Next week I start a two month residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, part of the Space for 10 programme which is supported by Esmee Fairbairn, The Art House and The Hepworth. In addition I have received a grant from Arts Council England to support a programme of residencies coming up in the next year. The YSP residency is research based, so I don’t need to produce any finished work, which is great.
My original proposal talked about using the park as a large playground to experiment with distance, speed and time, using sound, actions and objects. Since then things have developed and I’ve become particularly interested in long distance communication. I have done some research & found some interesting stuff around point to point (line of sight) and land to sea communications including smoke signals, beacons, pigeons, optical telegraph, semaphore, shutter telegraphs, church bells, horns, whistles and so on. I’m also interested in the telegraph, pre and post electric and radio transmission, (I passed my Ham Radio, Foundation License at the start of the year – call sign M3 VEU). I’m thinking about redundant forms of communication like runners and pigeons and how they have become part of the hobbyist realm alongside Ham Radio and I also like the relay connection found in electric signals, radio transmission and running club races.
Its a big area I know, but an interesting one. Lots to think about, like acoustic (speed of sound) and electric / radio (speed of light) / synchronization of action and sound / mapping & marking / semaphore as construction and performance / communication structures and signals as sculptures and I can’t ignore the tallest free standing tower clearly visible from the grounds of YSP, which happens to be a transmitter tower!
So lets see what happens.
