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Expedition preparations

Ullapool Museum has been a great place to research information about  Isle Martin in  between installing my ‘Future Fossil Collection’   (which is now up and running and I am hoping to be able to post a review soon) Isle Martin’s bird reserve records and documents on the Summer Isles have given me a quick over view of the history and wildlife which I am familiarising myself with when I have a quiet minute in the van. Local knowledge as always is proving invaluable.

looking out to Isle MArtin  Isle MArtin from Rhu

The lists and notes are multiplying  and  piles of materials & tools are being put together in the van (as far as possible)  in preparation for my residency on  on Isle Martin where I will carry out  my next beach investigation and to make my floating litter lines/rafts which will be towed  back to the mainland. Some at least I hope for recycling – we shall see. With the help of John MacIntyre local ecologist, engineer and boatman extraordinaire, I was able to make my first landing on the island last Friday to assess the beach I will be mapping the litter on and eventually cleaning .

John & Cal first landing on Isle Martin Back Beach the beach
Landing on the floating pontoon was easy and a great relief for Cal, though I’m sure by the end of the three weeks she will be a true sea-dog as we will have to make the crossing a few times.  Camas a’ Bhuailidh or Back beach is reached easily after a short walk from the harbour. For analysing beach litter it is unfortunately/fortunately perfect approximately 100m long and faces SW collecting litter easily from the prevailing winds and tides. As the island isn’t habited any more and their have been few visitors over the past few years the majority of the litter I note will be washed up, an unusual and  interesting factor. A quick recce along the strandline echoed many of the beach litter lists though much less carpeted with cut net pieces.
We shall see….I am hoping to paddle out to the island at the end of the week weather permitting.  Ullapool High School pupils will join me for a days mapping and constructing on Thursday 22nd.   Many thanks to the Isle Martin Trust for allowing me to lake my Littoral Art Project to the Island and to Kevin Peach and Ullapool Habour Trust for agreeing to ferry the pupils to the Isle and back.

 

 

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Strandline words

In keeping with practice of  the literary figures in town this weekend here for the annual Ullapool Book Festival I am taking time to revisit my notebooks and assess the words that I write while walking the strandlines. Today’s notes from Ardmair beach are almost an item for item copy of  notes made on  numerous beaches in the area.

As the rain falls down on the van I begin chanting  my way down the list which is becoming a repetitive strandline mantra……………..ROPE plastic ……… cap PLASTIC …… toothbrush PLASTIC…….. Crate PLASTIC ….. Bottle PLASTIC …….. cord PLASTIC …….Toy Plastic………….wheel PLASTIC …..BOX plastic……wrapper Plastic…..PLAstic sack…Ball PLASTIC….until I notice that Plastic is effectively a standard prefix for just about any object I use. Now in some kind of stupor I begin to play word games with my most used 7 letters.

words from a strandline

As the rain eases I shake myself out from the power of  ‘PLASTIC’ and  I begin to review the statistics I am beginning to amass on the material.

  • Over 90% of litter we removed from Altandu beach last Saturday was plastic ie over 20Kg per m
  • The British plastics industry makes 2.5 million tonnes a year
  • If the average weight of plastic litter found on beaches is 20kg per 100m that equates to 6.3 million tonnes of plastic lying on our beaches.

Please add any information you have on Plastic by leaving a comment. Thank you

 

 

 

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People Power

Its late afternoon and I am sat in my post van overlooking the summer isles on a dull but wonderful day, the soft white light illuminating a monochrome sandstone beach, I am elated that the only bright green area of the beach is actually a colony of seaweed rather than a ‘colony’ of washed up cut plastic netting.

clean beach  IMG_2113

Altandu beach is the beach that 18 months ago shocked me into taking my work into a new direction and which is now changing my life style, as I begin to work and live (for part of the year) out of a post van along the Scottish coastline. Its late afternoon and I am sat in my post van overlooking the summer isles on a dull but wonderful day, the soft white light illuminating a monochrome sandstone beach, I am elated that the only bright green area of the beach is actually a colony of seaweed rather than a ‘colony’ of washed up cut plastic netting.

Altandhu beach faces West and is the depository of all the NW & SW storms , which can rage for days , it is stunningly ruggedly beautiful. Catriona and David the landowners and landlords of the Am Fuaran Bar have created  Port a Bhaigh campsite one of the most well equipped campsites in the Highlands, which draws people to it for a base to sea kayak, mountaineer, walk and convene with the environment. Yesterday the beach became a hive of intense activity with a group of people working over 3 hours picking up the washed up litter that has collected over the last 4 years since the last intensive beach clean.

beginning to pick litter  3hrs in

The event was organised by two passionate lovers of the area Karin and Willem Meyer who like me have been aware of the mounting rubbish at Altandu over the last few years. Their call for help brought in 20 volunteers throughout the afternoon, each person working in their own way some heading for big pipes, boxes , tangled masses of ropes others painstaking picking out hundreds of small pieces of rope and nets cut on trawlers and washed overboard.

Comments from the volunteers (mostly campers) varied alternately from exclaiming about the never ending pieces of cord and rope within a small area to the great satisfaction at seeing bags filling up. A good feeling but a familiar chilling message especially when counting and weighing  the bags.

volunteers IMG_2096
110 bags were filled and 2 trailer loads of heavy rope, wire and piping was collected from approximately 300m of the beach we cleaned. This morning my weighing session revealed that we had collected approximately 320kg per 100m.  A chilling statistic especially when knowing that over 90% of this litter came specifically from the trawlers fishing in the area and wider area of the Minch .

trailer load IMG_2103
While it will take years to change the practices on boats that are responsible for beach litter in the area, through instigating tighter legislation and employing more enforcement officers (there is only one at present for the whole coastline of Scotland) the power of volunteers is heartening . A keen group of us last night and this morning mulled over what we can do to help keep this beach clean and I suggested an idea to make and install a ‘measuring cylinder’ which beach users could deposit small pieces of rubbish collected on the beaches, inspired by the fishing line bins I have seen along the Dorset coast. The campsite owners are happy to install the ‘measuring cylinder’. So over the next few weeks I will be sketching out the idea, with the hope of raising money to make the first prototype to install here later in the summer.
Watch this space!

 

 

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Relocating a Timeline

My installation at the museum continues to grow and develop daily and on Thursday the children from Achiltibuie Primary School brought their Timeline to the Museum. Unraveled the Timeline now stretches a good 10 metres along the back of the central pews of Ullapool Museum ( a Telford Church), the line itself is made up of lengths of washed up rope. We re-positioned the stones we found on the beaches in relation to the beginning of the world and to then checking their own positions on the line according to their birth dates we then hung the objects we found on the beach last autumn at the points in time that they might disintegrate and disappear if left on the beach.

timeline unravelled   using the space   refernce draws  whole group
Together we recalled the investigation process they undertook with me last year surveying quantifying and analysing who was responsible for different items, all of which will form part of the project folder on view in the Museum next week. In the short time we had the children worked hard to reacquaint themselves with the meaning and significance of the of the Timeline they had brought with them coiled up in a bag and how they might explain the Littoral Art Project investigation process to a group of children from the Ullapool Primary School children. They made full use of the installation in their presentation to the delight of myself and the teachers and by the end of the afternoon their was a great sense of achievement from all. With Museum staff complimenting us on how wonderful it was to hear such excitement in the Museum and to have such an unusual exhibit to offer visitors .

presentation  explaining fossils
The idea is that the Ullapool Primary School will now come back to the museum to examine the Fossil Collection themselves and to use the investigative space to examine and consider the beach litter and its consequences. Who knows they might come up with ideas which might help in future!

 

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Delivery

After a delayed  departure from Edinburgh on Sunday (due to a  wheel balancing epic) our journey north west went well and   I managed to to arrive at  Ullapool Museum on time (10 am)  to begin off loading the many packages making up the Future Fossil   ‘consignment’ .

museum sign with boxes  set up 1

arriving off loading IMG_3185 boxes in space

Now carefully arranging the space, and making decisions as to  how the different elements will be configured in the investigation space.

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Consignment

The selection of the best ‘ fossils’ found on Lochinver, Badentarbet and Ullapool beaches  last autumn with residents and pupils  has been made and they are now all now carefully  boxed and loaded up. It feels wonderfully appropriate for them to be the first ‘consignment’  to transported in my project van taking due care and attention to the vans  Vehicle Tray Layout instructions left by the Royal Mail. The numerous  boxes and display cases will be delivered to Ullapool Museum tomorrow morning to begin the installation of the  ‘Future Fossil  Collection’ the installation process can be viewed  by visitors to the museum Monday to Thursday and will be complete on  Friday The exhibition will run throughout May & June.

consignment CU boxes

consignment 2 tray layout
 

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Thoughts

Sketched out thoughts - Isle Martin - Littoral Art Project

As I begin to kit out my mobile workshop for the project, I am breaking off to make notes about how to organise and carry out my expedition to Isle Martin. A wonderfully exciting prospect especially with the aim to tow the litter away from the island on World Environment Day. If anyone in the area has access to a boat and time on the 5th June  (its a Wednesday) to help tow the ‘Litter Rafts’ to the mainland your support would be much appreciated and  would help to make a big visual statement of what it’s possible to achieve. I am also looking for help/funding to film the ‘flotilla event’ on the 5th so that our event on the west coast  can be seen on line as part of the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP) record of the 2014  World Environment  Day events, they are looking for films to show case what can be achieved!   Please contact me with any suggestions. Many thanks.

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Measurements

Measurements for making an ex mail van into a project workshop are rapidly taking place in order to  kit out the space in  time to return to the west coast to be able to install the ‘Future Fossil Collection’  in Ullapool Museum, which will open to visitors on the 2nd May. The van will also provide  vital back up for my investigation on Isle Martin  and shelter throughout May and June. Progress reports to follow.

Van front sketch van measurements  plan CU van calculations

Any hot tips on insulating and racking out a panel van gratefully received! 

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Plans

Plans are now rapidly taking shape for stage 2 of the project.

Exhibition of the ‘Future Fossil Collection’   has now been allotted a perfect space within the fascinating Ullapool Museum, designed by Telford. Space has also been designated for the inclusion of the  beach litter ‘Timeline’ created by pupils of Achiltibuie Primary School upon which they will place their own birth dates and the objects they found on their beach. The exhibition will open at the beginning of May.

Beach Litter Investigation is now set to take place on Isle Martin the closest of the summer isles in Loch Broom thanks to the permission of the Isle Martin Trust. The Island was once inhabited and then a RSPB reserve before coming into ownership of the community. I am delighted to becoming their first ’artist in residence’. A big thank you to them. While in residence I will be mapping and investigating what I find on the islands westerly storm beaches over 10 days, I will be joined by pupils from Ullapool High School on 2 of the days. After the surveying and mapping I will be collecting the litter into different material categories from which I will be make my litter rafts.

Recycling Journey with the help of skiff rowers (with a few of whom I recently ventured out onto the loch with) I am looking to tow the litter rafts to Ardmair Slipway for collection by the Highland Council recycling team. My aim is to document the journey of each of the rafts through the waste services – for recycling or not.

skiff test row 3    skiff test row 2-1

This second stage of the project is being funded through Crowd Funding and private sponsors as Creative Scotland unfortunately declined funding for this stage of the project even though it ‘understands the importance of the ideas contained in the littoral project and is aware of your ambition to bring those ideas to a wider public through your artistic work. Your proposal was considered to have met all of the fund criteria and would be an interesting project and follow up to the research and development that was supported by CS. However extreme over-subscription of the budget meant other applications were prioritised. It has therefore not been possible to support your project on this occasion. The total request for this round of funding was £5.3million with a budget of £1.1million.’

Creative Scotland has encouraged me to apply again, which I will of course do for the next stage of the project, but for now I am focusing on setting up and running the project activities above. As a consequence of the short fall in funding I will be asking for as much support as possible from the Ullapool community and my sponsors. Many thanks in advance!

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Thankyou

As my crowd funding appeal reaches its conclusion in 24hrs I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has backed this project with donations and  who are supporting me in many different ways to make sure each of the this years events are a success. While I have just reached my target for this appeal any additional donations are very much welcome (as funding from Creative Scotland is as yet not assured).

sponsorship thank you 2014 small file

The Sponsume link http://www.sponsume.com/project/littoral-sci-art-project-2014 to my project is open until tomorrow March 22nd at 12 noon after that donations can be made via PayPal  using my project email littoralartproject@btinternet.com.

Please keep following the project here on the blog by clicking on the Follow button or on the  https://www.facebook.com/LittoralsciArtProject  all comments and ‘Likes’ are much appreciated !