[Nettime-ro] Relief From Law

[Roddy Hunter <r.hunter@dartington.ac.uk>]

Title: Relief From Law

€ apologies for cross-posting €

For further information and to discuss any aspect of this project (including remote participation and access for those with disabilities), please contact the artist directly at roddy@zero-g.org.uk

R O D D Y

HUNTER

R E L I E F  F R O M  L A W

A psychogeographical survey of Dundee Law and environs, Dundee, Scotland

for Burning Bush 2: Doing Time, March-May 2002

Roddy Hunter, artist-in-residence for the festival ŚBurning Bush 2: Doing Timeą, is making a psychogeographical study of a route between Magdalen Green Bandstand and Dundee Law.

Taking its name from the old Scots word Ślawą meaning Śhillą, Dundee Law is an extinct volcano formed around 400 million years ago. A conical mass of volcanic basalt, it forms the highest point in the city, rising to a height of 174m (571 feet). An Iron Age hill fort once occupied the site on which now stands a memorial to the dead of World War 1 erected in 1923. This site, and others along the route, has inspired Hunterąs psychogeographical study.

Psychogeography involves studying the direct influence of geographical setting on the mood and behaviour of the individual. It is essentially concerned with urbanism and raises questions about town planning, architecture, social control, economic and political science, constructions of desire, history and situations. Starting at Magdalen Green, Hunter will proceed on foot, studying the effects of this influence, along Roseangle, Perth Road, Nethergate, High Street, Reform Street, Meadowside, Constitution Road, Upper Constitution Street, Kinghorne Road, Law Crescent and Law Road before arriving at Dundee Law. The route is then reversed and retraced.

Hunter will walk this route at dawn and dusk each day for a week. The walk may take around two hours to complete. He invites anyone interested to join him for all or part of the walk and to share views and opinions about urbanism in general and/or Dundee in particular. The first walk will commence from the bandstand on Magdalen Green on Thursday 28 March at 5.45pm, arriving at Dundee Law at sunset and returning to Magdalen Green by approximately 7.45pm. There will then be a series of twice daily walks (between 4.45am ‹ 6.45am and 5.45pm ‹ 7.45pm) from Friday 29 March until Wednesday 3 April. The series concludes with a dawn walk on Thursday 4 April 2002.

These walks will create a series of dialogues which will contribute toward a performance/installation to be exhibited at the Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art during the Burning Bush 2 festival on the weekend of 10-12 May 2002. The performance/installation will be a psychogeographical simulacrum of Dundee Law where the artist and audience will not be bound by the legal provisions regulating the use of public and recreational spaces as set out in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This act regulates, amongst other things, the holding of meetings, lectures, discussions and processions in public spaces. When on the route of the walk, Hunter will make participants aware of the provisions of the act and encourage compliance whilst in public spaces.

Roddy Hunter (born Glasgow, Scotland 1970) is an artist, lecturer, researcher and curator. He exhibits his work consistently throughout Europe as well as in North America, Asia and recently the Middle East. He was an active member of Hull Time Based Arts, Kingston-upon-Hull and was, with Julie Bacon, Consul General for the Nomad Territories in England. He holds an MA (Contemporary Arts) from the Nottingham Trent University, England and is currently engaged in PhD research at University of Ulster at Belfast. He lives currently in Totnes, England where he is Associate Director: Visual Performance and a funded researcher at Dartington College of Arts.

For further information and to discuss any aspect of this project (including remote participation and access for those with disabilities), please contact the artist directly at roddy@zero-g.org.uk

Roddy Hunter
artist/lecturer/researcher/curator
6 Walnut Close
Totnes TQ9 5GF
Devon
England

t: +44 (0)1803 840503 / +44 (0)1803 868875
f: +44 (0)1803 866053
e: roddy@zero-g.org.uk
w: www.span2.org