ShapeShift: Friday night on the Bournemouth Belle

Sunday 27 May 2007

Friday night on the Bournemouth Belle

Friday25th May was a calm and pleasant evening perfect for a boat trip to view the Durlston Coast. We set off from Swanage and travelled along to Old Harry then back along the coast to Dancing Ledge. The rock formations were fantastic. All that we had learnt from working with Sam really helped us to appreciate what we were looking at. Robin senior ranger from Durlston Country park gave us a very informative commentary not just on the birdlife but on the structures of the cliffs and the history of their formation. There is a horizontal fault that runs from Durlston all the way along the coast. This is known as the Puffin Ledge but the Puffins were in hiding on Friday night!! We have walked the Dorset Coastal Path many times over the past 35 plus years blissfully unaware of the cliffs and rock formations under our feet, a walk in Durlston park will never be the same again

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Science Art Environment Residency at Durlston on the Jurassic Coast

ShapeShift; landscape in motion This is a live record of research towards an artwork which takes as it's starting point the geology of the Jurassic coast - 185million years of the earth's history. Abigail Reynolds is an artist working with two scientists, Sam Gibbs, a micropalentologist from Southampton Oceanography Centre and mathematician Bjorn Stanstede from the University of Surrey to analyse the landscape around Durlston Country Park. They are working with a small group from the local community to explore specific points in the area nominated by the group members. These points in the landscape are gateways into considering the significance of the geology along the Jurassic Coast. The final artwork will be exhibited in Durlston Castle over July and August 2007

ShapeShift

The title of this project, "Shapeshift; landscape in motion” makes clear that the premis of the project: the landscape is essentially fragile and unstable, shaped by a range of environmental factors changing over the millennia and now more rapidly shifting. Our traditional sense of the landscape as more powerfully aloof to human influence has undergone a reversal with cultural acceptance of anthropogenc climate change. The focus of our enquiry is microfossils, markers of huge climate changes, which comprise the limestones and shales along the local coastline. As these come into being, evolve and become extinct, we see the changing climate in their shapes. In turn plankton are part of the macro-shape of the coastline, part of the story that determines which rocks are hard and will resist erosion, which will collapse into bays and valleys. The consideration of shapes on different scales, as meaningful markers in the landscape is therefore key to the direction of the project. The final art work will be a large-scale sculpture built from locally sourced recycled materials, much of it from the castle itself, the site for the exhibition, which is currently undergoing refurbishment. This material decision puts the changed power dynamic between homosapiens and the natural environment centre-stage, reminding us that whole landscapes are now created by landfill.

ShapeShift

Sunday 27 May 2007

Friday night on the Bournemouth Belle

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Science Art Environment Residency at Durlston on the Jurassic Coast

Durlston castle

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ShapeShift

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