Simon Guy will also draw on the research experiences from the Jetty Project at the forthcoming international conference, ‘The City and the Pragmatic Turn’, to be held at Copenhagen University on November 5th and 6th 2015. Please click here for more details.

3rd June 2015

The Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts

Introduced by the editor, Simon Guy, Catalyst was given a small launch in Lancaster. Wolfgang Weileder gave a public lecture relating to the book. Dr Bronislaw Szerszynski discussed the lecture in relation to his work on the anthropocene and art.

Audio and images to follow.

26th June 2015

Newcastle (Details to follow)

First up was the British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference in Glasgow on the theme of “Societies in Transition”. We were asked to think beyond the traditional powerpoint presentation. And so we took some objects including a piece of the old Dunston Staiths’ handrail (before the renovation), a piece of coal and some Aquadyne.

Simon Guy presents at the British Sociological Association

As an interdisciplinary art project, the Jetty Project has insights of interest to a range of disciplines. And so our next stop was the Association of American Geographers in Chicago.  Many geographers have been attentive to the spatial, aesthetic and scalar interpretations of art. And there has been much debate about creative inter-disciplinarity (Hawkins 2010). Geographers have shown how artistic practices can help us to reimagine of urban futures and our approach towards urban ecology, in particular to wilderness’: “Imaginative interventions by artists, writers, and scientists remind us that looking, thinking, and representing the familiar in an unfamiliar way can also be a kind of radical cultural and political praxis” (Gandy 2013: 1311).

Located within a session interrogating heritage and changing environments, we presented the Jetty Project’s urban intervention and how it helped to spark interest in the future of a supposedly ‘obsolete’ site.

Gap as constructed at Newcastle University, ready to be installed in the Great North Museum.

The artwork, Gap, is a scale model of this section. The Great North Museum Hancock will host the work in March in order for it to be photographed again before being dismantled. Students at Newcastle University have helped to construct the work.

On Wednesday, nine people came to on an artist-led tour to find out more about Cone. For some of the people that attended, visiting Cone and hearing the artist speak about it meant that the art work made much more sense to them.

People asked lots of questions about Cone – how long will it last? Where will it go once it has been dismantled? What is Aquadyne used for? And, of course, there were queries on what the future holds for Dunston Staiths. Luckily we had the Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust activity manager to provide some answers!

The artist talks about Cone, 10th September 2014

We’d post more pictures on this, but it’s better to link you to Ken Fitzpatrick’s Flickr stream, which he took after touring Cone on Wednesday afternoon.

If you missed these events, you can still get a decent view of Cone from the western end of Dunston Staiths this coming weekend.

The Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust are inviting people to come along and see the renovation work as part of Heritage Open Day:

• Friday 12 September: 1200 -1600
• Saturday 13 September: 1030-1530
• Sunday 14 September: 1030-1530

Stout shoes/boots should be worn, as surfaces are uneven. While a loop of the Staiths will be accessible, lower and upper levels are linked via stairs. Access may be restricted due to poor weather and ongoing restoration work.

- See more by clicking here.

The Royal Geographical Society have a fantastic website where people contribute their walks of Britain so that other people can enjoy them. And so, the 80 years of history that can be seen from the Baltic to Dunston is now available on their website.
The walks are self-guided and you can choose from different formats.The walk booklet contains everything that you need to know including practical information, route maps and the commentary. You can either print it out or download it onto an iPad or eReader. Alternatively you can download an audio version of the commentary onto an mp3 player. You also need to print out the accompanying booklet which contains the essential map and directions as these are not incorporated into the audio.

Let us know what you think at info@jetty-project.info

Angela Connelly, 21 July 2014

Sustainability Cafe at Dunston Community Centre

Last Thursday, six people came to the sustainability cafe that was led by the University of Lancaster. With nine people in total, we thought that this was about as much as the staiths could reasonably handle for safety reasons.

Inside Cone, the word ‘sublime’ was mentioned on more than one occasion. After spending a while on the Staiths, we wandered over to the Dunston Community Centre for a cup of tea and a chat about sustainability.

Cone provoked a wide discussion – from the sustainability of the material to the skills learned by the students working on the art work. Many participants were stepping foot on Dunston Staiths for the first time, and so the art work is subtly helping to engender a conversation on what the future holds for the structure and how access to it can be managed.

That evening, I wandered over to the Baltic to take part in the North East conversation about the Farrell Review. Over wine, someone mentioned to me that Dunston Staiths has appeared as a backdrop in many television programmes and films, including Purely Belter (2000) which shows the Staiths before the gap was created. That’s probably something else to be added to the timeline.

Angela Connelly, 21 July 2014

Wolfgang spoke of House-City (2003), an earlier piece that was constructed in Newcastle city centre. Cone has provided a different experience though. Firstly it differs in scale. This is an AHRC funded project, which makes the execution much more complex even though the scale of Cone is smaller than Wolfgang’s previous works. Secondly, Cone is placed on different territory – the nature of Dunston Staiths has meant that numerous planning consents and permissions have had to be in place before construction commenced.

Wolfgang says that he is still learning about his art as the years and months progress. He  now realises the relationships that are sustained over time, long after an artwork is deconstructed. For example, students learn new skills which has contributed to them receiving NVQ’s (Goulding 2007). Occasionally, Wolfgang has met people in mundane places who recognise him because a member of their family worked on House-City.  All of this shows that art does much more than people might often think; it creates relationships between people, that may be sustained over time in the most surprising ways.

Two metres high and with the door opening in place

Meanwhile, Cone has grown to two metres high, and the lintel is in place. More apprentices have been added to our core team of five to help lift the Aquadyne to the top of the Staiths. If you are around, and the weather remains fine, then do pop down to have a natter with us!

Perhaps the most strenuous activity was in drawing the circle that will form the base of Cone, a task that Wolfgang assumed with the help of Charles Blackett Ord. The aquadyne has also been delivered, and cleaned up responsibly of course. By the end of week one, the students had taken us up to around 1.5 metres and we await the delivery of scaffold next week to continue the job.

On Wednesday 4^th June 2014, Angela led a walk out to Dunston Staiths. The Power and the Water research team, from the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham and East Anglia, agreed to be dragged along for some exercise, art and industrial heritage during their busy team meeting schedule.  They are an environmental history initiative that focuses on environmental connectivities that have emerged in Britain since industrialisation including rivers, the national grid, nuclear power and lead mining soughs.

The weather did not bode well. We longed for sunshine but when we saw the morning forecast, we hoped for a spot of meteorological kindness by early evening.

Ambling out from the Quayside, we crossed the swing bridge and headed out along the Keelman’s Way through the Riverside Park. On the way, we spotted many of the art works that weave their way into the landscape: Lulu Quinn’s Rise and Fall (2007), to some earlier examples including Sally Matthew’s Goats (1992), which almost look like live animals,  and Cone (1992) by Andy Goldsworthy, almost hidden, which nods to the industrial heritage of Gateshead. And, as the path wound round, we caught tantalising glimpses of Dunston Staiths in the background.

We plodded on past the Staiths South Bank estate and we spoke about how Wayne Hemingway was approached by Taylor Wimpey in order to design something that went beyond standardised house building. Some of the group said that it looked similar to some housing on the riverside in Bristol. Then the group mused whether there was something about Gateshead that it just needed something like this. The most surprising aspect was the cost of a dwelling: many of the team live, or have lived in, London and Bristol where prices are much higher. Let’s move up north then? We even found the time to sit in one of the communal spaces.

Taking the load off our feet

As we approached the staiths, the group were impressed by the depth and extent of the mudflats. We were transported to Copenhagen in Denmark where the depollution of the harbour area, and some careful design interventions, have not only made it safe to swim, but resulted in a popular outdoor swimming facility. At the Islands Brygge people regularly jump off from the pier. Could the same be done from Dunston Staiths? We did wonder…

Relaxation in Copenhagen

We came to the Marine Management Organisation’s notice for consultation on the Jetty Art project’s proposed construction of Cone. This gave us the opportunity to speak about the art work and the various concepts and ideas that had been flowing around it. “It needs a beacon” said one person, which is an idea that some in the wider community have latched onto. Here, it was because Dunston Staiths looks like it should have a lighthouse on the end of it. We spoke of a connection to the Baltic and another member of our group likened it to the Thames Clippers’ ‘Tate to Tate’ route that takes art lovers speedily between Bankside and Millbank.

A Notice about Cone

David Fraser gave a wonderful account of the construction and history of the staiths. We debated where the timber came from to build it – we think that it came from originally from the Baltic. The original specifications (in the Tyne and Wear Archives) indicate pitch-pine and Memel Timber. David thinks that when coal was exported (mainly to London, but also to Poland and Germany), timber would be placed on the ships for the return leg. But then, the Staiths have continually been patched up over time and we were reminded of the new Ekki timber that is being used to restore Dunston Staiths now: just one more layering up in the long story of this structure which has seen so much change and still remains.

David speaking to the Power and the Water team

We think that we spotted some Oyster Catchers, or they might have just been ducks. No one professed to be a keen bird watcher, although we did wonder whether there might be some tourism potential for twitcher vacations? Are the birds that rare? I was astounded to later learn that bird watching holidays are widely available.

‘You can almost hear the coal rumbling off of the Staiths’ said Peter Coates as he looked back towards the structure. And just when we turned back to come home, a rainbow appeared right on the end of the staiths. Perhaps this is a symbol of what might yet be on the horizon for this wonderful site.

Thanks to the Power and the Water project team for letting me lead this walk, and to David I Fraser, the industrial heritage researcher, who was generous with his time and knowledge.