The Eco Showboat Mayfly expedition is a four-month arts voyage from Limerick to Enniskillen on the Mayfly, the flagship of the Eco Showboat project, and the first solar electric boat to make this journey. The project is the brain child of artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly, aka School of Looking.
This Eco Sunday, May 22, the Eco Showboat Mayfly will be moored at Portumna Castle Harbour in Portumna, County Galway for an afternoon of fascinating waterside events.
This plans to be a wonderful afternoon of workshops, talks and, of course, walks in the forest. Galway artists Joanna McGlynn and Anne Marie Deacy invite you to join them on a sensory exploration of place on a forest trail leading from the Mayfly’s mooring at Portumna Castle Marina through Portumna Forest Park.
Both artists will be delivering their creative research through two walks at 12pm and 3.30pm.
WALK I: Sound in Place, is a time to listen, connect and observe through the practice of acoustic ecology, the sounds of life that permeate through wood, wind, soil and water.
At a designated sensing station on the trail they will also listen closer to the hidden natural world around us captured through hydrophones, geophones and contact microphones transmitted to small hand held radios, as conduits to this other world.
WALK II: unfolds through the eyes, colour is your guide. Attune to the spectrum of time in place as nature comes to bloom.
In sensitising to colour, they will collectively explore our relationship with the natural environment. Pausing at a designated sensing station on the trail they will observe how the different senses translate and interpret the environment around us.
During these communal walks they will collectively map their observations, capturing a shared ecological moment in time of this ever evolving landscape. What is our role in preserving it?
Also on the day at 2.20pm, they will hear from Niall Ó Brolcháin, a Research Associate at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics (formerly DERI ) in NUI Galway who specialises in peatland restoration and GHG reduction and hear why peatland restoration is absolutely essential for greenhouse gas reduction.
Later in the afternoon, School of Looking will host a workshop on the wealth of biodiversity surrounding us with an experience in Slow Looking, and check out the first scenes from Cleary and Connolly’s epic River Movie in the extraordinary Pangolin Pavilion, pop projection space made from 30 striped umbrellas.
This is an outdoor all-weather event. Duration of walks is 90 mins. Talk and Workshop is 60mins. Participants are advised to wear comfortable clothing and appropriate footwear.
All events are free but with limited capacity. For booking please go to the Eco Showboats Portumna event Pages. https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/eco-showboat-at-portumna-forest-walk-1-tickets-313225183957 https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/eco-showboat-at-portumna-forest-walk-ii-tickets-313237320257 https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/eco-showboat-at-portumna-tickets-312220890087 https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/slow-looking-workshop-portumna-castle-harbour-tickets-312465571937
The project has received funding form the Arts Council, SFI Discover Award, the Limerick Arts Strategic Award, Creative Ireland, Waterways Ireland, Dublin City Council, the Local Authority Waters Programme, Galway County Council Arts Office,local authorities and universities right across the country.
