LONDONFIELDWORKS

Little Earth installation, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London
Photo: LondonFieldworks 2005

LITTLE EARTH:

by Bruce Gilchrist & Jo Joelson.

Sound Design: Dugal McKinnon; Text: James Flint; Performers: Ian Thompson & Arvid Petterson;

Structural Design: Ed Holloway.

A four channel synchronised video installation with surround-sound [duration 21 mins], Little Earth premiered at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London, in January 2005, and toured to the Fort William Mountain Film Festival and Cheltenham Festival of Science.

The Little Earth installation consists of synchronised video shot on Haldde Mountain in the Norwegian Arctic, Ben Nevis in Scotland, and on the island of Svalbard, with computer animations of the Earth's magnetosphere modeled by the Leicester Radio & Space Plasma Physics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, who form the science partner in this arts/science collaboration. The video, shot from 4 perspectives is projected onto a suspended cube-like structure, with a surround sound score and narration. The visitor is invited to circumnavigate the work.

As a prelude to this artwork, Gilchrist and Joelson formally twinned the Ben Nevis Observatory, with Haldde Observatory, in a ceremony held at the West Highland Museum, Fort William on 2nd October 2004.

A book of essays and images related to the project has been published to accompany the exhibition entitled London Fieldworks: Little Earth (London Fieldworks Publ., ISBN 0-9549497-0-6).

The Little Earth four channel video work has been edited into a single screen version with special remixed stereo soundtrack by Dugal McKinnon. This new work is financially supported by Leicester University and New Zealand School of Music (NZSM). Published by London Fieldworks 2009. Available here

Fixed 42m UHF parabolic antenna. Eiscat Svalbard Radar, Frontiers, 8. Spitsbergen.
Photo: London Fieldworks 2004

Little Earth was funded by Arts Council England, The Scottish Arts Council, Lochaber Enterprise & The Highland Council. The collaboration with the Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Board and Arts Council England through the Arts and Science Research Fellowships Scheme. Additional support in kind from ALCAN, Alta Museum, MMA (Mendip Manufacturing Agency), Wapping Project and West Highland Museum. Research and developement facilitated by artist residencies at Allenheads Contemporary Arts, Northumberland, 2003; ACE International Fellowship, Headlands Center for the Arts, Califrornia, 2002.