September - I take stock

Early September
With the figures almost ready and the beaches increasingly mean with their string, I decide to turn my focus to the other aspects of the exhibition. I want to create a sense of place, a context in which the figures and the visitors meet and understand each other. I imagine an installation rather than an exhibition. I decide to spread sand on areas of the floor space around the figures. This will cover the bases on which they stand and allow the figures to stand in sand but, more importantly, it will protect the visitor from any overcrowding of the figures. It will keep a sense of calm. Also, I will start to prepare a soundscape. Initially, I plan that the sound of the sea on the shore will form the base and that additional layers will form what could be a sound sculpture or at least the hint of a sculpture. The last thing I want to do is to take the sea shore and manipulate it. Sculpture is often about transformation – taking one thing and creating another and this is the case with the string. But I don’t want to create another thing from the sea sounds or from the sand. I think that to attempt to sculpt the sea is stupid and to sculpt the sand is silly. The sand can lie as it is. As for the soundscape, I think that I have two choices: either I record the sea and present it as is - as good a recording as I can get with my equipment - but at least honest. Or, I take elements of sound that may or may not be extracted from a recording of the sea and I transform these into something that references the sea and aims to invoke the feeling of being near the sea.
Gordon frm AnTobar emails to offer equipment for the soundscape – I will take up his offer when I spend a weekend on Mull later this month. In the meantime, I will explore the potential of soundscapes further.