MST VII: Invisible Scotland (1-4 August 2013)

Abstract

Invisible Scotland: An International Gathering of Multidisciplinary Place-Based Researchers in Scotland

Invited speakers from various disciplines will present material concerning ‘invisible’ aspects of Scottish culture, such as the oral tradition, musical ballads, personal narratives, traces of vanished communities, case studies in watersheds and coastal villages, historic ruins, and performances. Scotland itself will be the focus of close investigation by place-based researchers, with the aim of expanding collaborative research about Scotland through research projects. In two days of presentations and performances in Dundee, with two days on a choice of several trips, participants will not only hear and see, but visit firsthand, examples of ‘invisible’ traces in countryside, city, island or community. The audience will be comprised of invited researchers of three separate research networks (artists, landscape architects, architects, curators, geographers, writers, performers and practitioners), Scottish hosts and guests, with the aim of promoting new collaborations concerning Scottish culture through discovery.

Key Aims

  • Firstly, we wish to promote the discovery of less than apparent aspects of Scottish culture and environment, and to work with others who have the knowledge to share in the myriad aspects of present and past life from the perspective of the lived experience. We wish to acknowledge the emotive and nuanced qualities of the past, and to attend to these unseen or unheard elements of Scotland’s rich heritage and contemporary life.
  • Secondly, building on this knowledge, and augmenting this through the travels across the country with guided tours, we wish to continue our collaborative work with individuals and groups across the networks, making new partnerships to explore research projects which specifically concern Scotland’s culture and geography.

Summary of Research Workshop

This international research workshop, hosted by PLaCE Scotland and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (hereinafter, DJCAD) of the University of Dundee, will bring together people of six nations; Scotland itself will be the focus of investigation by place-based researchers, with the aim of expanding collaborative research about Scotland through projects. In presentations and performances, invited speakers from many disciplines will present material concerning the ‘invisible’ aspects of Scottish culture: for example, the oral tradition, music, personal narratives, traces of vanished communities, case studies in watersheds and coastal villages, geographical traces of distant past, and narratives in historic ruins.

Events in this research workshop will be held over four days and on the fifth day a business meeting of (separately) PLaCE and MST will be held, consectutively: in two days of presentations and performances, held in Dundee (Days 1 and 4), the interdisciplinary discourse will be established. Then, participants will follow one of five or six guided study trips, to various destinations by various modes of transport (Days 2 and 3).

Details of these trips will be following soon, but may include:

  • A trip looking at 'transitions'- coastlines, water-to-land transitions, coastal (fishing?) villages, lochs, flatlands to glacial ravines, etc.
  • A trip that has a significant part walking- following a significant (historical) path
  • A highland journey, past Loch Rannoch, through the Rothiemurchas estate, up the the Cairngorms, maybe going on to Inverness
  • A journey dedicated to the flora and fauna of Scotland, looking at the Royal Botanic gardens, Culross medieval gardens, walled gardens, perhaps down into the borders area
  • A trip from Ben Lawers as the source of the Tay watershed, following the river to its mouth at the North Sea
  • A walking trip over abandoned railway lines: ‘Walking the tracks' would 'relive' a certain form of 19th C infrastructure, landscape, and social life.
  • A trip to Edinburgh to look at Demarco collections, then by ferry to Inchcolm island where Macbeth was staged in the ruins of the abbey
  • We might have one additional 'local' Dundee trip that does not go far, but is a guided walk around Dundee itself on Day 2, combining this with a regional bus trip on Day 3 (along with the previous two trip participants). These people would stay on campus for the duration, saving on costs, and would not have a night out in the field.

All will be guided tours, and overnight accommodation ‘in the field’ (for the first five listed) will provide informal time for more discussion and collegial collaboration. The final day (ie, Day 4) will see the return of all the study trip participants, and will feature a roundtable, informal drawings, photos, sketches, journal notes, poems, etc. posted for a sharing session, and the finale and ceilidh.

A publication dedicated to this research workshop is an intrinsic part of the programme; each participant will have material represented in this printed publication, for example: art, photos, poetry, scholarly text, or personal narrative. This will be assembled, printed and distributed within 2 months of the event.

The Participants and the Gathering

This international research workshop, held here in Scotland, assembles a possibly unique combination of people whose focus is place-based research. All participants, including the Scottish hosts, visitors from the UK and five other nations, share a passion for looking beyond the superficial, and work across various disciplines to discover aspects of social culture, history and the lived experience. As that focus is brought to bear here, aspects of oral culture, the spoken word and storytelling, traditional music, vanished communities, medicinal plants and the walled garden, waterways, coastlines and Scotland’s maritime past—among many topics—will be discussed and investigated. Inherent to this overview is the careful attention to the visible and invisible aspects of Scotland’s present and past.

As participants converge in Scotland in August 2013, there will be a large critical mass of artists, scholars and various professionals who are committed to sensitive scrutiny of contemporary urban and rural sites, linking methods of working in and about place through collaboration. Some members of the Scottish public will be invited as well. It is anticipated that approximately 100 to 120 people will participate, but the two days of trips will group individuals who may have further discussions about collaborative projects and research exchanges.

Hosted by PLaCE Scotland

  • Mary Modeen - Convener

Members:

  • Dr. Euan MacArthur
  • Arthur Watson
  • Dr. Lorens Holm
  • Dr. Gina Wall
  • Dr. Nick Waring
  • Matthew Dalziel
  • Louise Scullion

Associate Members:

  • Aidan Williams
  • Dr. Lewis Biggs

Partners in the PLaCE research consortium are:

 
  • Dr. Iain Biggs and the Faculty of Creative Arts, Humanities and Education, University of the West of England (Bristol)
  • Prof. Gini Lee, Elisabeth Murdoch Chair of Landscape Architecture, and the Faculty of Architecture, University of Melbourne (Australia)
  • Assoc. Prof. Christine Baeumler, Department of Art, and Prof. Rebecca Krinke, Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Design, the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA)
  • Marie Mianowski, Département d'études anglaises, Centre International des Langues, University of Nantes (France)

For more information see:
www.uwe.ac.uk/sca/research/place

Partners in the Mapping Spectral Traces Research Network:

As left, and also with:

  • Dr. Karen E. Till
, Department of Geography,
National University of Ireland Maynooth
(Ireland)
  • Dr. Nessa Cronin, Centre for Irish Studies,School of Humanities, 
National University of Ireland Galway
(Ireland)
  • Dr. Judy Tucker
    • , Senior Lecturer, School of Design, University of Leeds (England)

For more information see:
www.mappingspectraltraces.org

See also Land2 research network:
www.land2.uwe.ac.uk
Mapping Spectral Traces