Wavescape

The video and sound installation WAVESCAPE forms a vital component of an ambitious body of work connected by underlying themes and threads.

Much of my photographic and video work has explored moments involving the encounter between people and nature, and the implicit human desire to experience the 'sublime'. I have been interested in exploring photography's fundamental role as a mediator, particularly in terms of imagery generated.

The Severn Bore wave is my inspiration and primary source material for this practice led research project. The banks of the Severn bear traces of the Bore; erosion etched into the landscape, and grasses and reeds broken down and covered in a fine layer of mud by the post-wave floods. There are also traces left by the crowds - areas of grass and reeds flattened by the shuffling of a crowd of individuals rather than by the continuous force of the wave. I am interested in these evidential traces and in how they signify the presence of the crowd in relation to the surge of the water. Furthermore, I am interested in how far the wave's status as 'event' is defined through the act of it being seen - through the presence of the crowd as witness, and in relation to the film, as a frame through which this natural phenomenon can be viewed.

In relation to 'meaning', it is a highly mobile phenomenon, existing in many different capacities depending on the context or agenda with which it is viewed. I am interested both in what these crowds bring to the event, and also in what inspires them to come in the first place: They are there to witness the spectacle, but through that, to connect with something that taps into the Romantic notion of the Sublime. I am interested in making a depiction of this event that is framed through the presence of the crowds because it is that presence which gives it a contemporary context, and which grounds it in the ordinary, the everyday. In these terms, I am interested in the relationship between contingency and the sublime, where the crowds seem to constitute the contingent frame for this sublime spectacle of nature.

Working with a professional film crew, I will film the crowds of people as they gather at night to watch the wave. Lit by an ambient single source spotlight, these clusters of people are fore-grounded as a key element in the entire spectacle. I am interested in building upon and critiquing the British pictorial landscape tradition through opening up more dynamic, self-conscious modes of engaging with representations of the Sublime in landscape art as well as the landscape itself.

As well as the filmed footage produced, I will gather sound from the midst of the crowds and this will form another crucial aspect of my source material. The sound is relevant as it will provide a strong sense of narrative to more abstract imagery. Spoken references to the wave; the time it's due, low level anxieties that it has been missed, or that it will not happen that night, combined with every day banter, jokes, reminiscences etc, will provide a counterpoint to the wave itself, which will be evoked through the sound of the water as it surges past. The sound track will dynamically combine both of these elements, grounding this sublime natural phenomenon into the context of the everyday vernacular.

I'm interested in how this natural spectacle has played out over centuries, and is thus imbued with its own hidden narratives which are inextricably linked to the landscape, to time, to local mythology, to the cycles of the moon, and to the geography and sociology of the region. I am interested in how to infuse a landscape subject with narrative. I will aim to resolve formal questions of moving image and sound with an archaeology of place, and, through defining a relationship between the wave and its audience, in exploring the possibility of making a work that could function as a celebration of the vernacular sublime.

Members of the local community will benefit from this project through participating as members of the audience. This is in the context of an ambitious outreach project that is being planned alongside the main body of research where the same audience members will be filmed over three consecutive nights, (see case for support, page 3 of 5). They will benefit through being actively involved in the creation of an artwork, both conceptually and also in practical/ technical terms. They will witness the research process from start to finish, and will then have the opportunity to engage with the finished output in a gallery context. I will advertise widely for participants, in the local press, the local camera club, art groups etc. as well as in the local pub and also from nearby educational institutions such as University of Gloucester and the University of West of England so as to attract a group from as wide a demographic as possible.

The wider community will benefit through engagement with the work, both as a body of research and also in how it is disseminated in its final form as a video/ sound installation work which forms the basis of a touring exhibition.

The crew working on the film will benefit through having the opportunity to develop their technical, conceptual and social skills in a professional, rigorous and meaningful context.

Sections of the community who could also benefit include:
Future generations, to whom the work will function as a unique record of a unique natural phenomenon, because the Bore wave is currently under threat by the proposed construction of the Severn Barrage (see case for support, note 5)

The tourist industry, because the film will publicise/ draw attention to the Severn Bore thus attracting visitors to the area, and bringing benefits to the regions wealth and culture.

I have a strong track record of exhibiting my work internationally, so would seek out international venues in which to exhibit the final out put, which would draw attention to the phenomenon of the Severn Bore in an international context. Galleries I have a long term, ongoing relationship with include Nichido Contemporary Art in Tokyo and Alberto Peola Arte Contemporanea in Turin, Italy.

Local artist groups such as the Gloucester Art Trail Organisation (GATO) which organises an annual art festival in Gloucester every spring, and which I would endeavor to have the work included in. GATO includes partners such as Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery Tewkesbury Art Depot, Glos. Printmaking Co-op, Trier Artists group (Junge Kunst Trier), Cheltenham Art and Gloucester Society of Artists.

The University of Kingston will benefit institutionally through being named as supporter of the project whenever it is disseminated nationally and internationally in all media, both in terms of publicity and also in that it will strengthen its research profile, and also inspire students to become in involved in a research career.