Some of you may have heard my news? I will be continuing my experiments in film-making about Close to Nature permanent forestry on a different level. I will be starting a PhD in film practice and theory on ecology at NCAD (National College of Art & Design, Ireland) this September!
Just to recap, I started working with others on transforming our small 23 yr old spruce plantation in 2008 and the ‘holly wood diaries’ project initially came after quite a bit of thinking about a previous project I was involved in ‘the local project’ film where I filmed young broad-leaf woodlands and their owners in Co Leitrim during 2006. As with any art project that comes to an end I’m always wondering what’s next. The ‘local project revisited‘ was extremely rich but also a huge amount of work but I learned so much about forests and the challenges of film making. Working alongside Jan Alexander (Pro Silva Close to Nature forestry expert), the visits to the young woodlands also identified that managing permanent woodlands into the future was something Ireland doesn’t know much about.
So the dilemma for my art practice was whether to do more work on forests or something new. I remember quite clearly taking my dog Holly for a walk in our woods when the idea of converting our small woodland into a permanent close to nature managed forest might be a fun project; not that I told many of my forestry friends straight out what I was doing (didn’t want to appear completely ridiculous as have little forestry management practice and not to mention forestry is a such a long term project). The idea stuck and grew though and aren’t some of the most daunting ideas are the best. Luckily for me, I have great forestry connections and discovered a Close to Nature forester, Chris Hays nearby.
Over the last couple of years I’ve been documenting progress on how our monoculture spruce plantation is being transformed into a permanent, biodiverse and viable producing forest. Alongside this is that in my work I learned a great deal about blogging and I expect will be blogging through my PhD project (just attended a rather good meeting at Trinity on academic humanities blogging last week too that some of you may be interested in. )
Anyway, the project also allows me to work more on film-making and Holly is often tagging along, often just out of shot. Holly’s lent her name to the small film offerings that are coming out of the forest too. Such a clever dog. (She’s also managing my partner’s art project which is nearing completion this week – see www.cherryorchard2.wordpress.com)
PS my small 1 minute film ‘once i counted birds‘ has been selected for 2nd Carlow film festival – film screeenings start at 11pm at the new Carlow omiplex, after all the opening Eigse exhibitions (though not sure how this youtube film will look at this fancy new digital theatre).
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