Robbie and Jo are Directors and Co-Curators of Sanctuary, a 24-hour site-specific public art laboratory and experimental space in the landscape of the Galloway Forest Dark Skies Park that explores relationships between environment, technology, culture and science. The event brings together artists and members of the public who are interested in place, creative experimentation in light, sound and technology, landscape and environment to experience experimental artworks, digital and sound works, radio transmissions, video, talks, workshops and performance. Sanctuary aims to create a new and innovative public space, a place for experiments, immersive experiences and interactions with artworks and environment.
The site where Sanctuary takes place is remote, beautiful and beyond the range of communication networks. The event is designed to be a ‘Sanctuary’ from both light pollution and worldwide connectedness and the artworks explore landscape, place and provide new responses to the all-pervading nature of both electric light and communication technology.
Sanctuary has at its core The Dark Outside FM, a 24 hour hyper-local radio station broadcasting 24 hours of unheard sound donated by musicians from all over the world. In 2017 over 200 artists contributed works, most of which were composed specifically for the broadcast.
In 2017 Sanctuary developed Reach , a collaborative platform that explored ways of using online participation to construct offline physical artworks.The aim was to capture public responses to Sanctuary’s key themes and then for an artist to then use in their physical work in the remote Galloway Forest. The first artist to use Reach was Tim Shaw. Creative responses to the themes of darkness, remoteness and silence were used in a unique artwork which only existed at Sanctuary for 24 hours in the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park in Scotland on 23-24 September 2017. Reach was conceived by the curators of Sanctuary and was supported and funded by The Space and Creative Scotland. New Media Scotland have supported the development of the work. Press
For more information :
www.sanctuarylab.org
Sanctuary facebook page
Sanctuary Twitter
Gallery of images from Sanctuary 2017:
Coleman & Hodges 