FRIDAY, 9 September 2016, 6-8pm: Exhibition Launch of Glas Journal 2016 by Silvia Loeffler
Glas Journal: A Deep Mapping of Dún Laoghaire Harbour (2014-2016)
In Old Irish, the word glas is reserved for the indefinite shades of green, blue and silver that are present in the sea. This chromatic generosity is used as a marker for this alternative mapping project that crosses art with geography and is called Glas Journal.
Glas Journal 2015 was based on 14 hand-size and hand-made artist books representing sequential harbour locations bordering the sea between the West and the East Pier of Dún Laoghaire Harbour. The books were made in the artist’s studio in the old Coast Guard Station, one of the spaces that shape this particular stretch of coastline. Each book slowly became layered with prints of old maps, historic photographs, quotes by maritime historian John de Courcy Ireland and other liquid mappings stained in ink and, often, becoming abstract paintings. To reflect the meanings of the harbour as a sanctuary and space of protection, a scenographic representation of the two harbour arms was set up in the former Mariners’ Church that now houses the Maritime Museum of Ireland. The installation also evoked the atmosphere of a place by the sea that has been shaped by loss, separation and nostalgia, and is trying to find new passages to cross the unknown. The journals were homed in this haven as if they were reference points on a maritime map.
For Glas Journal 2016, 14 handmade books have been made through collaborations with people who live, work and feel associated with different locations in Dún Laoghaire Harbour. Participants included: former and current residents of the old Coast Guard Station; individuals who work or have worked with the Commissioners of Irish Lights; RNLI Life Boats volunteers and staff; personnel of the Ferry Terminal; the Quay Fish Shop; MGM Boats and the Marina; individuals associated with St. Michael’s Rowing Club and the harbour’s four yacht clubs, Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club; Royal Irish Yacht Club; Royal St. George Yacht Club; National Irish Yacht Club; and individuals employed by the Irish National Sailing School and the Dún Laoghaire Power Boat School. A personalised 'Glas Journal' was made for each location and the books record what their harbour space means to these individuals. More than 30 participants agreed to take part in the documentation of ‘their’ place in the harbour.
Glas Journal 2016 Exhibition
For the final project exhibition, both series of artist books will be displayed in the Maritime Museum within an installation of projected harbour arms, forming a ‘place ballet’ of familiarity and attachment. The 28 books are a testimony to the careful as well as caring mapping of shoreline buildings and maritime activities, and of places that make up the fabric of our daily lives -- the ones we call ‘home’, ‘haven’ or ‘harbour’.
Accompanying Project Publication
Loeffler, Silvia (2015). ‘Glas Journal: Deep Mappings of a Harbour or the Charting of Fragments, Traces and Possibilities’ in Humanities 2015, 4, 457–475.
Available online at: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/3/457/html
Biography
Dr. Silvia Loeffler is an artist, researcher and educator in Visual Culture. Visual material and critical writing are her guides to establish a narrative of public intimacy. She is currently an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Maynooth University in the Department of Geography, and lectures on the deep-mapping of spaces at the National College of Art and Design. Glas Journal was the first project in the context of artist-led participatory research practice that the Irish Research Council funded on a postdoctoral level for a period of two years, and it was mentored by Dr. Karen Till from the Geography Department at Maynooth University.
Using the Proclamation: Art, Activism, and the Academy
Royal Irish Academy, Tuesday 26 April, 14.00-17.00
With Nell Regan, Robert Ballagh, Una Mullally, Andrew Duggan, Rory Hearne, Gerry Kearns
Book here.
How is the Proclamation made use of in modern Ireland? This panel is convened to discuss the academic, cultural and political aspects of the use of the Proclamation during this time of commemoration. Nell Regan is the author of Helena Molony: A Radical Life (Arlen House, 2016). Molony was central to a group of women from the Irish Citizens Army and from Cumann na mBan who used the very first anniversary of the Rising to re-affirm the cause, purpose and necessity of the Republic. As part of this effort, they produced a facsimile of the 1916 Proclamation and pasted these up around Dublin. Robert Ballagh is an artist and activist who has repeatedly returned to 1916 and to the Proclamation as part of a republican politics that seeks to hold modern Ireland to the promise of the Proclamation. He is a leading figure in Reclaim 1916, a movement that is staging a rally on 24 April to commemorate what they hold to be the unredeemed obligations Irish society and politics still has to the Rising and its statement of principles its Proclamation.
David Rooney, Printing the Proclamation, 2016, from the Royal Irish Academy’s 1916 Print Series. Lithograph 670×452 mm. Image used with permission of the Royal Irish Academy
Una Mullally is a journalist and is the author of a thrilling history of the Marriage Equality movement in Ireland, In the Name of Love: The Movement for Marriage Equality in Ireland, an Oral History(History Press, 2014). She has been engaged with the #WakingtheFeminists movement that roared back when the Abbey Theatre’s 1916 Programme had but one piece by a woman among its ten programmed plays. Rory Hearne is Senior Policy Analyst at TASC, Think-tank for Action on Social Change. Some of his research on housing, human rights and community activism is published in Public Private Partnerships in Ireland: Failed Experiment or the Way Forward for the State?(Manchester University Press, 2011), a winner of the Book of the Year Award from the Geographical Society of Ireland.
David Rooney, Reading the Proclamation, 2016, from the Royal Irish Academy’s 1916 Print Series. Lithograph 670×452 mm. Image used with permission of the Royal Irish Academy.
Andrew Duggan is a visual artist and is the curator of Proclamation, a series of lens-based works responding to the provocation of the Proclamation. The seven works in this event ‘offer contemporary artistic responses to notions of place, language, citizenship, and identity to which the 1916 proclamation may seem to lay claim.’ Proclamation will be seen in New York, Dublin, Paris, London, and Brussels. Gerry Kearns is a human geographer at Maynooth University. He is the author of Geopolitics and Empire (Oxford University Press, 2009), a co-editor of Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis (Royal Irish Academy, 2014), and is a member of the Geosciences and Geographical Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. This research on the uses of the Proclamation is funded by the Irish Research Council as part of the New Foundations projects.
Attendance at the conference is free but pre-booking is essential and may be completed here
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/using-the-proclamation-arts-activism-and-the-academy-tickets-24429420053?aff=es2.
Until 27 September: Exhibition: Glas Journal 2015 - Deep Mappings of Dun Laoghaire Harbour, artist Silvia Loeffler, National Maritime Museum of Ireland
The exhibition 'Glas Journal 2015 - Deep Mappings of Dun Laoghaire Harbour' is ongoing until 27 September at the Maritime Museum. Space&Place Friend, IRC scholar and visual artist Silvia Loeffler created a series of hand-size and hand-made artist books that document 14 sequential harbour locations between the West and the East Pier bordering the sea in Dun Laoghaire. The books have been made in her studio space in the old Coast Guard Station, one of the spaces that shape this particular stretch of coastline. A scenographic representation of the two harbour arms set up in the former Mariners' Church, now housing the Maritime Museum of Ireland, that evokes the meanings of the harbour as a sanctuary or space of protection. The journals are homed in this haven as if they are reference points on a maritime map, evoking the atmosphere of a place by the sea that has been shaped by loss, separation and nostalgia and is trying to find new passages to cross the unknown. Details on the exhibit and a link to an article about the project are below.
Deep Mappings of Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Article about Glas Journal and deep mapping http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/3/457/html
Article about Glas Journal and deep mapping http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/3/457/html
Friday-Sunday, 27-29 March, 'Bodies in Conflict' Corp_Real Symposium and Galway Dance Days
(PDF brochure)
Wednesday, February 4: Launch of Martina O'Brien's 'Casting Territory', Waterways Centre, Dublin 2, 6pm (ongoing until 28 February)
Special S&P Event: Saturday, February 21: Guided walk and exhibition visit, with artist, anglers, and Maynooth Geographers CASTING TERRITORY: A Contemporary River Keepers' Index of Lesser Known Patterns
Event details (PDF)
CASTING TERRITORY: A Contemporary River Keepers’ Index of Lesser Known Patterns
MARTINA O’BRIEN
In Collabroation with The DODDER ANGLERS CLUB
4th – 28th of February 2015
Three Locations: RUA RED’s Pop Up Exhibition Space, Tallaght | Royal Dublin Society Library and Archives, Ballsbridge | Waterways Ireland Visitors Centre, Grand Canal Quay
Preview: 4th February, 6pm, kindly opened by Ruairi O’Cuiv and Katherine Atkinson
Venue: The Waterways Ireland Visitors Centre, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin 2
Casting Territory: A Contemporary River Keepers’ Index of Lesser Known Patterns, is a collaborative art project by artist Martina O’Brien and The Dodder Anglers Club, Dublin, which utilizes the art of fly-tying to explore the angler’s inherent knowledge of flora and fauna, physical geography and role as guardians of the River Dodder. Enabled by a process of exploration into the fundamentals of imitation in conjunction with specific accumulated knowledge, the angler’s’ insight into the river is visually conveyed within these alternative flies. The exhibition is divided across three locations allowing a complete narrative to unfold along the length and breath of the river’s axis. Casting Territory was supported by an Arts Council Artist in the Community Scheme Project Realization Award managed by Create, National development agency for collaborative arts.
PROGRAMMED EVENTS:
- 7th of February, RUA RED, fly tying demonstration followed by artist-led discussion with Gareth Kennedy, Martina O’Brien and members of the Dodder Anglers core group, 2-4pm
- 21st of February, Collaborative Discussion with Dr. Karen E. Till, Maynooth University, Director of MA in Geography, Katherine Atkinson, Professional Development, Create, Martina O'Brien and The Dodder Anglers, 10am-1pm. This event will start in The
- RDS Library and Archives, Ballsbridge and involve a walk to The Waterways Centre, Grand Canal Quay. Prior booking essential, please email [email protected] to reserve a space.
Community Mapping Workshop NUI Galway (registration required)
Community Knowledge Initiative & Ómós Áite: Space, Place Research Network, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway
Envisioning Our Vibrant Communities: Community Mapping as Transdisciplinary Research and Practice
Public Lecture and Workshop
Thursday November 6th 2014
Moore Institute, NUI Galway
This public lecture and workshop will be conducted by Dr. Nick Gant, Community 21 (http://community21.org/) and the University of Brighton with colleagues, Joshua Barnes and Joe Palmer, and facilitated by Dr. Tim Collins, Dr. Nessa Cronin (Ómós Áite, Centre for Irish Studies) and Ann Lyons (Community Knowledge Initiative), NUI Galway.
Both events are free, but as numbers are limited it is necessary to book in advance. To book your place, please email Ann Lyons at: [email protected] on or before Friday 31st October 2014.
Programme:
10.30am: Registration
11.00am-12.30pm: Public Lecture: Community Engagement: Mapping and Envisioning Projects
In this lecture Nick Gant will discuss his work in utilising a range of innovative, co-designed ‘digi-tools’ for enabling sustainable neighbourhood planning.
12.30pm-1.00pm: Walking Tour of exhibition Interpreting Landscape: Tim Robinson and the West of Ireland / Rianú Talún: Tim Robinson agus Iarthar na hÉireann, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway.
1.00pm-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm-4.00pm: Workshop: Technology Tools and Community Mapping
Participants will collaborate and use some of the fun and accessible technology tools to create an interactive, augmented map of animated community stories, ideas and issues for a vibrant community.
27-30 March 2014: Lifeworlds: Space, Place and Irish Culture International Conference, NUI Galway, and Galway Dance Days Festival, Galway City
Lifeworlds: Space, Place and Irish Culture International Conference, NUI Galway, and Galway Dance Days Festival, Galway City
Ómós Áite/Space/Place Research Group at NUI Galway Centre for Irish Studies, hosted their first international conference: Lifeworlds: Space, Place and Irish Culture. It was held in conjunction with the Galway Dance Festival, curated by dance-artist-geographer Dr Ríonach Ní Néill. Details below:
Lifeworlds: Space, Place and Irish Culture International Conference, NUI Galway, and Galway Dance Days Festival, Galway City
For more information, please contact conference organisers: Dr Tim Collins [email protected] and Dr Nessa Cronin [email protected] and the conference Website: www.nuigalway.ie/centre_irish_studies/
Galway Dance Days Festival, 28-30 March 2014
Lifeworlds was a partner symposium to the Galway Dance Days Festival and Corp_Real Symposium, curated by the Galway Dancer in Residence, and Ómós Áite affiliated artist, Dr Ríonach Ní Néill. The Corp_Real Symposium is a locus for artists and scholars interested in body-based practice and performance to share knowledge of practice, performance and research. Events for Galway Dance Days take place at the Town Hall Theatre, NUI Galway and various Galway city and county locations.
Contact details: Ríonach Ní Néill -
[email protected]
For further details see
www.ciotog.ie and
www.facebook.com/galwaydancedays
Friday, 6 December:
Space&Place/Ómós Áite Special Workshop: 'Feminist Research Practice', with guest, Professor Linda McDowell, Univ. of Oxford, at CREATE Filmhouse office, Dublin 2A small group of invited Irish and international artists, practitioners and scholars discussed the possibilities and challenges accompanying feminist research practices, sharing experiences from their own work. A highlight of the workshop was the opportunity to learn from feminist geographer Professor Linda McDowell. As part of this discussion, individuals from different backgrounds, disciplines and fields of practice will try to 'translate' what feminist practice means for creative and research projects.
This invitation only workshop is a special collaborative event between Space&Place, Maynooth University, and Ómós Áite, NUI Galway, with support from CREATE Ireland and Maynooth University Geography.
For details and more information, contact: [email protected]
Art&Geography Ireland and Galway Dance Days (May 16-18 2013)
Art and Geography Event Program (PDF Document)
Short Biographies and Abstracts (PDF Document)
Galway Dance Days Performances (PDF Document)
Galway Dance Days Poster (PDF document)
The Space&Place/Ómós Áite research networks and the Galway Dancer in Residence collaborated on Art&Geography Ireland during Galway Dance Days and the annual Conference of Irish Geographers, Department of Geography, NUI Galway. Artists, academics, practitioners and curators explored shared concerns related to space, place, landscape, environments, bodies, communities and activism over three days of performances, workshops, film shorts, panel discussions and academic papers.
We ex0plored how research and creative practices might result in transformative spatial imaginaries. In some of our workshops, we engaged with the works of radical geographer David Harvey, a plenary speaker at the conference, such as through a workshop run by artist/architect's Blaithin Quinn's on Harvey's notion of 'Spatial Fix'. Additional Art&Geography workshops included those run by Jackie Bourke and Alan Mee. A highlight of Art&Geography Ireland include a work in progress public reading of ‘riverrun’, adapted and performed by Olwen Fouéré through the voice of the river in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (a full production and premiere of this new work will take place at the Galway Arts Festival 2013).
Participants and Space&Place members participated in ‘Dance Days’, the Galway Dancer in Residence Public Programme, that included theatre and site-specific performances by Irish and international dance artists and companies La Veronal, Fitzgerald & Stapleton, and Elena Giannotti, and with Galway Dance Project workshops with Ambra Bergamasco and Elena Giannotti.
A publication is being worked on following this exciting event. For additional information, please email: [email protected].
PUBLICATION: The Red Stables Summer School: Jul – Aug 2012
Launched by the Dublin City Council Arts Office, the artistic book, The Red Stables Summer School: Jul – Aug 2012, Edited by Seán O Sullivan, details two major projects, Seoidín O’Sullivan’s Field Work and Geraldine O’Reilly’s Weeds Are Plants Too!. Alongside
more than sixty full-colour illustrations, the book includes essays by Seán O Sullivan, Dr. Karen E. Till [Cultural Geographer, Maynooth University ], and Dr. Declan Doogue, [Botanist, Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club]. It is printed lithographically on high quality book paper in an edition of 250 copies, and it is available through the Red Stables Arts Office and DCC.
February 2013
Art and Geography Conference, Lyon: Art et Géographie – Esthétiques et pratiques des savoirs spatiaux
12 members and affiliates of Space&Place, with Ómós Áite (NUI Galway) and the international Mapping Spectral Traces networks, presented papers, led workshops, explored works in progress, exhibited and discussed films, and offered performances at this international conference. Conference participants will be invited to contributed to a publication on the same theme.
This project is supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland.
November, Butler Art Gallery and Commanage Artistic Collaborative, Kilkenny
RE:COLLECTING
Re:Collecting: an evening of conversations and presentations reflecting the past and future uses of the Evans' Home site. The event may include a publication launch. Light refreshments will be served.
Re:Collecting is an exploration of Evans' Home by architectural researcher Lisa Cassidy, artist Gypsy Ray, and geographers Gerry Kearns and Karen Till. This historic site is the future home of the Butler Art Gallery. In addition to a publication launch, a historic walk led by Prof. Kearns, and public discussion with researchers and artists was hosted on Nov. 10 in Kilkenny and St. John's Priory that reflected upon the past and future uses of the Evans' Home site.
Re:Collecting is an iteration of The Interim Project and records a moment of pause and reflection, between past and future inhabitation. The Butler Gallery wishes to acknowledge the financial assistance provided under the Built Heritage element of the Environment Fund by the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht. Re-Collecting was curated by Commonage.
Event poster. (PDF file)
For more information, see: [email protected] +353 (0)56 776 1106 or www.commonagecallan.com
The Space&Place Research Collaborative was originally established at the University of Minnesota in 1999 by Dr. Sonja Kuftinec (Theatre Arts & Dance), Dr. Jani Scandura (English), and Dr. Karen E. Till (Geography); Dr. Margaret Werry (Theatre Arts & Dance) joined as co-convener in 2004. Space&Place remains an intellectual collaborative at the Institute for Advanced Study at UMN.
In January 2011, under Dr. Karen Till, Space&Place was launched as an Irish collaborative, hosted by the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. It now includes staff from the Department of Geography, NIRSA, an the Department of English at Maynooth University, and collaborates regularly with scholars, artists, and practitioners from GradCAM, CREATE, IMMA and DublIntellectual in the Dublin area.
In May 2011, Space&Place formed a new network alliance with the Ómós Áite Space/Place Research Group at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway under the directorship of Dr. Nessa Cronin. Space&Place/Ómós Áite coordinated and hosted their first international conference and series of workshops, Mapping Spectral Traces IV, at Maynooth University and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 25-27 May 2011.
A second, sister event marked this national collaboration with Ómós Áite, MSTV: Bodies, Space, Memory, held at NUI Galway, the Black Box Theatre, Galway City and other locations in County Galway from 19-21 April 2012. The international conference, public art clinic, workshops, book launch and public lectures on the role of place in Irish culture today ran in partnership with an international Dance Festival, curated by Dr Ríonach Ní Néill, Galway County Council Dancer in Residence, and performance arts member of Ómós Áite. The event was covered in The Irish Times and TG4.
International Collaborations: Space&Placeregularly collaborates with Land2 (University of Leeds and UWE-Bristol), such as for its ‘Memory Matters Summer Studio’ in Minneapolis in the summer of 2009, a week-long exchange that ultimately leading to the first three ‘Mapping Spectral Traces’ conferences and exhibitions at Leeds, Bristol, and Blacksburg and Roanoke, VA (USA). We also participate in many of the Land2 Symposia, including the most recent 10th anniversary event (July 2012), Close to Home: Artists Reconsider the Local, which included an exhibition at East Street Arts.
Following the success of the MSTIV conference and workshops at Maynooth and Dublin, the Space&Place Research Collaborative and Ómós Áite were invited in the summer of 2011 to become convening collaborative members of the Mapping Spectral Traces international network: www.mappingspectraltraces.org.
With the inclusion of the two Irish research groups and the launch of a new public website and blog in September 2011, the MST Network now has a national presence in Ireland, as well as creates both face-to-face and virtual international communities of scholars, artists and community partners.
