My fascination with the idea of ‘journey’ began in Ireland when I was travelling regularly between Limerick and England. My concern about the environment, sustainability and my personal carbon footprint resulted in a decision to stop taking short-haul flights. Instead I travelled between these two countries by train and ferry – the journey from Limerick to London non-stop takes a minimum of 12 hours (rather than 1hour 10mins from Shannon to Stansted by plane). So I spent a lot of time on journeys, and thinking about journeys were they ‘wasted’ travel days, or just as valuable as any other? The western world has become very concerned about time efficiency, we are goal orientated and we want to arrive, almost before we have even departed. My interest extended to all notions of journey: physical journeys from one place to another; metaphorical journeys either in thought processes, life journeys, emotional shifts and states. With this idea of ‘journey’ comes an interest in arrival and departure, transition, process, the desire for destination, the recognition of a gradual shift, and how the present tense is an essential ingredient in this mix of time and timing.
I wanted to find ways to denote these journeys and the passing of time visually. I developed a series of drawings ‘Mapping Journeys’ and became intrigued by the relevance of the mathematical sine wave in the natural world. The idea for this project ‘notions of journeying’ were born.
2 Strands of Visual Material
1). Mapping Journeys (image above)
These drawings are simple: at the start of a journey I put pen on a blank page and let the movement of the vehicle draw my picture. I resist the temptation of directing the pen where I’d like it to go; instead I allow the journey to draw itself. Most journeys I took in Ireland and Ghana (2008-9) have a drawing such as this. Each offer ample suggestions for movement, quality, atmosphere and intention. They provide a fascinating start point for translating into movement and dance. I intend to use them as scores available to several different kinds of interpretation – developing both a movement language and an over-arching shape for an entire piece/series of sketches.
2).The sine wave and its relationship to the change in daylight hours across the seasons
The change in daylight hours between winter and summer solstices conforms to the standard ratios of the mathematical sine wave. This ratio became the structural basis for ‘A Still Return’, the critically acclaimed solo I created on the Daghdha Mentoring Programme (2007-8), that continues to tour in Ireland and the UK. Whilst the structure/rules continue to be of interest to me, the movement I applied now seems remarkably arbitrary.
In response to this, I intend to experiment with possible ways of placing the language developed through the tasks with the ‘mapping journey’ drawings into the clear structure of the sine wave. In this way both the content – the steps, and the structure in which they are placed become necessary: both physically embody my ideas surrounding journeying, drawing together my interests in science and nature.
