Friday, 12 February 2021
Monday, 8 February 2021
A Different LENS:
Terraqua
A Different LENS is a digital map. It uses locative media and literature to explore storytelling. Our materials are people, places, and stories.
For Terraqua we are bringing you an exploration of estuary locations in Brazil and the UK. This will be uploaded onto our digital map A Different LENS in May 2021 as part of the associated program for Estuary Festival 2021. I am recording our storytelling through this blog and look forward to sharing our experiences with you.
Terraqua Co-creative estuary stories using locative media
Terraqua is a project delivered through Thread and Word a group led by the artist Elspeth ( Billie ) Penfold in Collaboration with the Brazilian artist Carlos Queiroz. The stories from Terraqua will be shared on the web app A Different LENS designed by Cgeomap.eu. You can find our map here:
For Terraqua we will create new entries uploaded through A Different Lens. It is a collaboration between Kent-based artists and artists in Brazil ( Vitória ). Our co-creators from Brazil are artists and academics from UFES (Federal University of Espirito Santo (Brazil) / Razuras Geografias Marginals (linguagem poetic movimiento). They are responding to the environmental disaster/crime that occurred in 2015 in the city of Mariana (Minas Gerais). It destroyed all the marine life and the biodiversity of the river over almost 700km, reaching its estuary, which is in that city.
We will be supported in our storytelling by the Scrapstore in Ramsgate. Their members from EastKent Mencap will be part of the co-creation and will be making flags using recycled materials from the Scrapstore. These will be created through crafternoons organised by East Kent Mencap. We are hoping to hold a physical exhibition (Covid permitting) of the flags together with binaural recordings of stories contributed by authors who support The Margate Bookie.
Our ambition is that through juxtaposition and layering, alternative stories and perspectives of the past, present, and future can be unearthed and exposed to a wide audience. We will create locative media experiences that ‘tinker with our locks, thereby putting our inner worlds in contact with the outer world’ (Lucy Frears)
Terraqua is being created with the generous support of the Margate Bookie, The Work and Play Scrapstore East Kent Mencap with funding from Arts Council England.
You can follow Terraqua on Facebook : @Thread and Word
Sunday, 18 October 2020
"SOPLO"
An introduction to The Supercluster Fire-pit and my first experience as a Fire-Keeper
I was invited by Fred Adam , Geert Vermeire and Stephanie Whitelaw to become a fire-keeper around the supercluster fire-pit last Friday evening.
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B. Fasicularia , an Andean plant |
Saturday, 3 October 2020
Mapping : Locative media +Literature .
Have a fab Saturday. Brought to you courtesy of @margatefestival @margatebookie @peopledemcollective
Tuesday, 29 September 2020
A Digital Quipu through Mapping
A Different LENS with cgeomap.eu
A Digital Quipu through Mapping
A Different LENS with cgeomap.eu

A Different LENS was produced through Thread and Word for the Margate Bookie with support from Arts Council England and Margate NOW 2020.
I started a very fluid artists group called Thread and Word in 2014 . When I create ideas for projects I reach out to artists who I think might be interested in walking and working with me on a particular theme.. I then create a project brief for us to explore and develop ideas. A wonderful group of people, including artists, authors, friends and community members gathered under the umbrella title Thread and Word and co-created the map A Digital LENS with me. This took more than six months as we met, discussed and developed our ideas.
Thread and Word is inspired by the Chilean Artist Cecilia Vicuña”s poem Hilo y palabra. This means Thread and Word in Spanish. The poem was written in the 1970’s with a limited number of copies being made and shared.
I was lucky to walk with Professor Jonathan Skinner in the blue bell woods at Warwick University. He is a friend of Cecilia Vicuña’s and shared this image with me.
In 2010 I created an immersive installation in a gallery space in Whitstable that was inspired by the poem. I have since used elements of the poem for walks in Edinburgh, where the poem was written, and in London, Margate and Whitstable.
A line from Cecilia Vicuña's poem.
I am from South America , born in Bolivia . I was spoken to in Quechua, an Andean language, by Justina who looked after me as a child In Quechua the word for “language” also means “thread”, and the word for “complex conversation” also means “embroidery”. In Quechua, no word exists for a singular entity. In the ancient Andean communities, a single thing was an aberration while the interrelated pair was the norm and defined completeness. This is also reflected in the weavings which documented life during the time of the Incas, before the Spanish conquest. I can see connections between this ancient world view rooted in the land and I believe making this connection might contribute to a greater understanding of the map, which I hope blurs the boundaries between organisers , artists, and participants mirroring the duality and reciprocity found in the Quechua word: Ayni
The digital map A Different LENS has entries which are made up of many threads (texts, photos, video and sound) these are spun together to create multilayered stories. Some of these are secret or hidden. The map is a tapestry , an embroidery of multilayered conversations about selected authors and their stories. These are woven into the fabric of Margate and its surrounding area in Kent.
Image: entry by Jack Lowe , Follow Galileo around the Gates to Dreamland.
If you look at the map it is visually very beautiful with repeat patterns of blue . green , grey and pink. Each colour represents an area in Kent.These locations are placed on the green surface of the gps satellite mapping that connects the entries for you to feel connected to and enable you to explore the location. The repeated shape of the tear drop with a magnifying glass in the centre points you to the locations chosen by each artist for their entry on the map. This symbol was designed by Fred Adam, artist and curator of Cgeomap. The magnifying glass is the lens with we choose to view our engagement with place and literature. I am here taking you through my own lens for viewing the map.
The map’s design reminds me of a Quimpu which is the cloth that was held in the highest regard by the Incas.The Inca civilisation used textiles rather than written text to record their stories, The Quipus are knots used by the Incas to record and document valuable information and remain with us today in museums as artefacts for display representing a past civilisation. I have been walking in the Uk for over six years exploring the relationship between weaving, walking and storyteliing. Participants who walk with me are invited to knot ropes to record the experiences of the walk .
The design for these walks often includes selected poetry readings, and performative actions. When the walk is finished I then attach the knotted ropes to a vara or pole which has a particular weave wrapped around it This weave is woven on an inkle loom and responds to the theme or location of the walk. These weaves are symbolic, like those of the woven Quimpu . The knotted ropes from the walking event are then attached to the vara or pole and each vara becomes the text for a walk. At present I have 22 varies of the walks I have undertaken in collaboration with Festivals and co-created with participants who join me under the umbrella of Thread and Word.
A Different LENS our map has embedded in it the process of knot making while walking . The knots connecting the stories on our digital map A Different Lens are through the locations as each becomes a url node or a nodulo (in Spanish word for knot is nudo ). Nudos during the time of the Incas would have been known as quipus.
The map A Different LENS contains many further connections to the past culture of the Andes including elements of the Quechua concepts of Thread: Ayni, Ukhu, Tinku, Q’iwa, and Ushay . These are comprehensively described by Rebecca Stone whose article I have referenced at the end. These five ideas illustrate how the general Andean worldview is complex, layered, and based on a different understanding of the world to that of most Westerners. For instance, whereas we say the future is ahead because it is a place not yet reached, Quechua speakers say it is behind because it is not yet seeable. I hope that the digital layering of our map illustrates this complex multilayered world view.
My final thought is with reference to the secret entries on our map A different Lens . These are pink markers if you view the map on your laptop or, if you are outside walking it , theses are signalled by the chimes of the Margate Clock . Our Secret entries open to reveal a walking prompt designed by Sonia Overall. These link to the artists locative entries and responses to the chosen texts. These texts include, James Joyce, Milton , Thurber , Borges , Deanna Quietwater , Bill Lewis and the music of Victoria Claire.
Our #DistanceDrift prompts to secret entries on our map have become the “Tinku” of the map . This concept from the Quechua language is beautifully described byRebeca Stone as the novelty of what is produced by encounters between different people and things which allows for creative innovation. The image attached is of a response by Julie Brixie Williams to a secret entry #DistanceDrift prompt which is attached to Dancers an entry on the map by Diana Lane. In the Quechua word Tinku means change is or that which is different. Tinku adds the element of change to the balancing idea of ayni, which means generally to encounter and specifically when two things converge into a new third entity. The Distance Drift offers all who engage with the map the opportunity to take part and in this sense the entry gets changed through this participation and becomes our Tinku.

Image;Julie Brixie Williams, participated in #distancedrift on Twitter. We liked it so much we uploaded onto the map.
The idea of connecting our Digital map to Quechua and through this language structure to the the Quipu became clear to me following a short talk I gave as part of a panel discussion on Locative media and Literature, the Spaces between the Words chaired by Geert Vermiere. I am grateful to Geert my fellow panellists and the attendees who through their conversation pointed me in this direction. I have written this to connect the threads of a conversation which were discussed a part of this panel. My ambition when I started my walking practice was to research the relationship between walking weaving and writing. I am very much enjoying the journey and would like to thank all who have contributed to this rich and ever evolving experience.
A Different LENS : A digital Quipu
http://threads-of-time.carlos.emory.edu/exhibits/show/essays/dialoguesinthread
A Different LENS was produced through Thread and Word for the Margate Bookie with support from Arts Council England and Margate NOW 2020.
I started a very fluid artists group called Thread and Word in 2014 . When I create ideas for projects I reach out to artists who I think might be interested in walking and working with me on a particular theme.. I then create a project brief for us to explore and develop ideas. A wonderful group of people, including artists, authors, friends and community members gathered under the umbrella title Thread and Word and co-created the map A Digital LENS with me. This took more than six months as we met, discussed and developed our ideas.
Thread and Word is inspired by the Chilean Artist Cecilia Vicuña”s poem Hilo y palabra. This means Thread and Word in Spanish. The poem was written in the 1970’s with a limited number of copies being made and shared.
I was lucky to walk with Professor Jonathan Skinner in the blue bell woods at Warwick University. He is a friend of Cecilia Vicuña’s and shared this image with me.
In 2010 I created an immersive installation in a gallery space in Whitstable that was inspired by the poem. I have since used elements of the poem for walks in Edinburgh, where the poem was written, and in London, Margate and Whitstable.
A line from Cecilia Vicuña's poem.
I am from South America , born in Bolivia . I was spoken to in Quechua, an Andean language, by Justina who looked after me as a child In Quechua the word for “language” also means “thread”, and the word for “complex conversation” also means “embroidery”. In Quechua, no word exists for a singular entity. In the ancient Andean communities, a single thing was an aberration while the interrelated pair was the norm and defined completeness. This is also reflected in the weavings which documented life during the time of the Incas, before the Spanish conquest. I can see connections between this ancient world view rooted in the land and I believe making this connection might contribute to a greater understanding of the map, which I hope blurs the boundaries between organisers , artists, and participants mirroring the duality and reciprocity found in the Quechua word: Ayni
The digital map A Different LENS has entries which are made up of many threads (texts, photos, video and sound) these are spun together to create multilayered stories. Some of these are secret or hidden. The map is a tapestry , an embroidery of multilayered conversations about selected authors and their stories. These are woven into the fabric of Margate and its surrounding area in Kent.
Image: entry by Jack Lowe , Follow Galileo around the Gates to Dreamland.
If you look at the map it is visually very beautiful with repeat patterns of blue . green , grey and pink. Each colour represents an area in Kent.These locations are placed on the green surface of the gps satellite mapping that connects the entries for you to feel connected to and enable you to explore the location. The repeated shape of the tear drop with a magnifying glass in the centre points you to the locations chosen by each artist for their entry on the map. This symbol was designed by Fred Adam, artist and curator of Cgeomap. The magnifying glass is the lens with we choose to view our engagement with place and literature. I am here taking you through my own lens for viewing the map.
The map’s design reminds me of a Quimpu which is the cloth that was held in the highest regard by the Incas.The Inca civilisation used textiles rather than written text to record their stories, The Quipus are knots used by the Incas to record and document valuable information and remain with us today in museums as artefacts for display representing a past civilisation. I have been walking in the Uk for over six years exploring the relationship between weaving, walking and storyteliing. Participants who walk with me are invited to knot ropes to record the experiences of the walk .
The design for these walks often includes selected poetry readings, and performative actions. When the walk is finished I then attach the knotted ropes to a vara or pole which has a particular weave wrapped around it This weave is woven on an inkle loom and responds to the theme or location of the walk. These weaves are symbolic, like those of the woven Quimpu . The knotted ropes from the walking event are then attached to the vara or pole and each vara becomes the text for a walk. At present I have 22 varies of the walks I have undertaken in collaboration with Festivals and co-created with participants who join me under the umbrella of Thread and Word.
A Different LENS our map has embedded in it the process of knot making while walking . The knots connecting the stories on our digital map A Different Lens are through the locations as each becomes a url node or a nodulo (in Spanish word for knot is nudo ). Nudos during the time of the Incas would have been known as quipus.
The map A Different LENS contains many further connections to the past culture of the Andes including elements of the Quechua concepts of Thread: Ayni, Ukhu, Tinku, Q’iwa, and Ushay . These are comprehensively described by Rebecca Stone whose article I have referenced at the end. These five ideas illustrate how the general Andean worldview is complex, layered, and based on a different understanding of the world to that of most Westerners. For instance, whereas we say the future is ahead because it is a place not yet reached, Quechua speakers say it is behind because it is not yet seeable. I hope that the digital layering of our map illustrates this complex multilayered world view.
My final thought is with reference to the secret entries on our map A different Lens . These are pink markers if you view the map on your laptop or, if you are outside walking it , theses are signalled by the chimes of the Margate Clock . Our Secret entries open to reveal a walking prompt designed by Sonia Overall. These link to the artists locative entries and responses to the chosen texts. These texts include, James Joyce, Milton , Thurber , Borges , Deanna Quietwater , Bill Lewis and the music of Victoria Claire.
Our #DistanceDrift prompts to secret entries on our map have become the “Tinku” of the map . This concept from the Quechua language is beautifully described byRebeca Stone as the novelty of what is produced by encounters between different people and things which allows for creative innovation. The image attached is of a response by Julie Brixie Williams to a secret entry #DistanceDrift prompt which is attached to Dancers an entry on the map by Diana Lane. In the Quechua word Tinku means change is or that which is different. Tinku adds the element of change to the balancing idea of ayni, which means generally to encounter and specifically when two things converge into a new third entity. The Distance Drift offers all who engage with the map the opportunity to take part and in this sense the entry gets changed through this participation and becomes our Tinku.
Image;Julie Brixie Williams, participated in #distancedrift on Twitter. We liked it so much we uploaded onto the map.
The idea of connecting our Digital map to Quechua and through this language structure to the the Quipu became clear to me following a short talk I gave as part of a panel discussion on Locative media and Literature, the Spaces between the Words chaired by Geert Vermiere. I am grateful to Geert my fellow panellists and the attendees who through their conversation pointed me in this direction. I have written this to connect the threads of a conversation which were discussed a part of this panel. My ambition when I started my walking practice was to research the relationship between walking weaving and writing. I am very much enjoying the journey and would like to thank all who have contributed to this rich and ever evolving experience.
A Different LENS : A digital Quipu
http://threads-of-time.carlos.emory.edu/exhibits/show/essays/dialoguesinthread
Saturday, 19 September 2020
A Different LENS
A Different Lens is a collaborative project produced by the arts group Thread and Word for the Margate Bookie. Our journey starts with nine participating Kent based artists who have created material for an interactive digital map of stories with a focus on Margate and wider locations along the Kent Estuary.
The first edition, entries to the map, include literary references to Thurber, James Joyce, Homer, Borges, Milton and Galileo. The artists use visual references that connect literature with personal responses to chosen locations.
Each artists has chosen a book, short story or a poem written by someone who is or became blind or visually impaired during their lifetime and introduce their writing to us through a creative engagement with storytelling referencing place.
The project connects with how we develop creative ideas to make the inaccessible accessible.
The map contains a strong audio presence as well as digitalised text and images. Listening to the audio without scrolling the images is a great way of enjoying the experience without the distraction of reading text and looking at images.
If you are walking in Margate we hope that A Different LENS will prompt you to engage with your surroundings through listening, providing a different experience as you might be engaging with familiar locations in a different way.
The mobile web app contains surprise elements and hidden entries that are revealed if you are walking in Margate using your mobile, as the web app of the map links to gps. You must remember to switch the gps on for your phone if you are walking using the map and follow the safety guidelines.
The map is accessible on phones as a walk or on a laptop if you are unable to physically engage in the walk. The laptop experience also connects to gps and can take you on a virtual visit to Margate in an unexpected way. If you scroll through the links you are given insights through text, photos, sound and video which show you the locations and how these connect with memories, books and places.
The map has an information page with full details :
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You can visit the map and find out more about the artists , locations and choices of authors on the Thread and Word website:
The vision is for a literary map that is going to develop with time throughout The Kent Estuary. Our next stage for the map will be to include entries by new artists and community members from East Kent Mencap, GOLD for Margate NOW 2020.
Please find information about how to participate through our virtual walks on a Sunday with #distancedrift and Margate NOW here:
We hope you enjoy following our journey!
Friday, 15 May 2020
Let's Take a Moment
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Photography by Anna Bowman |
Soundscapes can transport the listener from one environment to another. Listening to a soundscape can calm the mind and encourage time for reflection. Let’s Take A Moment is a sound world reflection of a collection of poetry by Owen Lowery and sounds from a collaborative walk in Gravesend. It focuses specifically on the coast and shoreline from With the fisherwomen of Nairn to the Mediterranean horizon of Pathos Sunset. The artist and composer Lucy Claire worked with sounds from the walk Let's Take a Moment , the shore, the harbour, the hissing and sucking of the shore, the heady buzz of insects and the rhythmical sploshes of oars moving in and out of the water to bring another dimension to Owen’s words and help transport the listener from one place to another.
The Box Set
