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GEOPARK BLOG

GEOPARK ARTIST PROJECT - ANNA KELEHER Researching the Agency of Things + Talking with Things. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

TECHNOLOGY ON THE MOVE: II

Just as our blogs piggy back other sites (mine is on the English Riviera Geopark website as well as RAT + things) our portable technology hitches a ride with us!

Have you noticed how our cameras, mobiles, binoculars and other "Things" are really good at getting us to carry them around in ever more comfortable cases. I don't know how it happened, really I don't, but after the Mobile Sled and Sandal from Montbretia leaves I began making a Geopark carry case for my audio recorder out of Torbay Palm. It was a very steep learning curve as instead of letting the pattern evolve I tried copying something I have at home.

The experimental building of "mobile shelters" teaches me something of how the ancestral peoples of this Geopark interacted with the plants of their environment, to create cultural artifacts such as shoes, carriers, mats. Making things outdoors in this wild Geopark winter gives me a closeness to this place, to its arising culture, to its ancient peoples feels authentic.  I am respectful of their endeavors  and admire their skill and ingenuity. Without it we wouldn't have cordage, plaiting,weaving or culture.

In this damp climate relatively few woven artifacts make it into the archaeological record. Bog bodies and burials from the Bronze Age have turned up fine textiles with pony hair tassels particularly in Eire, but they are rare.

What did the early inhabitants of what has become The English Riviera Geopark wear? What footwear and textiles did they make and how did they carry water, nuts, berries and shellfish. My imagination thrives in the gaps left by archaeology and I am engaged in a kind of hybrid between Experimental Archaeology and Art - I am learning from doing - as a way to find out more about the present. 

Visit Anna's website here.

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