places to stop, check out the view, get your feet wet, or jump into the deep end.”

Editors: Amara Geffen, Ann Rosenthal, Chris Fremantle, Aviva Rahmani

The book can be purchased from the Ecoart Network here: https://www.ecoartnetwork.org/ecoartinaction

The contributions are so widespread that instead of listing them by name, here are some images of the contents to whet your appetite:

Contents page 2 for the book Ecoart in Action

Guest Blog from Colin Riley – sharing reflections on using field recordings, and news of the premier of ‘Hearing Places’ in performance with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

For the last ten years most of my work as a composer has sprung from two interconnected themes; ‘the environment’ and ‘place’. In other art forms there is a way to weave in a direct message, but with music alone you are really just dealing with patterns and implied emotions. It’s inevitably more oblique. Since I love collaborating and interdisciplinary work, this has all fitted together quite naturally for me, and involving other art forms has been common practice.

In 2017 I released an album and toured the UK with a project called In Place. This involved commissioning new texts from a range of writers engaged with place including Robert Facfarlane, Richard Skelton, Jackie Morris, Nick Papadimitriou, Paul Farley, and Selina Nwulu. These texts ranged from nature writing to psychogeography and ideas around our personal place in society. This ever-evolving project began as a song cycle, mutating into a concept album, radio podcasts, music videos, remixes and education projects.

In 2019 I was commissioned to write Earth Voices, a large-scale orchestral work for a Swedish orchestra. Earth Voices is a celebration of noticing the magnificent and fragile things in our natural world. It was pure orchestral writing with no texts, and I attempted to portray different natural phenomena in each of the movements. There were bird murmurations, sunlight through trees, majestic mountains, and a slow twilight.

A man with a camera looks over a balcony

Filming and recording in Central Square, Cardiff

I have just finished composing a second orchestral work Hearing Places, which is in many ways an amalgam of the previous two pieces. Instead of using text or just orchestral colour, Hearing Places blends field recordings and video clips into a multi-sensory experience for the concert hall. Again it celebrates the noticing of our surroundings, engaging the listening with a close affinity with place in both nature and man-made environments. The specific locations are all in Wales: Port Talbot Steel Works, Porthmadog Harbour, Dylan Thomas’s writing hut in Laugharne, Solva Woollen Mill, a stream in the Brecons, Cardiff Central Square, and Llanfwrog Church, Ruthin.

A camera on a tripod, set on a harbour, with boats in the background

A camera set on a tripod at the side of the road, pointed at a church

Porthmadog Harbour (left); Llanfwrog Church, Ruthin at twilight (right)

With this suite of seven movements I am aiming for a new kind of symphonic experience. It involves immersive listening, and a way of sharing in the noticing of often inconsequential, yet hugely-beautiful sounds. The music aims to capture both the delicate fragility and massive power of our world, and to illustrate simply what we stand to lose in the environment crisis we are now in. It is my view that through the act of noticing our surroundings, we can begin to value our world more. Natural elements are frequently referenced in the music (weather, times of day, natural phenomena and the seasons), as are the human imprints left in our world (machinery, vehicles, pattern-making, conversation).

Colin Riley, still from Hearing Places video: showing masts and clouded sky

Colin Riley, still from Hearing Places video, showing birds in flight above the sea

A still image from a video showing people walking across a tiled space

Stills from video

Hearing Places celebrates the rich audio and visual patterns found all around us, and I’ve spent the last year travelling to all corners of Wales collecting field recordings and video clips of interesting places that have captured my imagination.

These small building blocks of pitch, rhythm, and pattern in turn then became the materials for the creation of the music itself. Sometimes I simply made a natural emotional response in terms of mood and feeling, and at other times took a more forensic approach. The audio forms a strand of the orchestral fabric, woven differently in each movement, and is ‘played’ from within the orchestra by the keyboardist. Similarly the video clips form an additional textural layer for the audience, and likewise are triggered by the keyboard in different ways. Sometimes a place may be recognizable, but very often it remains abstract and mysterious.

Hearing Places is premiered on Friday 17^th February in the Hoddinott Hall Cardiff by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.