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.

6th September 2014

18.00 for 18.15 start
Book tickets here

Rhodri Davies
www.rhodridavies.com

Rhodri Davies plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released three solo albums: Trem, Over Shadowsand Wound Response.

His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, a duo with Richard Dawson, The Sealed Knot, Common Objects and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch.

In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on ‘Self-cancellation’, a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow.

New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award.

Since moving to the North East, he has developed and presented work in a vast range of forms, using the harp in every possible way and in a range of settings. His “Ring and Cup” piece was part of the 2014 AV Festival.

For the performance on 6/9, he will be constructing an array of amplified Aeolian harps on the Cone structure on the Staiths.

The Noize Choir
Founded in the mists of a few years ago, they expand and contract to suit the purpose, working in space and spaces unused to a choir improvising and working from graphic scores and responding to the when and where.
noizechoir.tumblr.com

Gabriele Heller
Gabriele Heller is a singer and performer from Munich, based in Newcastle. On the Staiths, Gabriele will be reading with sounds.
www.gabrieleheller.com

Please note: ticket numbers are limited to 30 per event, and events are weather contingent. Please wear stout shoes (no high-heels or sandals please), and come prepared for an outdoor event – there is very little shelter on the Staithes.

The Jetty project and Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust are pleased to announce 3 tours of Wolfgang Weileder’s artwork on the Staiths.

Tours of Cone will take place at the following times, and booking is essential. Tours are limited to 15 people per time slot, and stout foot ware is essential. Tours will be weather contingent.

Tuesday 2nd September 2014:  14.15, 14.45, 15.15
Tuesday 9th September 2014:   14.15, 14.45, 15.15

Artist-led tour
Wednesday 10th September 2014:  14.15, 14.45, 15.15

To book please email: kari@twbpt.org.uk stating your preferred date and time. Reservations are on a first come, first served basis, and will be confirmed 24hrs before the event.

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

New Artwork Unveiled