A Refracted View Workshops to be delivered by Thread and Word at EKM Scrapstore Ramsgate.

 

Thread and Word Walking Events is grateful to have received a micro-grant from Creative Lives. This support is helping us to develop our work for A Refracted View.

For more about this project please visit: https://linktr.ee/ThreadandWord

Through this funding, we are offering  3x workshops at The Scrapstore @EKM in Ramsgate. The funding for the workshops will cover materials from the ScrapStore for up to 10 people.

We will hold these workshops in time for the Margate NOW festival on the 26^th of September where we will be hosting a walk from Arcades to Arcadia with Billie Penfold (Thread and Word) and other artists. The walk will take place, from Margate Station, it includes a walk-through exhibition at The Nayland Rock Hotel before continuing to the sunken gardens in Westbrook. The walk is free but pre-booking is required through: www.margatenow.co.uk 

During the workshops, the participants will be supported to make items for the walk and exhibition: Details of the workshops will follow shortly.

By holding these workshops we hope to bring to life the walking cards and encourage participants to come along to the walk and exhibition. 

After the workshops, we will explore the viewfinders and walking cards in various walking groups for GOLD members. Participants in the workshops will be the ‘experts’ in A Refracted View and can share their insight with their peers.  

You can see a short introduction to our Walking Cards here :

        

   

 Thank you for walking with us Owen Lowery (1968 - 2021)

 

A photo sent by Owen for A Walk with Shrines. Our thoughts are with his wife Jayne at this sad time.

It is with great sadness that I share this piece made with Owen for A Refracted View. Owen has contributed through Thread and Word to our film A Walk with Shrines, the soundscapes Are You Listening and The Listening Post for The  Margate Bookie and Let’s Take a Moment the soundscape for Arts and Minds with Sound Uk and the  LV21. He sent me some wonderful poetry recordings for our latest project @a_refracted_view_ and we made this video. You will be sorely missed Owen but we will continue to love and share your work. Thank you for making our lives a little brighter. 

This publication is made out of public concerns, expressions of grieves, and sympathy. ”We’re saddened to hear of the death of much-loved poet Owen Lowery on Friday 14th May 2021. We’ve published two of Owen’s collections: Otherwise Unchanged in 2010 and Rego Retold in 2015. A third, The Crash Wake Poems, is forthcoming in Autumn 2021…....” @Carcanet  announced the passing of Lowery on social media on 17th, May 2021.

A   Refracted  View                  

This is a project sharing local stories for The Margate Bookie as part of Estuary 2021.

Our focus is sustainability, environmental and social. Our project's ambition is to enact creative practices that move accessibility beyond how people navigate space and to recognise that universal access gives us a strong aesthetic that enriches all of our lives.

Local artists and the members of the Scrap Store @EKM, in Ramsgate, will co-create experiences that engage with their immediate surroundings. We will consider where we live, how we live and how we might live. These stories will be brought to life through A Refracted View.

So, why refracted? 

An image becomes refracted when light travelling in waves hits another medium, like water. This slows down its progress. Its natural inclination is to find the shortest route, diagonally through one medium to another which creates a different image. The most straightforward example of this is to half fill a glass with water and to stand a pencil in it, and then to look at it sideways. The pencil will appear fractured just above the waterline.

Our project, A Refracted View, presents different perspectives, new ways of looking at things. Our ambition is to disrupt socially constructed ideas of normality, excellence, and productivity.

How do we intend to do this?

We will trigger ideas using walking and thinking through craft. We will share our plans with you through regular podcasts. 

We hope to tinker with our imaginations to create new approaches by working together and engaging with our environment. Our materials will be people ( our artists and the East Kent Mencap members), places (Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Canterbury, Whitstable and Tankerton) and their stories crafted through a creative deck of walking prompts and flags signaling new directions and possibilities.

You can follow us and our podcast :

https://www.facebook.com/ThreadandWord

https://www.estuaryfestival.com/associated-programme.html

Our artists: Sharon Cavalier, Virginia Fitch, Amy Johnson, Diana Lane, Phoebe McIndoe, Sonia Overall, Elspeth Penfold.

 

 Terraqua : River story postings 

'The mind assembles experiences and constructs stories from them" 

As we prepare for  Terraqua I was looking ahead and reminded of The Terminalia Festival 2018. 

Where the land meets the sea........

Each year as part of Terminalia we celebrate the roman god of boundaries Terminus. I thought it would be fun to share these images of our 2018 celebration when a group of us walked with Thread and Word.

We experimented with a little mud walking led by Kate Monson, as we walked. to the boundary of where you can dig for bait at low tide in Seasalter.                     

                            

We walked, knotted ropes, and shared a moment in time.

                                                  and where the sea meets the land ......

 Terraqua creating stories from the riverbed.

Mapping : Locative media +Literature .

Here some Saturday fun for those of you who like puzzles. Check out our map A Different LENS, linked below.

1. Link authors to places listed in this image

2. See if you can work out the locations of the artworks using Lat.and long. ( also Maps)

https://cgeomap.eu/adifferentlens/

 Have a fab Saturday. Brought to you courtesy of @margatefestival @margatebookie @peopledemcollective

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 :

You can visit the map and  find out more about the artists , locations and choices of authors  on the Thread and Word website: 

 

https://elspeth-billie-penfold.com/a_different_lens/

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:

#DistanceDrift 

 

We hope you enjoy following our journey!

 

Let's Take a Moment

This soundscape with accompanying video introduction of a recorded workshop at Turner Contemporary during The Margate Bookie can be viewed In Your Living Room at The Wandsworth arts fringe if you follow this link:  Let's Take a Moment

During  Creativity and Well being week May 18th until May 24th 2020, I am delighted to offer a  box set of 100 signed limited edition prints at a special price of £25

Photography by Anna Bowman

A soundscape and an explanation

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 

‘Let’s Take a Moment’ is an A5 box-set of materials produced through a walking event which was part of Arts and Minds a festival in Gravesend, Kent in 2019.  The lid of the box has a QR code printed on it. This links to a soundscape of the walk which can be listened to on iCloud. Inside the box are materials to interact with as you listen to the soundscape of the walk. These include a palo Santo incense stick, a rope to knot meditatively while listening, a copy of a performance of a sermon enacted during the walk, and a set of cards with listening activities.

                                                                             

Contact details: Elspeth (Billie) Penfold

 elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ThreadandWord/

https://twitter.com/elspethpenfold

https://www.instagram.com/elspethpenfold/?hl=en

http://www.elspeth-billie-penfold.com

Milestones

20 Weaves of 20 walks, real and imagined, during COVID19

Promeneur

started  27/03/20

Here the first 10

April

to Mick's Post

Hope springs eternal

the rythm of a walk

Desire Lines

A Derive

The Common

Tankerton

a question of time

Walking Weaves

 In the Footsteps of Sheila Hicks.                  

                                                                                                       

Promeneur

I belong to the walking artist's network and had been following some lovely insightful pieces posted by fellow members, these were posted on the network with the title: Walking in The Time of Virus. The wonderful thing about belonging to a community of walkers is that it is a supportive group and one idea leads to another.

 I started these weaves which I worked on during self-isolation. My initial idea came through the work Promeneur,by Sheila Hicks see image attached. This is a piece I have always loved.

It is a small weaving made on a little portable loom that is made of stretch bars. These were used by Hicks as private expressions or ramblings. Ramblings seems a particularly apt terminology. Hicks has made thousands of these since graduate school.

 I made daily small weaves during this period of self-isolation. These reflect walks I had done, walks I missed, imaginary walks, and walks I was looking forward to doing in the future. 

 A Walk in Wimbledon

26/03/2020

A Walk on Wimbledon Common

27/03/2020

A Walk on Tankerton Beach (remembered)

28/03/2020

You can see more of these and their stories by following this link:

https://elspeth-billie-penfold.com/walking-weaves/

I missed walking with freedom and the time to do as I pleased, this was one way of taking some time to meditatively walk and think through weaving.