Aug 5, 2014
Thanks to Inga Tillere for this video still from my live performance for radio of a specially commissioned new short story, ‘High-Lands’, which has been written in the past few days as part of Remote Performances.
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada
seen from Netherlands
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from Russia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
Thanks to Inga Tillere for this video still from my live performance for radio of a specially commissioned new short story, ‘High-Lands’, which has been written in the past few days as part of Remote Performances.
High Lands
I was privileged to be able to perform ‘High-Lands’ in Outlandia yesterday, and against two stunning backdrops: one provided by the sublime and sunlit vastness of the south face of ‘the Ben’ — Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland and the UK — the other a soundscape by Johny Brown of the legendary Band of Holy Joy. I find the process of collaborating with a musician fascinating and productive, it can allow you to see your work through another’s eyes, to glimpse a different structure, to feel gravitational eddies in the text that they have sensed and are using to propel their own sound, to create their own story. Johny found a way to use elements of my text to create a big emotional punch at the end of the broadcast, which, if you missed it, I won’t spoil for you by describing here. You’ll just have to listen to it yourself when the file goes online. The title of my story is of course a nod not just to my current Scottish location overlooking the isles of Rhum and Eigg across the Sound of Arisaig from the coast of Lochaber, but also to Thomas Pynchon’s 1960 short story ‘Low-Lands’. In writing ‘High-Lands’ I used the remoteness of this location, and a corresponding temporal distance, to carve out a space where I might be able to explore thoughts about village life, class, and access to arts education, and to try and anatomise a republican impulse connected to punk and the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but always bearing in mind the late Donald Barthelme’s dictum that you must ‘break their hearts’ — and it was this impulse that Johny identified in the text and amplified with his soundscape. Elements of the story are drawn from my current research using fiction to explore a particular republican strand in the work of the UK artist Stuart Brisley.
“The Sound of Lochaber #Distillation” broadcast as part of Radiophrenia, April 15th 2014. Radiophrenia is a temporary art radio station – a week-long exploration into current trends in sound and transmission arts. Broadcasting live from Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts.
"Who owns Scotland is by John McEwen from c.1977, the first of the land reform movement looking at landlords and estates, in an attempt to find out who actually owned the large estates of the Highlands. And in the introduction he questions whether it has been a 'gowk's errand' on the 1st April. Gowk is a northern name for cuckoo." Geoff Sample
"Dream Isles is from 1931, one of many such 'guides' as the Highlands opened up to the motorist and became portrayed as a kind of Shangri-La." Geoff Sample
Johny Brown photographed by Alison Lloyd.
Tracey Warr's Outlandia writer's workshop. Photography by Alison Lloyd.
VENT: a performance score generated by Jenny Jackson in response to Lisa O'Brien's sketch: Force 12 Remembered 'Hurricane Maria' 2005. The process is described by Lisa O’Brien in conversation with Tam Dean Burn as part of the Artists Broadcast, Wednesday 6th August.