Dead Reckoning, 2012 (3mins trailer) from Stephen Hurrel on Vimeo.
Sublime Residency, Cromarty (2012)
During the summer of 2012 I was artist in residence at the Lighthouse Field Station, Cromarty in the north-east of Scotland.
Over the last 25 years, The Lighthouse Field Station (part of Aberdeen University) has developed an internationally recognised research programme using photography, bio-acoustic techniques and a range of tracking technologies to study the abundance, movements, sound and underwater behaviour of seals, dolphins and other marine wildlife.
This was a fantastic opportunity to work alongside marine research scientists and to engage, over a focussed period of time, with the sound recordings, data and the environments in which they work.
During the residency I responded to the specifics of the place using video, photography and sound. I created six videos and a site-specific piece. For the final exhibition of work at the Lighthouse Field Station the main video production Dead Reckoning (13 mins) was installed in the boat shed and the five shorter videos were shown on a monitor in a room in the lighthouse itself. The site-specific audio-visual piece ‘Otolith Rings’ was installed in the empty light room of the lighthouse. The ground floor rooms of the lighthouse were occupied by fellow resident artist Mark Lyken who created installations that featured his haunting, resonant sound compositions. The similarities in the tone and sensibility in which we responded to Cromarty created a harmony between our works, and resulted in them sitting well together within the same close environment.
Mark and I collaborated on a video piece which was projected onto the exterior of the lighthouse on the Opening Night. This piece featured a soundtrack composed and produced by Mark, to which I created the video material. The circular-screen projection was then played as a loop for a couple of hours each night during the week-long exhibition run. The list of HD video works are as follows:
Big Legs, Small Hammer (01:58)
Otolith Rings – site-specific installation in light room of lighthouse (Projected video and sound, looped)
Wetland [lighthouse remix] Hurrel & Lyken (07:50)
– a video and music collaborative piece, projected onto lighthouse
The Sublime Residency was organised and produced by Susan Christie (IOTA) in association with Paul Thompson of The Lighthouse Field Station, Aberdeen University’s School of Biological Sciences. It was funded by Creative Scotland, with additional funding from H.I.E. Thanks to all involved including all the researchers at the Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty for their generous support and practical help.