The Liminal Zone
This dual-project took the seashore as a metaphor for edges in our lives. It had two parts - one was academic, funded by the Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities, and the other was creative, funded by Creative Scotland. Throughout both of these projects, I drew inspiration from the rhythms of life in the tidal zone, the liminal place where ocean meets land, with all its complex porosity and changeability.
The creative part was a largely solo project looking at various edges in my life - work and play, writing and other art forms, youth and age, wellness and illness and, when my husband had a cardiac arrest in the middle of the project, life and death. I spent a lot of time at the seashore where I live, and also at Inverewe Garden, where I was poet in residence. The main outcomes were my book of sea poetry, Briny, and the exhibition, Trees Meet Sea, pairing my poems with artworks by 14 artists.
The academic part was a collaboration with creative arts teachers in a range of media, all working in Scottish colleges and universities, and it involved looking at the interface between creativity and teaching - the difficult line that creative artists need to tread when we balance the artworks we are developing with the needs of our students. We created a joint exhibition that was displayed at Moray School of Art and then got picked up and shown at a succession of other venues: Taigh Chearsabhagh in Lochmaddy, North Uist; the Rockfield Centre in Oban; and Stirling University. The project reports are below.
The Liminal Zone briefing paper
The Liminal Zone working paper
The Liminal Zone policy recommendations
The project led to a follow-on, funded by the Knowledge Exchange Challenge Fund, where we explored the potential for collaborations between artists and marine scientists. This project was called ArtSea and it has led to some ongoing collaborations, particularly between artists and researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, where I am now an honorary research fellow.