In May 2022, we invited six local artists, composers and ecologists to undertake some fieldwork in their own time around Folkestone. We gathered on the 3rd July to share and discuss traces and stories. The event was hosted by URBAN ROOM for Open Quarter 2022 and was open to the public. We set a deadline for the completion of traces for a few weeks after that. Participants were invited to orient their activity around one or more of three quotations:
'Knowledge is formed along paths of movement in the weather-world’ (Tim Ingold, 2010) ‘Setting sun. A mourning dove compounds invisible declensions’ (Susan Howe, 2015) ‘Between earth and sky, a breath comes and goes, joining one to the other’ (Luce Irigaray, 2001)
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When Diane walked, she contemplated the contours and proportions of the landscape she was passing through, later generating a series of sketches.
Rubiane walked at the Warren Beach, Folkestone, paying particular attention to the ground, visualising drawings and thinking about the earth’s surface in the context of her interest in geomancy. She made photographs and subsequently used these as the basis for drawings made on tracing paper.
Sophie walked the three-and-a-half miles from Folkestone Harbour to her home and submitted an audio visual piece arising from her walk.
Emmanuelle Waeckerlé <a href="https://walkinginair.bandcamp.com/album/walking-in-air-in-folkestone">Walking in Air in Folkestone by Emmanuelle Waeckerle</a>
Emmanuelle walked in Thornton Heath again while thinking of Folkestone, contributing audio and video recordings of her ‘whistle-walking’, under the title ‘joining one to the other’. Her accompanying text places her recordings in the context of previous ‘readwalking’ and ‘readwriting’ work and of our ongoing project.
Mick’s walk around Folkestone and the seafront accompanied by Diane was documented with a series of black & white photographs taken with a 1/2 frame Olympus camera, in his usual manner of ‘shooting from the hip’. These are assembled here as a slideshow alongside a photogram of ‘some bits of sea glass that I picked up as we came across the Warren beach towards the end of the walk’.
Maureen walked in Oare Marshes Nature Reserve, drawing on her experience to produce a visual score (which allows a refracted version of her experience to be enacted elsewhere). There is further documentation on Maureen’s website.’
Mel walked on the Kent Downs behind Folkestone at Peene Quarry and along the North Downs Way looking towards Folkestone. She recorded a monologue as she reacted to her surroundings, subsequently submitting a transcript. ‘Marvelling at our beautiful planet and how and what energy flows and keeps it all working and in place on the surface of the planet. Comparing Mars and what the scientists think has happened there to create the desert planet we see now.’
