Homing

Homing is an extended landscape project encompassing a fully funded, place-based research residency, resulting publication in the form of a creative field guide, exhibition, and public facing events. Homing takes its title and rational from an animal’s ability to return to its territory after travelling away. Dalziel + Scullion were invited to be the John Muir Resident Artists for 2017/2018. This prestigious year-long residency was an opportunity to investigate the life and work of ecologist and environmentalist John Muir within the landscape of his birth, consulting geologists, botanists, countryside rangers and others. The research demanded an embodied experience of place, the John Muir Way, a 134 mile walk from Dunbar to Musselburgh in East Lothian. Dalziel + Scullion’s approach was framed by ideas of deep ecology contained in the Norwegian concept of friluftsliv advocated, notably, by Fridtjof Nansen and Arne Naess. Dalziel + Scullion employed strategies gleaned from bush craft, forest bathing, and mindfulness, to put this philosophy into practice. Friluftsliv, (roughly translated as free-air-living), regards immersion in nature as a spiritual necessity. Their investigation unearthed creative outputs to focus attention on, and amplify, particular aspects of the ecology of a place; its authentic features and unique character. The resulting publication, public-facing talks, and exhibition acted as an artistic field guide encouraging users and audience to reconnect with nature, through direct, practical activities. Dalziel + Scullion injected a recognition of a specific place, from alternative perspectives, with particular sites identified to interact with, with the aid of a series of instructions inviting contemplation, curiosity and engagement. The Homing book was published by North Light Arts(June 2018). The project was supported and funded by The National Lottery, Creative Scotland, Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery, and East Lothian Council