the biorama hike - 2007
walking, talking and field science
Carried out as part of the Biorama event, the culmination of a residency at the DRU in Huddersfield, the Biorama Hike was a 5 mile guided walking lecture and environmental study with myself and Brandon Ballengée on Marsden Moor, Yorkshire.
The walk covered some of the physical territory featured in my research, the moorland area in which I had been walking, meditating and collecting samples. Ongoing and informal discussions throughout the duration of the hike covered parallel conceptual territories including the topography of local transmission masts, the history of interstellar communications, the landscape painting tradition and the micro ecology of the moors.
Simple scientific field experiments and samplings were carried out at various points on the way which provided a window on the methodologies and concepts which I had been attempting to weave together throughout the residency. The hike strove to provide a holistic experience beyond mere exercise and study where we could experience nanometers and light years, the intimate and the expansive, and the networking of ideas.
Each hike participant was given the 'Biorama Hike Kit' which consisted of specimen jars, a 100x pocket field microscope, a pipette, glass slides and a set of information cards about the subjects to be discussed in the field. Communal equipment consisted of a drag net, a satellite locator and some field microscope enhancement plates.
There are good accounts of the hike, and the umbrella Biorama Sessions event, at the c-lab blog and we-make-money-not-art
