Five Years….

2014 – New Mama

2019 – Five Years into the Journey

It’s been five years, almost to the day since I last  posted here. How is that possible? My last post was this one – a well-intentioned, new start to something that didn’t manifest…until now. All in good time, I tell myself. To everything, even and perhaps especially, blog posts, there is a season. Five years later, (another daughter, a few chickens and five thick, full years of living) I’m doing today’s version of what I set out to do then.

New Leaf

The dust has settled, rather is settling, into gentle patterns of motherhood and I am turning to tasks that lie beyond the ever-present hamper of dirty diapers begging to be laundered and the seemingly endless dishes by the sink. This winter has been beautifully hermitic for me and our daughter, Amber Jean, but now I feel the push to reach out into the world a bit more, even if only from my desk chair….so I’m turning over a new leaf and reviving and revamping this blog to catch these thoughts and experiments.

Radio Dreaming Kickstarter Campaign is LIVE!

Join in the final push to help my collaborator, Anna Keleher, and I to launch our new 5-part Radio Dreaming series and Pod Tour this spring!

The Good Life: Part 2 – nature and community

I feel that “The Good Life” must include time for fun, community and getting out into Nature. Creativity is spurred by rich experiences in the natural world and time out in the world with people you enjoy, participating in stimulating cultural events. Two recent experiences stand out in my mind….

 

Home to The Good Life: Part 1

I am home. And finally after several days, I feel like I have my feet back on the ground here. It has taken me a bit of time to really return on all levels and reintegrate.

But it feels wonderful to be back in the vastness of my New Mexico homeland! While experiencing a renewed appreciation for this vastness of place, I am trying to remember to also bring this vastness into my daily life. The recent time away from my day-to-day routine here at home has allowed me to reflect on the importance of slowing down. I am acting carefully now as I return to my life here in NM, so that I can maintain the focus, the ability to slowdown and spaciousness that developed during our DREAMING PLACE project fieldwork in Ireland.

Recent Volunteer Day with NAP

The Neighborhood Art Project (NAP) is created and implemented by artist/instructor Siena Sanderson and is an outreach program of the Harwood Museum of Art. NAP brings art activities directly into the neighborhoods of Taos with a focus on low-income communities. It is a summer program and is run by golden volunteers, who commit to showing up at a particular site one day a week through out the summer. And then there are people like me, who show up and volunteer when we can.

The goals of this program are to encourage fun, creativity, friendship and to bring the art-making directly to the kids of Taos in their backyards. I love seeing kids’ creativity blossom as the supplies and instructions are delivered. They interact with each other and adults in positive ways and are allowed to “get lost” in their creative process. Snacks, lemonade and even lunch is often served during the two hours that NAP is set up at a site.

Where have I been – you ask?

DREAMING PLACE: Marble Arch Caves Geopark

I’ve just returned from 40 days and 40 nights of “action research” and experiment above and below ground in a traveling residency at the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark, Eire/Northern Ireland. (To locate the geopark on google maps click here.) Supported by Marble Arch Caves Geopark and funded by Arts Council England, DREAMING PLACE asks the question, “Does the land dream through us?”

During our “traveling residency” we camped at various sites throughout the Geopark and encountered an array of people, places and things which helped us to explore our three main focuses of the project: dúlra – ecosystem; dúchas– heritage; aisling – dream. We captured our experiences, ideas and insights both in sound with our trusty digital audio recorders and pen and ink through an evolving collaborative drawing. We also created a “DREAMING PLACE toolkit”, which we plan to share in the form of a book – more details forthcoming.

Our field work at Marble Arch Caves Geopark is now complete, but there is still so much we want to share so Anna and I are still blogging! Visit our blog at www.dreamingplace.eu for daily audio, image and stories.

To give you a little background on the collaborative project: Anna Keleher and I met at Dartington College of Art in 2007 during our studies on the M.A. Arts and Ecology course, at which time we began our collaborative practice. When we finished our studies we vowed we would meet up again in Ireland one day to continue our collaboration and further research prehistoric ecologies. During our recent 40-day residency, we “made good” on our promise to each other.

Many thanks to all those who helped make DREAMING PLACE a success. We miss the people, places and things of MAC Geopark. We´ll be back! Our special thanks to Fermanagh Council officers Diane Henshaw and Rose Cremin, Geopark Manager Richard Watson and Education Director, Martina McGee of MAC Geopark, David Scott of Gortatole Activity Centre, Outland Arts and all the other wonderful people who gave us tea, lent us boats and shared their good craic with us.

Follow us on the DREAMING PLACE project blog as we bring our collaborative drawing into the public eye and transform our audio recordings into a three-part radio series…..

“How Far From Home Are We?” Photos and update!

There is something magical about having a vision of something for a long time and then coaxing and birthing this vision into reality. This is how I felt with the recent collaborative exhibition, “How Far From Home Are We?” that has been/will be installed for the month of April at the Harwood Arts Center in Albuquerque. The process of bringing this show into the world was more magical because it was all done with my project collaborators Anna and Becky in the UK. The show took shape over the course of months through flurries of emails, reports and reponses. And then I manifested our vision at the Harwood with the indispensable help of my husband Chris and my friend Aimee Deans.

It all started over two years ago when I applied to have a show of “How Far From Home Are We?” at the Harwood Art Center in 2009. At the time, Chris and I were still in New Zealand and the dates for the show seemed far off. And they got moved from that fall to the next fall and then to the Spring of 2011. So this show was a long time coming and it is wonderful to see the vision and the many experiences of the journey that the show comes from in a new form at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque!

Peruse images of the show and opening here.

Listen an excerpt or the entire Radio Journey here! (It was broadcast on Sound Art Radio in the UK and on KRZA radio Alamos-Taos during the exhibition.)

Check out images of my “Sounds Surround Workshop” here.

Read about the exhibition in the Taos News here.

The project website is howfarfromhomearewe.com We’d love to have your feedback on the show!!

How Far From Home Are We? – Opens April 1st

“How Far From Home Are We?”
An illustrated Radio Journey
by Anna Keleher, Claire Coté and Rebecca Beinart

Opening Reception April 1, 6 – 8pm

Exhibition installed April 1 – 29, 2011
Harwood Art Center, 1114 7^th St. NW, Albuquerque, NM
Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 10 AM to 4 PM, and Fri Apr. 15^th 6-8 PM

Making its debut in the United States, this exhibition is the collaborative outcome of a voyage in a small van from Totnes England to Helsinki Finland via the Baltic States and back through Scandinavia, across 16 borders, over 5,700 kilometers and all in seventeen days. On-site recordings and creative reflection are woven together to provide illuminating glimpses of a journey by land and sea. Collaborative pen and ink drawings created over bumpy roads and by the light of headlamps offer illustrated glimpses. Whittled tally-sticks provide a sculptural “account” of the expedition. Come and experience this intimate multi-sensory journey and join the collaboration through listening, smelling and drawing!

Dates pending for broadcasts of this radio journey on Sound Art Radio 102.5 fm, Totnes, England and KRZA Radio 88.7 fm , Alamosa CO. / Taos, NM. Check our website below of updates and live streaming opportunities!

Sounds clips, drawings and more info at: howfarfromhomearewe.com

The Emerging Field of “Soundscape Ecology”

[Image: Students from Field Studies 2010 (N.b. link auto-plays sound) explore London; photo by Marc Behrens, courtesy of The Wire].

While preparing for my upcoming sound workshop, I came across the emerging field of “Soundscape Ecology”, close cousin to “Acoustic Ecology”. What a timely discovery!

Some of you may have heard about this on NPR’s Weekend Edition this past Saturday, March 26th. If not, you can listen to it here.

Apparently there are people and scientists out there (one researcher in particular from Purdue University, see below, has really capture the attention of the media and blogosphere of late!) who are coming to grips with the importance of sound and soundscapes in the study of place and ecology.

According to an article from Science Codex, the new “scientific field….will use sound as a way to understand the ecological characteristics of a landscape and to reconnect people with the importance of natural sounds. Soundscape ecology, as it’s being called, will focus on what sounds can tell people about an area. Bryan Pijanowski, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources and lead author of a paper outlining the field in the journal BioScience, said natural sound could be used like a canary in a coal mine. Sound could be a critical first indicator of environmental changes…..”
Read the entire article here.

A little more research led me to this fascinating semi-local resource in Santa Fe, the Acoustic Ecology Instite: www.acousticecology.org. Their blog/news site is also very informative: aeinews.org I have yet to speak with anyone from AEI, but I certainly will in the near future!

Another informative post on BLDGBLOG comparing similarities and differences between the bouquet of emerging audio-based ecological fields (and also where the featured photo for this post came from) can be found here.

Keep your ears open to the sounds around you and let me know what you hear!