The Story Box Story, or the tale and trail so far.

Story box  book at Watery Lane, Nether Stowey.

Nether Stowey, Watery Lane, the first proper stretch of the Coleridge Way, where you leave the tarmac and traffic behind, this is the first act in a 36 mile play of ruts and rises, tunnels and vistas, heath and heather, cutting and combe. What has struck me, having been along pieces of the Coleridge Way regularly over the past few months is how the mood changes and transforms. Whether it's a quick dash in a cool evening to the story boxes, or more of a walk and rest with pencil and patience, the atmosphere is dynamic, never the same, always transforming, evolving, which I suppose this is what a living thing does.

  

But more recently my main focus has been the Story Boxes which I placed along the trail early June time. So how have they been fairing? and if you are unaware of this project have a look at this link with a map and descriptions of locations.

Well judging by these images I think rather better than expected, there have been drawings, poems, and little ditties, with a very small amount of abuse (I only left pencils in the boxes) The Coleridge Cottage booklet has developed well, though the paints I left inside were useless, and they have just installed an interpretation post in the arbour itself. Which is brilliant but when you need to focus on writing, it's not easy doing so with Coleridge's 'Lime Tree Bower' weaving it's magic across you.

Horner Garden Tea Rooms has a relatively small amount of work in, though we are just on the cusp of holiday season, so that should pick up soon. But even with only a little inside, it has the most beautiful drawing of a campsite in a valley.

  

The Jubilee Hut, which has Taffy Thomas' story at the beginning, has funnily fared the poorest in my opinion, which is somewhat disappointing. It just devolved into a visitors book, with most inputs by Duke of Edinburgh Awards kids hiking through. The book in question has been visited a lot, as it's now full, but the majority of inputs have no story, or only tiny fragments of a tale which bare no connection to the task set. I have a mind to write a big note - This is not a visitor book - please write story or draw. I'll see how we go now that the D of E are out of the way, but they are by no means the only culprits, but did set the trend.

So dear reader my challenge is out to you, to gather your tales and head out to the boxes, restrict yourself to just the task in hand of adding a little to the story so far, doing a drawing but no more and then leaving the story box for the next to find and do the same. This blog I will keep short as I think the pictures speak the loudest, and at the end of the summer (September) the books are to be exhibited at Venue 23 in Dulverton for Somerset Art Week, and also Porlock Festival. So you still have plenty of time to hunt out the story boxes and add your little magic, I recommend you do as I have, and return again and again for this is how the Coleridge Way is rejuvenated.

Pandaemonium!

Julien Temple, Martin Hesp, Chris Edwards 

On Saturday, the fabulous grounds of Fyne Court (NT) just north of Taunton, and nestled to the easterly end of the majestic Quantock Hills, played host to it's first 'live screening' event.

Julien Temple

Just around the turn of the millennium Julien Temple (pictured) directed a film about the Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Pandaemonium, so called as a description of hell by Milton and referenced by Coleridge himself.

The film had a brace of great actors, and conveys the stormy tale of Coleridge's early years when he lived in the Quantocks and wrote many of his most celebrated pieces. The film also documents his battle and subsequent demise due to Laudanum - an Opium and Alcohol mixture, which in Coleridge's time was as prevalent and as common as Asprin, and often administered for tooth aches!

However I am getting ahead of myself, for before the film was to be screened, we were treated to a live interview by Martin Hesp, author, journalist and long time Coleridgean fan. Martin, was a great choice as he himself grew up close by and so many of the locations and scenes are of familiar places. But I think this could be said for many of us attending that night including Julien who spent childhood holidays tramping Coleridge country, and in fact the main star of the evening were infact the Quantock Hills themselves.

Music room at Fyne Court

The ambiance and weather was great, most had brought seats and cushions along with a bottle or two, and it was fun looking around at the audience in their eclectic fashion; which I think really pays homage not only to Coleridge's diversity in poetry, but also to Julien's 'rock and roll' film making history. His portfolio is one peppered with the likes of David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, and you would think that period drama would seem more of a wild card in this deck, but I think that's just the way Julien would like it, the last thing he is is predictable.

The punks picnic!

So as the evening drew on it became apparent to me of the history all around us, for the projector wall was that of the Music room, which was the study of the early scientist and electrical pioneer Andrew Crosse. Here Crosse had run wires out from his laboratory and across the lawn where we were sitting, these would capture atmospheric electrical charge which he would then force through materials and fluids to try and replicate the very beginnings of life. This was where he was trying to re animate life itself, and Coleridge and the Wordsworths famously visited him at the time. He is probably best know as the inspiration behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Serving the Kubla Beer (Very nice)

The location had come full circle, not only were parts of the film shot here, replicating events which had happened years ago, but now we were also party to that continuing linage, projecting moving images made possible through these pioneering experiments. I wonder what Andrew Crosse would have thought about the microphones and data projector used for the show, I am sure he would have been in his element.

So as I said the real star of the show was the Quantock Hills themselves, they outshone the actors, and perhaps even the poetry. So when I asked what will be the next screening at Fyne Court, it's a really tricky question, because truly this film and all it's connections to the place and the people (everyone knows someone who was an extra!) is a real hard act to follow.


May I suggest a double bill of Ken Russell's 'Gothic' followed by a classic black and white Frankenstein...

Watchet Sounds

Testing the sound pools along Watchet Easy Quay

Ralph Hoyte and his team, came down to Watchet on Sunday to road test their new app, iron out glitches, and get some user group feedback. I had my eye's peeled for their approach as I was working on the Contains Art project (Three shipping containers being converted into Artist's studios and exhibition space,  these are due to open on Saturday 6th July! eek)

I was busily fitting timber around the exhibition container door when I spied two lone figures glide into the yard, immersed in some other world, I knew instinctively that Ralph must be about.

Rachel Hill from Halsway Manor
listening in to a GPS triggered
dialogue between Coleridge
and  Dorothy Wordsworth

The concept is simple enough, all you nee to do is walk around Watchet with his app installed in your smart phone, and in specific places Ralph has mapped 'sound pools'. 

But what is a sound pool? 

Smart phones know where you are as they have a Satellite (GPS) chip inside and with this location data it is possible (by those who know how!) to programme your device to deliver audio at a given location. In Watchet Ralph has set out seven sound pools, one on each pier end, with another five strung between.

The audio which triggers are no groovey tunes but highly orchestrated dialogues between William, Dorothy (Wordsworth) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Some of the audio files are the poems, Kubla Khan, Ryme of the Ancient Mariner, but the majority are sophisticated dialogues between the three. They are fiction, but fiction based on solid facts, which Ralph has gone to exorbitant lengths to make as authentic as possible, and what a result. 

The final pieces (of which I got a sneaky peak of just three) are stunning, in a medium which can easily show incompetence since we are so accustomed to high production quality these days. 

On the day there were technical difficulties which Ralph and his team were scratching their heads about, and perhaps the very essence of field tests and user group feed back. Scratch building apps to run code is like entering another realm, but if this taste is anything to go by, then it is defiantly worth the hard work and for us the wait. 

The final work is due to be available to the public in September with multiple sound pools all over 'Coleridge Country'. There is a link on the right for Ralph's blog which is perhaps the best place to touch base right now, but soon the app will be available for both Android and Apple device's, and then you will catch glimpses of people, lost to the audio of another time and rooted to the very places it all happened, some 200 years ago.

Story boxes, films and the Coleridge Way

All the story boxes are out in the field now and I wanted to create a film which evoked the mood of reading and writing, of discovering and then entering into a tale. The opening shots are filmed at Coleridge Cottage Nether Stowey, the weather was glorious and I had the garden to myself. So I set out all the boxes in the Arbor and started some filming, but no sooner did I have the camera out than I had people looking and opening the boxes (which is what they are about).

Ken Luxon Story Teller
reading Taffy Thomas' Tale

A few conversations later, and I picked up the camera again, just to put it back down and to talk some more about the authors. One couple who had enjoyed the house and ready to move on asked me briefly about the boxes. 

'They are story boxes' I proudly said.

'Oh she replied, my husband Ken is a story teller.'

Well perhaps before you leave you might like to read this one which is started by Taffy Thomas?'

'What, thee Taffy Thomas?' they said in unison.

'Yes, Mr Story Teller Laureate himself.'

'Oh well I can't leave without reading Taffy's tale.' (Pictured Ken Luxon and his Wife)

The other major author is Jackie Morris, and her tale is magical, which also includes an illustration of a fox. (I have included paints in some of the boxes but not this one as I want it to stay really nice!) It was last seen at Coleridge Cottage in the clutches of a woman who was so attached she couldn't put it down to let the next walker write their piece, (she might still be there!)

Caroline Taylor (Assistant house manager of Coleridge Cottage NT) has started another, and of course I have done one too. The words in the film are mine and from the 'Watery Lane' story box, this place seemed just right for a Goblin Market style poem, or at least the start of one.

So now they are out, all in the wild, with tales to be guided and penned by wandering souls, some will stumble upon them, others hunted out. Some will be visited again and again, others more sparingly, but in September they are to be exhibited firstly at Porlock Arts Festival then in Dulverton for Christopher Jelley's Somerset Art Week, and finally at Coleridge Cottage itself in the garden room if all goes to plan.

So hunt them out, read, write, enjoy and let me know how you get on, and if you twitter use #storywalks, and here is a map to story box locations so you can plan your trip.

Calling all Romantics!

Ignite Somerset along with ARTlife had invited Somerset artist's working on projects associated with the Romantic poets to talk in front of a green screen at the Engine Room Bridgwater. The premise was simple, Richard Thomlinson (of Ignite Somerset pictured above with Lynn Mowat) had prepped the Engine Rooms studio with a floor to ceiling green screen, camera, microphone, lights etc and artist's were asked to book a slot and then talk about their projects straight to camera.

Amongst other artists attending were Alice Crane, pictured above amidst filming, she was talking and sewing at the same time, a task which was harder than expected - even after years of practice. Ralph Hoyte (geolocated sound-scapes, Satsymph - pictured below) and Frances Harrison (storyteller and visual artist also below) have major projects in respect to the Coleridge Way. In many ways Frances, Ralph and myself are the three corners of the current Coleridge Way projects and the meeting was for me an essential piece of networking. Touching base and choreographing (in the loosest sense) how our works fit together in a wider scheme.

Christopher Jelley, Frances Harrison, Ralph Hoyte
The Colridgeons!

At lunch time Richard screened three short films to the Artists present, one about each of The Colridgeons (I know, there is no such word) which we had made with Richard in the last few months. I always feel very self conscious about this kind of thing even in good company, but there was nothing to worry about, and it was brilliant to catch up with others, many of which are working in parallel towards the ever present yearly event of Somerset Art Week.

The Engine Room is a stunning facility and in this age of media where we are surrounded by screens at every turn, it makes the essential bridge between the artist and the technology, something which always seems to be shifting, never solid and simple like a canvas or a book. I have always tried to embrace the new but there is a point where you try to take stock and ask simple fundamental questions like, does this effort actually add to my creative practice, is it worth the hassle, toil and energy? What is the life span, who am I connecting to, will it be gone in a moment like twitter, or around for decades? and am I happy with that, is there another way?

Gordon Field

These are impossible questions to answer, and only in hindsight will we know truly the longevity of energies spent and where possible economies were to be had. In the mean time we have to embrace every opportunity on offer, give a little of our time and enjoy the simple things like chatting over coffee, and connecting to others who have climbed a different tree of craft to your own. Build connections, collaborations, try and be at the centre, and catch those opportunities right now whilst the camera's are running.

These works will be posted through the Ignite Somerset site.

Word Harvesting along the Coleridge Way

Mrs Mash with her harvested words from the children,
but written on the wooden board as the paper got so soggy in the rain.

I've been desperate to write about this day just before Easter, a day whose weather was so caustic that it felt endless, and all the stranger now sitting here with the sun shining! So just to re cap, I have worked with three First Schools in West Somerset, all are in the curtilage of the Coleridge Way. Nether Stowey at the head, Porlock at the tail, and Dunster, well a little off mid way, but the concept was simple, take a group out into the landscape and write words which reflect that experience in much the same manner as Coleridge and Wordsworth.

Watching the Exmoor foal disappear into the woods at the Jubilee Hut.

In some ways, the extreme weather, (and yes it was mad for all three separate days and schools!) was just the ticket, they needed something to write about and Cold, Icy, Fresh, Tingly, Breezy, are all in the mix.

These images here are from Porlock First St Dubricus School, who braved the weather up Webbers Post (Beneath Dunkery Beacon) This path is great, and a regular destination for St Dubricus, but as I drove over that morning I thought it was surly going to be cancelled, the rain was deep, the hills shrouded in mist, puddles right across the road. But no, the head master Mr Blazey was adamant that it would all pan out fine, and then he added that this was the walk they did when the weather was too bad at Pinkery Pond up on the Moors! When it comes down to it, the school know the limitations of their pupils far better than I do which is rightly so, and I am so pleased that we could go, as the old adage goes, 'there's no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing.'

We tried to keep the paper dry by writing inside bags, but it was no use.

So the van dropped off the first party who thought that there was not enough water in the air so did some puddle jumping, and proper splashing. With that out of their system we were straight into word harvesting, what do you hear, feel, smell, what can you taste on the rain? And the kids were even more prolific than the clouds, for they poured forth endless phrases for us to jot down, faster than we could write.

One of the sculptures along the Coleridge Way trail at Webbers Post

Well we did have paper to write on but that soon turned to pulp, but by chance the clip boards were wooden, and not wanting to halt the kids flow, we just started to write on them, which oddly enough got better in the wet rather than worse. It reminded me about the great space race of the 60's, (before my time I know) where the Americans spent a huge budget in developing a biro style pen which would work in zero gravity, but the Russians just used a pencil! Doesn't rain in space though! 

Wet!

So the day went well, the first session harvesting out in the wilds, the afternoon writing up and working on their phrases. Jenny had a good structure for this, building in metaphor and simile into the structure of their writing, taking the ordinary and making it more, building, improving.

A great session.

So many thanks Jenny (Mrs Mash) for leading all the sessions, and thank you to all three schools for letting us loose in the wilds of Exmoor with their precious pupils. The poetry is all complete and I am just spell checking and proof reading to make sure that it's perfect before I etch the poetry into slate for re installation along the Coleridge Way. But you'll have to read other blogs for those details as I think that's plenty for one blog.

Calling all Artist's

Ignite on a story walk in Dunster with Christopher Jelley

As a practising artist are you passionate about landscape and the environment? Are you inspired by the Romantic poets that trod the Somerset landscape, do you share their vision of the sublime in nature? If so you are invited to join fellow artists who too are inspired by this rich heritage and who also wish to keep the spirit of these visionaries very much alive. 

Somerset Film and ARTlife are hosting a green screen film shoot for artists. This event is your opportunity to create a short film about your work, your inspiration and your ideas. Supported by Arts Council England and delivered by Somerset Film, the event is free. 

Participating artists are invited to a light lunch and networking session between 12pm and 1pm at The Engine Room Cafe in Bridgwater. During lunch there will be a screening of three short films recently made by Ignite Somerset, featuring three artists currently working in West Somerset and inspired by the Romantic Poets: 

Frances Harrison

Christopher Jelley

Ralph Hoyte

If you wish to attend you must book your twenty minute slot beforehand, so preparation is the key. You will then be filmed in front of the green screen, describing or performing your work - the green screen will then be replaced with an image sequence or video of your choice. Each artist will then be provided with a DVD and a link to their film on line. 

This is a fantastic opportunity which will help promote your individual practice, a great resource for sharing your identity on line whether it be via your blog, Face Book page or Twitter feed. It may also come in handy when applying for future those all important funding streams.

For bookings and further information contact:

richard@somersetfilm.com

For all you true romantics, some you may also be interested in a very special outdoor screening of Pandemonium at Fyne Court this summer on the 6th July. 

Pandaemonium, tells the turbulent tale of Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth's friendship, an addiction and a devastating betrayal during the French Revolution.

Julien Temple will be speaking about the film, his life as a film director and answering questions before the screening, you can then watch this fantastic film, spotting all the locations in the Quantocks where filming took place.