Alec Finlay AIR 2013

noisiv | vision : from the road north

Outlandia (photo Luke Allan)

This sequence is composed from field-notes on the culture of viewing, remnants from a book-length poem that records a journey through Scotland, guided by Basho’s Oku-no-hosomichi, pairing Basho's temples with Neolithic sites, or contemporary temenos. Our journey, from Edo-Edinburgh to a view of Sado-St Kilda, guided us toward an understanding of viewing, from chambered cairns, most notably Bharpa Langais, North Uist, through folly viewing points, to contemporary secular constructions. The visits are detailed in the posts on the road north blog. Although we decided that this material did not, finally, belong in that journey narrative, I have preserved it here, as it bears on my ongoing research into shelters, huts, viewing platforms, follies and comparable constructions made, or proposed, by contemporary poets, architects, and artists.

Alec Finlay

read the full text

THE ROAD NORTH 2010

"The road north is a word-map of Scotland, composed by Alec Finlay & Ken Cockburn as they travel through their homeland, guided by the Japanese poet Basho, whose Oku-no-Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) is one of the masterpieces of travel literature. Ken and Alec left Edo (Edinburgh) on May 16, 2010 – the very same date that Basho and his companion Sora departed in 1689 – and when they return, on May 16, 2011, they will publish 53 collaborative audio & visual poems describing the landscapes they have seen and people they have met." Source: the road north blog

Outlandia was their destination on 22nd August, 2010. Follow their progress week by week, and read about some of the places that Basho leads them to on the road north blog. Click on images to enlarge.

photos by Kristian Buus & London Fieldworks