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 :

        

   

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!

 

A screen grab from twitter

Walking Weaves: Digitalising the Quipu

The Wandsworth Arts Fringe started last week , In Your Living Room. 

The arts listings and interactive element of this years fringe opens up the range of possibilities to create hybrid events which are both "live'" and digital. 

This has created a wonderful platform illustrating the possibilities for artists and community in which to develop events . 

I have four events which you can access below through Thread and Word at WAF 2020. 

Make a Quipu : Are you Listening

Make a Quipu:  Let's Take a Moment

The two pieces below are also digital stories containing  work made through walking and weaving in collaboration with artists and inviting community participation through making quipus.

a 14 minute film - A Walk with Shrines , with quipus attached to varas

13 short stories each three minutes long at The Listening Post

And ,of course you are my community now!

I'd love it if you could checkout the events at WAF,  listen to the soundscapes and email a photo of your quipu knotted rope . I have attached a sample of the ones I have received so far.

Each quipu has a particular story which you can see if you visitThread and Word Facebook Page .

I really hope you have time to listen, make and  email me your quipu : 

elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk

A short description of each of thes events listed can be found below

Are You Listening?

Are You Listening?  is a binaural soundscape of a performative walk. This walk took took place in Battersea Park as part of the Chelsea Fringe in 2019. The walk was supported by The Work and Play Scrapstore in Wandsworth. The recording shares sounds from the local area, poetry and performances which respond to particular sites during the walk. These draw your attention to our interconnectedness and environmental sustainability.  It has an accompanying slideshow. You are invited to join the walk, wear headphones, if you can. Take a rope ( ( not compulsory, but could be fun) and knot as you join in the poetry readings and actions. You are invited to make a quipu (meditatively knotted rope) of your experience and send the photo  to elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk . Your quipu and its story will be posted on The Thread and Word facebook page with your permission.

A Thread and Word Production by the artist Elspeth Penfold and invited artis

A Walk with Shrines  (a film)

14 mins

 Celebrating our love of books and what they mean to us. Artists and authors join together in a walk building shrines to selected books and poems at chosen sites during the Margate Bookie 2018. This film takes you on their journey through the making of the ‘ofrendas’ or offerings and the ritual of building temporary shrines at chosen sites during a walk in Margate. The film was made with funding support from Arts Council England , Turner Contemporary, Margate Bookie, Kent County Council and Margate Festival Now.

A Thread and Word Production by the artist Elspeth Penfold and invited artists

Let’s Take a Moment  

Let’s Take a Moment

 ‘ Let’sTake a Moment’,  is a soundscape of a performative walk in Gravesend led by the artist Elspeth Penfold . This was part of REFLECT: Arts and Minds, 2019 a project commissioned by LV21 and Sounduk art. Artists were invited to create work which connected with this stretch of the Kent coastline in Gravesend. 

Local community, visitors and artists were invited to walk with us through Thread and Word and take part in the celebration of a mindful walking event through the knotting of ropes.

As you listen to the soundscape and watch the slideshow you are invited to knot a rope as a mindful interaction with the sounds you are listening to.

The walking event and soundscape were made with funding support from The Welcome Foundation and Arts Council England.

A Thread and Word Production by the artist Elspeth Penfold and invited artists

 The Listening Post

 Join us at The listening Post. A curated aural exhibition of short stories. Thirteen short stories (3 minutes approximately) read in the authors own voices set to sounds by the composer and musician Lucy Claire.

The authors include :Jess Kidd ,Christina Lovey,  Owen Lowery,  Sonia Overall , Peggy Riley , and Philip Whiteley, Helen Atkinson, Susan Emm , Amanda Jones, Sue McClymont,  Elizabeth Scrase

A curated aural exhibition of short stories. Join us at WAF in your Living Room. If you can, listen with headphones and be transported through sounds and words.

A Thread and Word Production by the artist Elspeth Penfold and Lucy Claire. 

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.