arch·ive·pub·rad·i·o·house

how do we approach culturally sensitive landscapes? do we build to renew culture, sustain culture or embody culture? these questions are central to my thesis and were explored in a quick-fire design exercise. the archetypal flat-roofed house of achill is subjected to three interventions... 


arch·ive·house: embodying oral culture
a minimal conversion of the existing structure where household objects become "containers" for oral history. the television and radio play songs, stories and videos from achill's past. the telephone rings and a story is told. newspapers carry articles about the achill railway, the kirkintilloch fire and the basking shark. the shower cubicle is a recording room where anyone can have their song or story recorded and stored. the house thus becomes more than an archive, it becomes a living depository for oral history...

pub·lic·house: sustaining oral culture
a conversion from a house to a public house. complete with a bar, toilets and seating designed to encourage oral transmission i.e. a conversation between two or more people, face to face.(a simple concept but one that is becoming increasingly rare in these days of electronic communication.) a singing/music space with panoramic views of the atlantic is an attempt to sustain the verbal arts of conversation, singing and of aurally transmitted music... 

rad·i·o·house:renewing oral culture

"radio can be intimately involved with the production and elaboration of place-based notions of identity [by playing] a role in the historical constitution of indigeneity as well as the making of contemporary life" (Drobnick, 2004)

a steel clad box is inserted into the shell of the house. this addition contains a studio, mixing desk and office for a locally based radio station. this station provides a forum for renewed oral transmission via a digital medium. it has the potential to renew links between achill people and re-connect with the achill diaspora across the globe...

References: 
Drobnick, J. (2004), Aural Cultures, YYZ Books, Ontario 
Ong W.J. Orality and Literacy, Routledge, London, New York 
Watson, A. & Cocker D. (2003), Leaving Jericho, John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago

Lost Space

These images explore hidden narratives in the decaying structures of Achill. In a ruined nineteenth century monastery, a roofless coastguard station and a derelict flat-roofed house enclosed space becomes saturated with memory.

Long gone Franciscan monks linger in the courtyards they created...disappeared coastguards are inundated with rotting rafters and rain, and the loose threads of a story go untold by a fireplace...

i & ii. franciscan monastery, bunacurry, iii. living room,claggan, iv. coastguard station, bull's mouth

The images were printed on watercolour paper from 35mm negatives using a liquid emulsion process. 

Residually Oral Achill

In his book Orality and Literacy, Walter J. Ong writes about the potential of orally based cultures to develop and transmit "wisdom". This differs from the "closely reasoned, linear analysis" common to written, print and electronic cultures.

Ong categorizes human cultures into primary oral (no knowledge of writing), chirographic (writing or print based) and secondary oral cultures (radio, television and internet based). Today, most Western countries are moving towards secondary orality. The internet allows for ever increasing dissemination of information through sound-clips and videos in a new type of oral transmission. 

There are places like Achill Island however, where the vestiges of a primary oral culture have not yet completely disappeared. The screen prints below attempt to explore this residual orality. Songlines inhabit derelict space, returned emmigrants and steamships emerge from the shadows...

Marked Landscape - 5000 Years of Built History

Open publication - Free publishing - More landscape

Geddesian Achill: Folk-Work-Place

Patrick Geddes explained an organism’s relationship to its environment as follows:

“The environment acts, through function, upon the organism and conversely the organism acts, through function, upon the environment.“ (Cities in Evolution, 1915)

In human terms this can be understood as a place acting through climatic and geographic processes upon people and thus shaping them. At the same time people act, through economic processes such as farming and construction, on a place and thus shape it. Thus both place and folk are inextricably linked and through work are in constant transition. 

By applying Patrick Geddes' Valley Section to contemporary Achill, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between people and landscape on the island. Geddes' miner is replaced by the mountaineer/climbing instructor at the top of the valley section, reflecting the shift from primary industry to tertiary (service providing) industry on the island. This shift has not been a a complete one however as the sheep farmer and fisherman remain important parts of achill's economy.