In January 2015, Jenny collaborated with researcher, artist and musician Ian Humberstone to undertake an artist residency with The Bothy Project, at their remote highland bothy near Aviemore, Scotland. The collaboration was borne out of a shared interest in the auditory and visual senses that combine with other experiential qualities to help define a sense of place.
During our days at Inshriach Bothy we explored this beautiful landscape whilst the weak winter daylight lasted, and found visual senses dominated – views of far flung snow-topped mountains against the horizon, the almost hypnotising circling swirling of the river, frozen rippled puddles along the path and bare branches swaying in the wind. As dusk turned to pitch black inky night, auditory clues took over to translate the world around us – owls hooting from up above our heads, the crunch of footsteps along winding frosty paths, winds wailing, trees creaking, and imagined fears of what may be out there in the dark - heard but not seen.
Together we made a film representing the collaboration of the senses which combine to create the ‘genius loci’ of this unique landscape as this changes from day to night and back to day again.
The film (below) explored this transition in the way we interpret the world around us, the way our experience of place changes as different senses dominate – day to night, visual to auditory, from an instantly visual and explained world in plain sight, to a primal fear induced by auditory cues we either hear or imagine but cannot see or anticipate. Jenny also produced a series of photographic prints using double exposure to communicate a layered sense of place, resulting from various, and often contradictory qualities and elements, whether natural or manmade.a
The audio for the resulting short film, primarily comprises original field recordings taken by Ian at the Inshriach Bothy site and locale (including piano at the Old Bridge Inn) in addition to original compositions responding to the night scenes and outro. Film and photography was recorded entirely on-site by Jenny.
The film was exhibited as part of the Connection to Place exhibition at the Tent Gallery in Edinburgh in 2015. More information about both this residency, and the wider Bothy Project on their blog and website.
