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Tag: Research and Reading

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Musings News

Cultivating the High Street: Artists and Town Centres

From Andrew Gordon

High streets across Britain are fundamentally changing, and Dumfries is no exception. The combined impact of the economic downturn, out of town complexes and online shopping is leading to more and more town centre closures. The effect on Dumfries is unmistakable, from the closure of national chains stores, to long established family-owned businesses, each leaving behind empty husks in what once were regarded prime locations. With their empty displays these unwanted buildings contribute to a worrying sense that the town is in perpetual decline.

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However there have also been signs of different life; the Electric Theatre Workshop has turned a disused shop into a space for practicing and performing theatre, as well as the central hub for winter festival, Big Burns Supper. Although shops have struggled, cafes and restaurants are continuing to generate business, prompting a number of new openings and refurbishments. These changes remind us that high streets have historically been places to “debate and meet”, as retail-consultant Mary Portas stated in her 2011 report for the UK Government. It is her opinion that high streets must return to this role as “multifunctional, social spaces” if they are to serve any purpose in the future, commerce forming just a part of their civic service rather than dictating it.

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The Stove Network shares this vision – it aims to demonstrate that rethinking the way we use the vacant buildings on the high street can have a profound and beneficial impact on the local community. By opening it’s new accessible public arts space at 100 High Street, it will be placing creativity and risk taking right at the centre of local efforts to re-imagine Dumfries as a contemporary regional capital.

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The retail chains that previously occupied these spaces were concerned with telling us what we want. The Stove will instead respond to what we need, a collaborative effort between artists and others in the town to cultivate a place that will serve us as citizens rather than consumers. This means including the public in the operation of the Stove itself and the Tuesday Drop-In sessions are one example. These weekly meetings will invite one and all to discuss the Stove’s operation, and to voice their own ideas about what it should be doing more of to contribute towards the regeneration of Dumfries town centre. The Charter14 event held during last year’s Guid Nychburris festival, asked Doonhamers to put forward their own ambitions for the town’s future as part of a new “People’s Charter”, and is another example of The Stove Network’s approach.

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By offering ready access to art and the tools of its creation in the very centre of the town, the Stove stands to thoroughly involve the people of Dumfries in bringing about constructive change to the place we call hame, turning an otherwise forlorn relic of times gone by into a symbol for a new future for Dumfries – one conducted on our own terms. “High streets will thrive if we re-imagine them”, Mary Portas suggests, and what better way could there be to inspire new ways of thinking about the high street than through art?

All images are of Charter14, Guid Nychburris Day Festival June 2014. All images: Colin Tennant

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Musings News

What did we eat before baguettes, toasties and Panini?

From Open Jar Collective

Dumfries, in common with most Scottish towns, has a particular lunch time snack – the toasted Panini.  First referenced in a 16th Century Italian cookbook, Panino (which comes from the Italian pane meaning bread) is traditionally a grilled sandwich made with slices of porchetta, that is popular in Central Italy.  Panini became trendy in Milanese bars called Paninoteche in the 1970s and 1980s, and then subsequently in New York.  Paninaro came to mean a fashionable young person who was very image conscious.

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Through the dominance of American fast food culture, Panini have become ubiquitous in Scotland, alongside white sliced bread toasties, and french baguettes. All of these breads are made from highly refined strong wheat flours which are very difficult to produce in Scotland.  Due to our shorter growing season, the wheat grown here has a much lower protein content which is fine for baking but lacks the elastic gluten required for conventional bread making. Scotland’s most successful cereal crop is Barley, once used in almost every home to bake bannocks.

According to the NFUScotland, out of the 2 million tonnes of Scottish barley produced in 2013, 55% was used as animal feed, 35% went to Whisky malting, and only a small proportion was sold as pearl barley or milled as flour for us to eat.

Bere (pronounced ‘bear’) is a form of six-row barley which has been grown in Scotland for thousands of years. Bere is quite possibly Britain’s oldest cereal grain still in commercial cultivation and was likely to have been brought here by Viking settlers. It has adapted to growing in soils with low pH and in areas with long daylight hours which makes it particularly suited to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. It grows rapidly, being sown in the spring and harvested in the summer.  Beremeal was one of the earliest flours to be used to make bannocks.

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Robert Burns once described southern Scotland as a “land o’ cakes”. He didn’t mean desserts, but oatcakes and barley bannocks that would have been baked on an iron girdle over the fire.

“In Scotland, amongst the rural population generally, the girdle until recent times took the place of the oven, the bannock of the loaf.”  F. Marian McNeil, 1929

In The Scots Kitchen, F. Marian McNeil suggests that the name bannok occurs in 1572, and derives from Latin panicum, probably through the influence of the Church. It may have referred originally to Communion bread.

Bannocks can range from soda breads, scones, or pancakes to a sweet fruity tea loaf in the case of the famous Selkirk bannock, but they usually have some barley meal in them.  After testing numerous recipes, I think the best turned out to be F. Marian McNeil’s “Modern Method” using Beremeal from Barony Mills in Orkney (which is available through Greencity).

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Bannocks o’ bear meal, Bannocks o’ barley,
Here’s to the Highlandman’s bannocks o’ barley.

Wha, in a brulzie, will first cry a parley?
 Never the lads wi’ the bannocks o’ barley.

Bannocks o’ bear meal, Bannocks o’ barley,
Here’s to the Highlandman’s bannocks o’ barley.

Wha, in his wae days, were loyal to Charlie?
Wha but the lads wi’ the bannocks o’ barley!

Bannocks o’ bear meal, Bannocks o’ barley,
Here’s to the Highlandman’s bannocks o’ barley.

Robert Burns, 1794
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News Project Updates

Taxi to Dumfries?

Guest blog post from Emma Dove.

Mark and I are about five weeks in to our residency with The Stove. One London taxicab and twenty-four conversations in said taxicab later, and we’re starting to get a feel for the place…

A little bit of background on that. We had heard that The Stove was planning to hold their AGM in an underground car park… Ok then. But not just an AGM, in fact this usually empty car park will be filled with games, projections, skateboarders, a cinema… Ok then…

These are the sort of wild off-hand statements that we have become accustomed to expect at Stove meetings, in amongst chat of salty coos and wooden-spoon themed offerings to gypsy kings. Hang on a minute; what’s a salty coo? Well, after a little more explanation, we are beginning to grasp the nuances of the rich, diverse and genius ways that The Stove Network is engaging with a town in flux and a wide geographical area with a rich and beguiling history.

We came away thinking, firstly, “These guys are bloody brilliant” and, secondly, “What can we do in an underground car park in 2 weeks time?”. As mentioned in the last blog, we wanted to find a way to start exploring the theme of human migrations and find a way to get people chatting about home – the good bits and the not so good bits.

What sort of warm, friendly and familiar space could we create within an underground car park? The sort of space where people feel happy to open up and chat? The sort of space where we can set up all of our kit and record these conversations in an unobtrusive way? The sort of space that somehow keys in with the themes of “home” and of “travel”…?

A mad week of logistical grafting later and the taxicab arrived, driven all the way up from Chingford in Essex by a lovely chap called Wullie J, and was given a whirlwind makeover in time for its Parking Space debut.

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We weren’t sure what to expect, both of the wider Parking Space event and our small part within it. We agreed we would be happy if 5 or 6 people came in for a chat and so were absolutely delighted to have a total of 24 folks through the shiny black doors within 2 days, each with their own different story to tell. Each visitor marked the places that they spoke about on a map of D&G and we plan to follow up some of these places to film during our residency.

In terms of the wider event, the space was bubbling with activity as curious visitors slowly made their way down through each level of the car park, lured by the unusual sounds that ricocheted and tumbled together through the space, invitations to street games, dancing lights and projections upon pillars and walls, not to mention the people hurling themselves in to the air mounted upon small wooden chariots [skateboards]. A feast for the senses.

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A few of our visitors in the Gab Cab

To be privy to the AGM side of things was also fantastic for us. The personal value upon which everyone present felt for the organisation (and for each other’s work) was palpable, much of which was expressed through talks and images and emerged further through the Public Art discussion facilitated by Dot to Dot Active Arts and The Open Jar Collective, fittingly chatted over a plate of hot stovies and a glass of wine. A really valuable evening to be a part of.

We’ve lots of ideas and inspiration to explore over the next few months and we are planning an Artist Talk in December to share some of these. We will also be talking about some our work to date, sharing some of our “Hame” work in progress (including some Parking Space rushes…) and screening our previous film, Mirror Lands.

Details to follow shortly.

Gab Cab photo © Galina Walls

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Musings News Project Updates

‘We Are Nourishing Soup’

As part of our AGM last Friday at #ParkingSpace, we were keen to discuss some of the broader issues surrounding the Stove’s values surrounding the relationship between the Stove, Dumfries and the role of public art. 

We kicked off the debate with Open Jar Collective, and Dot to Dot Active Arts and started to work on a ‘recipe’ for the Stove.
This has felt like the somewhat experimental beginning of a process, which we are hoping to develop more fully over the course of the next few months, and we will be looking for more input from our Stove members during this time – more details to follow on this in the near future.

In the meantime we’d like to share some of our considering vegetables…

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The Contraversial Pear


“Contraversial
Supportive
Non-heriachical
no prejudice
no judgement”

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The Honesty Jar


“Honest and Clear
Communicate
Inclusive
Generous”

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The Critical Thinking Scissors


“Critical thinking
Prepared to take risks
Visionary Work
Make people feel good
…Getting to the point”

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The Blender of Fulfillment


“Surprise
Integration
Accessiblity (conceptual)
Fun
Flavour
Cake
Fulfillment and hungry for more
Challenge yourself”

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The Catalytic Convertor Carton


“Catalytic convertor
People
Locality
Pride of Place
Openness
Inclusiveness
Eventfulness
Joined-upness”

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The Unexpected Fish


The Banana amongst us


The Parterships Tongs 


“Partnerships: Working Together”

More vegetables available on our facebook page here

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News Project Updates

New Stove Artists in Residence.

Guest Blog Alert.

Howdy, my name is Mark Lyken and I’m an audio and visual artist who until very recently, 10 days ago in fact, was based in the sunny South Side of Glasgow. Regular collaborator – artist filmmaker Emma Dove – and myself have moved down, lock, stock and barrel full of equipment to Dumfries to begin a joint six-month public art residency for the lovelies at the Stove Network. We’ll be posting regular rambling updates, sharing discoveries and hopefully stimulating discussion over the course of our time here.

Now the thing about residency applications is that at the point of writing it’s dangerously easy to suggest relocating for the duration of a project largely because the part of your brain that deals in that kind of reality is sporting sunglasses and sipping Mojitos, quietly confident that it’s highly unlikely your application will be successful.  This is the same part of your brain you’ll find waving it’s metaphorical arms in a blind panic when you get a call from Matt Baker actually offering you the gig.

I’m joking of course, (mostly…) in actual fact the move down the road went like clockwork and by Saturday afternoon we were unpacking the very last box, chucking a tent, torch and radio in the car and heading for the Sanctuary 2014 event at Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. Although we were a bit knackered post-move it was a really inspiring event with a relaxed vibe, sound-tracked over the course of 24hrs by a multitude of different roving radios all tuned into The Dark Outside FM broadcast from the hill top Murray’s monument.

All the different models of radio being carried around added very interesting modulations and directionality to the music being received. You might for instance walk past a stationery boom box with decent bottom end with your own trebly handheld radio and become a momentary human high pass filter as you moved in and out of someone else’s earshot, Doppler effects abound – in short, marvelous. There is something about listening to (largely) electronic music when surrounded by very large swathes of nature (or better yet a forest if you happen to have one handy) that seems very fitting. I know it works equally well in urban environments but I do love a bit of electric with my organic. I imagine this is why wooden paneling on synthesisers just feels so damn right.

But I digress…. Personal highlights for us was catching Jeff Barrow of Portishead fame, along with fellow Drokk band member Ben Salisbury, playing a short live performance (that slotted into a ten minute space in the Dark Outside FM playlist) in front of Robbie Coleman’s circular blue neon “enclosure” sculpture (with added dive-bombing bats.) Throughout the night Glasgow label Broken 20’s TVO Orchestra and Erstlaub, along with friends and audience members, performed a partly improvised, partly self-generating set from 10pm to 6am. Yup, that’s 10pm to 6am. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night so you couldn’t see the stars but that didn’t make the location and the event any less epic. Roll on the EAFS Environmental Arts Festival in 2015.

So, down to business. “Who the hell are you two and what are you doing here?”  Well, our collaborative practice involves film, music, sound art, painting and sculpture, which gives us a number of ways to respond to an environment, place or situation. At the core of our work is an interest in exploring relationships to place. Our most recent work – “Mirror Lands” a film and sound installation for the “Imagining Natural Scotland” initiative – explored the delicate balance between nature, industry and rural life on the Black Isle in the Highlands. This piece focused around the local area of the University of Aberdeen’s Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty, finding radically different relationships to place even within that small geographical stretch. During our short time here to date, we have found that events and connections seem to be spread across a much wider area and we have been wondering how that might affect peoples over arching ‘sense of belonging’.

We have always had a vicarious relationship to Dumfries and Galloway through a large circle of friends in Glasgow originating from D&G. What seems to single this bunch out from other friends, other than a worrying tendency for fire poi, is a stronger than average connection with home. Whether that is simply popping “down the road” for the weekend or just in general conversation, home seems to be ever-present. We are at the very beginnings of our project but the idea of migrations to and from Dumfries feels like an interesting starting point.

What drew us to the Stovies in the first place was their refreshingly broad definition of public art and true to that initial impression our remit for this project is wonderfully open, the only real proviso being that the work should be relevant to the people of Dumfries. Our process is a very intuitive and socially engaged one and we work best when there is time to gather as much material as possible and see what emerges.

Whatever form our research and final work takes, it will debut at the opening of The Stoves HQ and Creative Hub at 100 High Street Dumfries, once renovations are complete next year.

It feels like we have arrived at a very exciting time and we hope we can add to this growing buzz. More project-specific guest blog posting to follow and hopefully see you at the Stove’s “Parking Space” event on the 17th and 18th of this month.

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Musings News

Bordeaux and Public Space

The Stove have been coined ‘cultural ambassadors for Dumfries’ as last week we packed our trunks and headed off for Bordeaux.

Why Bordeaux you might have asked?
To which we may have replied, 

‘Although it is undoubtedly bigger, better and sunnier, Bordeaux has several interesting parallels with Dumfries: it was a one-time great trading port on a river; its historic buildings and waterfront had suffered from misuse and neglect. The difference comes in how it has succeeded in regenerating itself in the last decade or so, with a strong focus on culture and environment.’ Indeed.

Bordeaux’s vast infrastructure and city centre regeneration over the past 15 years has focused largely on the riverside, and the design and creation of people friendly places over vehicle orientated ones.

Time and again we gravitated towards the area, for meetings, coffee, discussions and – possibly our most favourite public space, the fountain –also known as the Mirror.

The Mirror, which alternates between a shallow pool and ephemeral fog, forms part of the promenade extending along the river – filled with people on all manner and number of (human powered) wheels. Glasgow based artist Jacqueline Donnachie’s Slow Down project has been tested in a few towns and cities, most recently in Glasgow in the run up to the Commonwealth which sees bikes fitted with chalks that mark the routes taken by cyclists in the city to encourage cycling use… Cycling Dumfries looks to improve cycling closer to home – how could we think about our transport differently?

The city centre’s new look and feel, as well as Bordeaux’s Unesco Heritage status, has had input too on a cultural front with the AGORA (Architecture, Urban Planning and Design) biennale which has grown out of the regeneration works in the town into a fully fledged national event of it’s own standing. This year AGORA coincides with the Nithraid – taking place from 11th – 14th September.. but more on this later!

Of course, as much as the city centre is all absorbing and beautiful, the Stovies got an itch to explore a little more into the periphery spaces of Bordeaux – so we took (the very sleek) tram up to the Bacalan area – which is pretty serious about it’s regeneration on all fronts, as new builds and cranes jostled for space amongst established arts and social enterprise organisations.

Le garage moderne – a social enterprise with groups across France, teaches practical mechanics whilst also doubling up as exhibition space, and artists studios and office spaces – it caught the Stove’s wildest imagination – we’re quickly realising that we could outgrow 100 High Street…

And finally for this week – we’ve become a bit obsessed with the space out the back of the Stove, as we explore the mechanism for creating a new rear entrance for 100 High Street, discussions have been ongoing as to how to alter the sense and atmosphere of a place, especially one with shared use and ownership. Grand plans are being finalised as the impact of 100 High Street and it’s relationship to it’s surroundings grows and changes from the forgotten Happitt store into the Stove proper… as ever, we’ll keep you posted.

Les Vivres de l’Art – one of the wildest creative spaces we came across in Bordeaux.

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