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CCS’ Library of Creative Sustainability: Case Study

Creative Carbon Scotland have just recently launched their Library of Creative Sustainability, a digital resource for people working to address environmental sustainability and climate change, and we are one of their case studies!

The new digital resource showcases best practice examples of collaborations between sustainability partners and artists seeking to make the world a better place and is aimed for people working to address the challenging issues of environmental sustainability and climate change, demonstrating the benefits of collaborating with artists and cultural approaches to help achieve their aims.

Their initial launch includes five case studies, featuring:
SLOW Clean-UP civic Experiments in Chicago, USA
WATERSHED+ in Calgary, Canada
HighWaterLine an international installation by artist Eve Mosher
Sutton Tidal Attenuation Barrier and Falkenham Saltmarsh Tidal Management Scheme in Suffolk
And The Stove in Dumfries!

Find out more about the library and the other case studies shared online here

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News

Flight

As part of the upcoming launch of Kathy Hinde’s Luminous Birds installation in Dumfries, Stuart Macpherson will be introducing the first in a series of pieces of his newly commissioned work Flight. Both works launch on Wednesday, 7th September, starting from the Stove at 7.30pm, ahead of the switch on of Luminous Birds at 9pm at the Globe Inn. Full details available on our events page here

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Flight – Is a moving soundscape/composition influenced and inspired by the migration of barnacle geese from Svalbard to Caerlaverock. Taking the idea of Migration from Kathy Hinde’s Luminous Birds installation, Flight explores the ability to move from one place to the other, using multiple sounds sources to create something that mimics the movement of the birds. Individual parts are composed to work together as a movement.

This opening is an introduction to the piece which will continue with further developments and performances through until November. You are invited to come along and immerse yourself in the first run coinciding with the opening of Luminous Birds at The Stove.

Stuart Macpherson is a freelance bassist and composer based in rural Dumfries & Galloway. He has been involved in numerous projects and performances, mostly recently the highly acclaimed orchestration of GRIT by Greg Lawson at the Edinburgh International Festival. He also plays in a recently formed quartet with local musicians Wendy Stewart, Gavin Marwick and Ruth Morris. Short-listed twice for the Martin Bennet Prize for Composition Stuart’s work ranges from soundscapes such as his work with Chinese pole artist and performer Phil Hardie on Welcome my Son to pieces written for Red Note Ensemble and Mr McFalls Chamber. His compositional work has been taking an expansive swing towards more experimental pieces and collaborative work such as this.

Special acknowledgement to Sound recordists Geoff Sample and Simon Elliott who have very kindly allowed their recordings of the geese to be used for this piece.

This commission is supported by:
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News

Borderlands II – Journeys to the Ice Age

Borderlands II was a two day conference, including an amazing peat coring at Kirkconnel Flow, organised by Stove member and environmental artist Kate Foster, with delegates arriving from Northumbria and Cumbria, The Borders and D&G, as well as further afield.

The peat coring, led by Dr Lauren Parry, was a time travelling experience back to the Ice Age through the samples of peat and eventually down to boulder clay, six meters down in the depths of the bog.

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The second day was spent in the Stove, including exhibition and talks given by a range of speakers including story teller Malcolm Green, Dave Pritchard on wetlands, and Nadiah Rosli’s focus on Peatlands of South East Asia.

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Image: The corer used for the Peat Coring workshop, accompanied by artwork by Kate Foster
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Musings News

Quest 3 at SUBMERGE

“Quest” is an ongoing environmental Quest by artist Jan Hogarth which explores our relationship with environment, land and water. Jan’s working practice grows out of a deep love of the land (in the broadest sense of the word, by land I mean water, trees, animals, mountains etc), an empathy for it and a deep desire to heal it. Jan has been working with Sheila Pollock who is a practitioner in the healing arts for over 30 years. And invites others who love the land to become involved in the environmental Art Quests.

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In Celtic tradition healing wells, springs and the sources of rivers were thought to have healing and sacred properties.

“Quest” explores rituals and the truths behind ritual to create and invent new environmental Art rituals that seek to heal the environment. The idea of looking for the source of the Nith came from a local rumour that the Lynors from Dumfries Guid Nychburris took spring water from the source of the Nith and carried it with them when they rode the boundaries of the town. Myself and my friend Sheila who has been working in the healing arts went in search of the source of the Nith which is at Dalmelington in Ayrshire and found an environmental massacre in the form of open cast mines and landfill sites there with no access to the source due to the open cast mine operators. It was shocking how could you heal this river when the source was an example of how we take from the land with no empathy for our own energy consumption? This seemed to be a metaphor for the wider climate change problem. The problem is us and out lack of love for the non human, our lack of reverence for nature, water and the land.

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Sheila has worked with Jan on the Quests project and has been looking at the energy of water and its places and exploring how to lift that energy, how to lift the vibration. Having dowsed there is evidence that the vibration was raised in the water she has worked on in Quest 1 and that improvement has remained. The Nith is a huge challenge because of its source in a open cast mine. Sheila and Jan will be talking about this on Thursday evening at the Stove about our work.

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Jan’s install in preparation for SUBMERGE

Quest is a part of SUBMERGE, an exhibition as part of ArtCOP Dumfries, which runs daily from 10-5pm until Saturday, 12th December.

Jan and Sheila will be talking about Quest as part of A Question of Scale, on Thursday 10th December from 6pm.

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Musings News

For the Love of… Sphagnum

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An extract from SUBMERGE artist Kate Foster’s most recent blog post. To read the post in full visit her blog here

Kate joined in our recent craftivism workshops, wearing Sphagnum on her sleeves (more on that here), inspiring a love of moss blog post.

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‘Living with water is important around the Solway, and I’m learning that Sphagnum is a kind of aqueous super-hero. An individual Sphagnum moss is a strand of water-holding cells that can collectively create raised bogs many metres deep, over thousands of years.

Complete raised bogs are now rare. Dogden Moss in the Eastern Borders and Kirkconnel Flow west of Dumfries give hints of what the landscape in Southern Scotland was like before bogs were drained and dug. Beginning  a tour of mosses,  I have discovered the equivalent of mountain-top removal has been inflicted on them. My eye is getting tuned to tawny strips on the low horizon.’

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‘This human-made drainage ditch has been dammed, a recent reversal of policy. Peatland Action is a restoration programme co-ordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage: the reasons to conserve peatbogs are beautifully laid out in the National Peatland Plan. Importantly, peatbogs sequester carbon and are sinks for atmospheric carbon. This process is starting in the blocked ditch at Kirkconnel, as Sphagnum strands start a slow and steady occupation.’

Kate has been working with Nadiah Rosli on her recent work Peatland Actions, which is part of our SUBMERGE exhibition. SUBMERGE runs daily from 10-5pm until Saturday evening, 12th December.

Kate and Nadiah will be speaking as part of our Question of Scale event on Thursday, 10th December from 6pm.

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News Project Updates

Craftivism at The Stove

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Every Wednesday during November, The Stove is running a series of ‘craftivism’ stitch in’s. These are drop in events running from 5-8pm, anyone is welcome whether you come with craft skills of your own or whether you’d like to learn some basic techniques in a friendly and open environment (we have cake!).

What is Craftivism?

Craftivism is a form of ‘slow-activism’, sharing crafting skills in a social space, inviting discussion and reflection whilst making – engaging in the time consuming processes of stitching and making. It is a growing movement of crafters and open-minded people, looking to create new ways of exchange and discussion on issues and topics that we hope to share with others. Come along for a blether, a cup of tea and help contribute towards some of the projects we are currently working on. These sessions are self-led but with plenty of support from our Herald Moxie, and craftivist Joy Cheroukai.

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Why Now?

The Stove is participating in ArtCOP, an international cultural programme that coincides with this years Paris Climate Conference (also known as the COP21) in December. We are looking for new ways to talk about the environment and the constantly changing nature of our world – what is changing for Dumfries and Galloway? What does anyone mean about climate change? Do we need a new language for talking about global climate issues? What has Dumfries got to do with it?

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Our craftivism group is working towards two projects:

Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve is a national campaign from the Craftivist Collective and the Climate Coalition, and asks everyone to think about the things they are passionate about – and in turn, how they could be affected by changing climates and rising temperatures.

The Stop Climate Chaos Rally is on the 28th of November, Scotland’s Climate March will take place in Edinburgh. The Stove has been invited by the Crichton Carbon Centre to join their bus to take part in the rally, and stitchers and makers at our Craftivism sessions are working towards a large banner that can be carried in the march, made up of smaller patterns and designs using unwanted fabrics.

We will be having an intensive banner making weekend before the rally on the 21st and 22nd of November.

If you would like a place on the bus (travel expenses covered by The Stove), please get in touch as we have limited spaces [email protected]

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Drop by any Wednesday evening to find out more, or speak to Moxie on our Stove Herald facebook page www.facebook.com/thestoveherald/

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