Drever, John L.; Thatcher, Tony and Redding, Emma. 2010. '-scape [Goodwins] – making horizontal'. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. The Royal Geographical Society, United Kingdom. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

Goodwin Sands is a tidal sandbank circa 6 miles out from the coast of South-East England. Corporeal access to the sandbank is highly limited, contingent on exceptional low tides and calm weather and an expert local sailor. It is a location that is widely known by those who inhabit the shores of the mainland, vividly living in anecdote and imagination as a treacherous shipping hazard spanning millennia: such a morbid reputation is evinced by wrecks strewn across the region. Yet, despite this psychic acquaintance and geographical proximity, few have walked the Sands. Even when the conditions are right, a short window of opportunity may allow up to 90 minutes on the Sands before the sea rises once again. During this short window, the Sands are inhabited by wildlife such as sea birds. Seals lie in the sun on the highest point, waiting for the tide to levitate them into the sea.

The Sands' surface is replete with intricate details and characteristics, resembling a micro-topography seen from above in a passing jet crossing great mountains and plateaus. Yet this topography's transient lifespan is determined by the tide, mandala-like as the rich patterns of rivulets, ridges, gullies, planes and troughs, generated by the water's rhythmic actions of currents and eddies, is undermined and effaced by the oncoming tide.

Acting as a sounding/writing-board, the Sands have been our field of study, informing our choreography, scenography and sound design through a process of changing horizontals. In -scape, through movement, field recording and film, we are recreating some of these atmospheres and embodied values, concretising them, and putting them back into a performance event. We are geographically relocating our recollection of the Sands onto the adjacent mainland beach, which looks out to yet does not permit sight of the Sands. We make audible the lie of the land via contact microphones. By repositioning ourselves in a continuum between the horizontal and the vertical, whilst movement making, we make visible an imprint; a dynamic map of the land made resonant within the body; a sensory score, laid down in the somatic recollection mechanism. The presentation will reference theoretical writing by Bachelard (1958), Carter (2004), Crang & Thrift (2000), Feld & Basso (1998), Howes (2003, 2004), Tuan (1974, 1977, 1979), Thrift (2008).

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Music > Unit for Sound Practice Research Music
Dates:	Date Event 2010 Completed
Event Location:	The Royal Geographical Society, United Kingdom
Item ID:	33018
Date Deposited:	09 Jan 2023 09:40
Last Modified:	09 Jan 2023 09:40
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/33018

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