You can see the Greenhouse from miles away.

Rothkos Chapel http://www.rothkochapel.org/




WaterMill Temple

In 2000 when I first started art school in Glasgow I tried to empty the student library in order to create a new social space, at the time I was on the fine art Printmaking course and the tutors really didn't like the project.

They felt it was antisocial.

It wasn't long before I failed the year and changed coarse.
The project never went further than a large poster for the public with instructions and a suggested strategy on how to empty the library by taking out as many books as they were each entitled to, reclaiming the space, using for something new, then returning the books after a week or so.

six years later.....

In 2006 I went to Melbourne to work on a Cabin Exchange project- Tug of Cabin as part of the Next wave festival.
One day myself and Nick Carlin visited a gallery, we slumped down in a sofa in the space as we had been cycling around and it's not so often you find a comfortable sofa in a gallery.
The Sofa was part of a project called Ideas Catalogue by Gabrielle De Vietri.



The Ideas Catalogue is an annual publication that draws together ideas for projects, artworks, events, interventions and exhibitions.
The concept is that you can sell your ideas to other people to use and appropriate as they so wish.
So I decided to fill in a form (with spelling and punctuation advice from Nick) and offer up my 'Bookless Library' idea if I hadn't used it by now then I probably never was, so I thought some one else might want to do something with it.

Several months after I was contacted by Gabrielle to tell me that the idea had been bought by two curators from Milan who would use it in there gallery in someway. What makes me laugh (and cry) is that one of my initial responses was that I might receive lots of money for the idea. I was informed that when I filled in the form I stated that the idea was for sale for $1 and I had further more stipulated it could be sold as many times as there are libraries in the world.
The best idea or the cheapest idea?



Here is an interview with Gabrielle De Vietri about the project where she talks a bout the bookless library idea:
http://lucazoid.com/media/audio/gab_d_vietri_edit_01.mp3



And here is Not Quite Art a TV program the idea also appeared in:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/notquiteart/

Not Quite Art was broadcast on Australia's ABC channel the program was conceived and presented by Marcus Westbury (the former director of Next Wave Festival) and it is available for download here
Episode 1 looks at the Glasgow Art Scene, and Episode 3 has a section about the Ideas Catalogue and the bookless library idea.

this is a new project myself Sille and Tormod at Barselgrad have just started, going along with the current theme of documenting everything: http://fykselyd.blogspot.com

The idea so far:

Sad Sanctum
A water powered anti Sesonal Affective Disorder place of Rest.
-
Sanctum: A quite private place where somebody is free from interference or interruption.

A place where you can relax

Maybe made from reclaimed materials:


Maybe adapting an existing site:

Local power station


Smaller power station

At the moment I am more interested in designing and constructing a space
and sighting it next to a water source within the region.
I feel this could turn out to be a long-term project and would need support from the local council, architects, engineers, funding and what ever it takes to build a building these days.

My initial feelings are that I want the design to be:
Functional
Beautiful
Sustainable
Humble
Not too big
-



My friend has carried this book around with her like a bible ever since I have known her, and I've spent a lot of time looking over her shoulder. So I thought I should ordered a copy and now I'm waiting for it to arrive.


also this is a well known read:

This is the Fykse Lettuce factory Green house:




It's a beautiful sight at night, a light in my life and in many others living in Fykse.
At the darker time of year the lettuce factory/ greenhouse lights are left on at night to make up for the lost hours of light.

many questions come about:

Should we really be creating our own climates?
Does this not affect the climate we already have?
Maybe lettuce doesn’t grow at this time of year for a reason?
Is this better than importing lettuce from other countres?
Is it using renewable or none renewable power?

Recently on a frosty evening myself and Tormod went to visit the 'Lettuce man', he was very friendly and gave us some free lettuce he had left over, stepping into the green house had that middle of summer affect on me. It was glorious.
Standing in his T-Shirt He explained to us that he was using a type of UV light.
This got me thinking about other uses of UV light and the 'light therapy' that the factory is providing for the Locals.

This building has a monumental shine, you can see it from the other side of the Fjord and when you're up on the mountain it lights up the village below. I love this building it for its multifunctionality as grower, provider and brightener, and I feel it raises many interesting questions at the same time.

Link: Green houses in space

'Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or Winter Depression, is a mood disorder occurring in individuals who are very sensitive to seasonal changes. For these people, the winter blues interferes with their ability to function properly.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is linked to the activity of the internal body clock. a neural center in the mammalian brain involved in regulating eating, sleeping, socializing and sexual activity. In the winter season, the body clock senses the shortening length of day, and responds by causing mammals to sleep longer and eat more, gaining weight to survive harsh winter conditions. Humans experience these changes as a reduction in energy and a tendency to gain weight in the winter months.'

It is getting darker earlier and earlier at the moment and always takes me a while to adapt to the sessions like most people, and I suppose that’s what we humans are meant to do - adapt.
But I don't think I’m a true suffer from SAD, maybe just a mild case, the strongest case of really yearning for light was last year when I was staying in a caravan on the Isle of Harris in Outer Hebrides, Scotland. And Liam if you're reading this I had a great time mate, but I definitely had case of the winter blues.

Light Therapy:


'It is thought that light therapy works by lengthening the perceived day length, restoring the body clock to a summer mode. Properly timed light therapy influences neural pathways in the brain that use serortonin as their primary neurotransmitter.'

'Full sunlight is preferred for seasonal affective disorder. Other treatments are based upon infrared light exposure. There are a number of products (such as light boxes) using very intense artificial illumination that are effective for seasonal affective disorder. These products must provide 10,000 lux or more directed angularly at the users eyes, without harmful ultraviolet radiation.'

And:

'Scandinavia:
Winter depression (or winter blues) is a common slump in the mood of Scandinavians. Doctors estimate that about 20% of all Scandinavians are affected, and it seems to be genetically heritable. It was first described by the 6th century Goth scholar Jordanes in his Getica where he described the inhabitants of Scandza (Scandinavia). There are words in Icelandic and Swedish that directly describe Seasonal Affective conditions. The Icelandic word is "skammdegisthunglyndi". "Skamm" means short, "degi" is day, "thung" is heavy and "lyndi" means mood although there is some argument as to how long the word existed as the earliest records indicate it appeared in the late 1800s in print."

Quotes and information:
Scandinavia - http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhmhojididid/

All other information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder

Sykkelen å Skolen - Cycle to school
On the 1st of September 2007 l cycled from Sheffield through Belgium, France, Germany Denmark and arrived in Fykse in Norway on the 3rd of October.


It wasn't the most sensible time of year to travel, I'd not had much time to plan my journey, had little training and my wallet was light, But it felt like the best way to get to my destination.

In Fykse is Barselgrad artists residency program that takes place in a former school.



'Barselgrad takes place at a former school in rural Hardanger, on the Norwegian west coast from September 2007 until August 2008.
The final and closing part of the project is the making and touring of an Art Caravan. The caravan will take the artistic works and ideas produced in this project on a tour in Scandinavia in May, June and July 2008.

The aim of the project is to create an alternative context outside an institutional urban art world. It creates a space for meetings, in-depth exploration and exchanges for the visiting artists. At the same time the project and art practices will be in dialogue with the local community. The project is situated in the small village Fykse, which has just experienced the closing down of the local school. Barselgrad wants to contribute to the local community by being a meeting place for engagement and will. Whereas Barselgrad will function as a base in which people can travel to and work at, the Art Caravan makes the project portable and temporarily. The caravan will with its stops create a new and different space in ever place. Our aim is to create a vital interaction in the places where people are, not in the galleries.'

Tormod Carlsen and Sille Storihle

www.barselgrad.net

Images of Fykse:

>

A few days after I arrived in Fykse I found out from the local journalist that on the 8th of October it would be the 70th anniversary of the Fykse Bridge.


The bridge crosses the Hardanger Fjord and connects two parts of the mainland, after talking to a few people I realised the bridge has many stories to tell and is fundamental to the regions day to day functioning. Before the bridge was built locals and anyone wanting to get to the other side would have to use boats or go long way round that takes you right into the belly of the fjord.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since then.
Bridge the gap.

The bridge has started to bring about many ideas and in particular ideas that looked at its provision of communication. Although Definitions are often overused in an art setting (- as artist often like to distil something by using the simplest means possible) I feel you can't go wrong with a few if you want focus on the structure or function of something.

Myself and Sille Storihle started talking about the bridge and decided we wanted to collect some stories by organising interviews with the people from Fykse.

One of the more long term plans (to maybe happen in the spring) is to create a mass can telephone line from one end of the bridge to the other involving the local people to tell stories across the bridge.


As a starting point to attempt to get people involved in this idea and create a general focus on the bridge, we decided to make a DIY 'cut out and make your own bridge' that would also double up as an invitation flyer to get people together to discuss our proposed idea.
We distributed the flyer throughout Fykse and and the local region the day before the bridges birthday.






To download the design click here.