As part of the GUIDEline programme at Longdendale Environmental Centre, near Tintwistle in Derbyshire, Glassball Studio, in partnership with the Peak District National Park Authority, have curated a season of special artist-led activities and workshops for visitors to Park’s boundary.
In this workshop you will explore the micro-boundary with artist Antony Hall identifying species through macrophotography, collecting samples, learning how to make moss batteries and micro-boundary detectors. You will also create a miniature boundary terrarium (sealed self-sufficient ecosystem) to take away.
Following on from our ‘Tracing the Bounday’ events, from archaeology walks to lumen printmaking, we offer this unique opportunity to carefully seek an experiential cross-section following a pre-defined Peak District boundary segment. We will document this process by collecting samples (microscopic creatures, plants, minerals, sounds) and explore how these things interact within this hypothetical boundary space. To manifest this otherwise invisible space, we will create boundary-generating devices: transmitters that feed on the site (using microbial fuel cells embedded within the soil). This workshop is being offered as part of Anthony’s micro-commission with Glassball Studio for the GUIDEline project.
The workshop is based at the Longdendale Environmental Centre, during which we will follow the boundary along Bottoms Reservoir, where we will stop to collect our moss samples with the supplied eqiupment. The walk to the selected site will take about 10-15 minuets at a steady pace.
Glassball Studio would like to showcase works made during this workshop at a GUIDEline exhibition in the local area, which is due to take place in the Autumn. This season of events is made possible by support from the Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Peak District National Park Authority.
GOOD TO KNOW:
– Longdendale Environmental Centre is a fully accessible venue, with plenty of parking, or it is a 25min walk from Hadfield train station.
– No previous experience or specialist equipment needed. Materials provided.
– If you are interested in learning more about nature recording and want to record and upload your results digitally during the workshop, please download iNaturalist, which we will be using during the workshop.
– This workshop is open to all, however we do recommend it would be best suited to children 12yrs+. Please also be aware that there will be uneven ground when collecting samples along the boundary.
– Please bring along your own digital cameras and/or camera phones.
– The number for each walk is limited to 12 participants, so please book your place now so we can safely manage numbers during the events.
– The events are COVID aware and hand sanitiser will be provided when sharing specialist equipment.
– Refreshements will be provided during the workshop.
– Due to unpredictable weather, please wear suitable all weather clothing and sensible footwear.
– A small payment is requested to secure your place and to help us manage numbers. A full refund will be given once you have attended the event.
GUIDEline
GUIDEline is an arts and heritage project delivered by artists from Glassball Studio with the support from the Peak District National Park Authority, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. The project is exploring the legacy of the formation of the first National Park in the UK, with a focus on the northwest boundary area (from north of Glossop to Marsden), in particular what it means to us today to live, work and visit along a mark made on a map 70 years ago. For more information please go to www.guideline.org.uk.
Antony Hall
I am an artist, educator and researcher working between the fields of science and art. My practice is often collaborative and distributed across many mediums, including workshops, drawing, sculpture, installation, and sound art. Projects take scientific experiments and concepts as a starting point; these are then re-created and re-invented, outside of their scientific context. This process leads to new lines of enquiry and experiments which become the basis for new artworks and workshops. The work often incorporates live processes: generative sound, self-contained ecosystems, or illusory perceptions.
I am a member of several artist collectives including, Proximity, para-lab, and Owl Project. Owl Project is known for performance [sound art] and sculptures that combine elements of crafts and electronics. Most notably, we were commissioned to create ~in collaboration with Ed Carter to devise ~Flow, as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad,a floating water mill that powered an installation full of mechanical wooden and electronic musical instruments which responded to and data collected from the river water. (https://antonyhall.net)
Glassball Studio
Glassball Studio is an interdisciplinary arts practice founded in 2002 by artists Cora Glasser and David Ball. Glassball Studio uses a wide range of working processes to find ways in which genuine co-creation can occur in the making of an artwork. The interdisciplinary practice is reactive, creating a response through collaboration that is embedded within place. Each artwork is temporal and often transient in its use of material and installation, its creation is always site-specific. Over the past 19 years, artworks through this practice have spanned from audio works, publications, subterranean events, participatory performance, lens-based works, to public works of art, light and action. To find out more please go to www.glassball.uk.
Image credit: Antony Hall, bio-boundary generator, 2022