In a place like this: An artists 'residency' project – Phase 1.

'In a place like this: Phase 1’, is a Residency Project resulting from an ongoing research dialogue between Duncan Higgins (Research Professor, Bergen Academy of Art & Design, Norway) and Susan Brind (Reader, SoFA, Glasgow School of Art), initiated in 2012. Their research, emerging from a series of dialogues undertaken during exchange visits between Bergen and Glasgow, has been focused upon whether art can plan a significant part in questioning modes of understanding and the representation of place identity. Building upon this earlier research, 'In a place like this: Phase 1’ aimed also to question the accepted mode of the artist ‘residency' and to use the concept of journeying between centres and margins instead to prompt further research into the role of art in relation to landscape, and the impact of both on our understanding of place. The overall objective of the research was to open a space for dialogue between historical fact, rational thought, embodied knowledge and the poetic space of language and imagining. The project took the form of a journey (by air, bus, boat and train) made over the course of 8 days between Bergen, Odda, Orkney and Glasgow. Brind and Higgins were joined in Phase 1 by Shauna McMullan (GSA). Research material used or generated included the shared reading of texts, the collection of images, sound, and written notes, and a series of themes were also identified for possible development along with the scope for future shared outcomes