Workshop leader: Ralph Hoyte

1. You can sign up for one of our FREE Poetry Park 2-day Creative Writing Workshops by booking with Emma Fernandez. Email: emma@violetprdorset.co.uk Mobile: 07849 748434
2. You can only sign up for one 2-day workshop and must be able to commit to both workshop days (dates below):

Poetry Park 1: Eggardon Hill

2-day Creative Writing Workshop

Askerswell Village Hall

Weekend: 17/18th June 10am-4.30pm

Poetry Park 2: Maiden Castle

2-day Creative Writing Workshop

Martinstown Cricket Club Pavilion

Weekdays: 22/23rd. June for workshops 10am-4.30pm

 

SATSYMPH and Land Bone & Stone, lead by renowned Outdoor landscape poet, Ralph Hoyte, are excited to invite you to participate in one of two 2-day poetry workshops. We want you to create poems and poetic works inspired by two of Dorset’s most outstanding landmarks. Work arising from this process will be recorded (with your voice) and considered for inclusion in our two Poetry Park Apps, featuring Eggardon Hill and Maiden Castle.

‘A Poetry Park’ in this context means that the poetic works will, through the wonders of mobile located technologies, be physically located at Eggardon Hill and Maiden Castle. Imagine a park – and it’s full of not only trees, and ramparts, and sheep, but also of poetry. Poetry clouds wafting about!

So how do you actually hear the poetry? You download our free Poetry Parks GPS-triggered audio-apps onto your smartphone. You go to the sites (the poems can only be heard by downloading the audio-app created by SATSYMPH and actually going to Eggardon Hill and Maiden Castle), open the app and put your headphones in. Your phone knows where you are. It also knows where the poetic works are. When it locates ‘a poetry cloud’ (or ‘poem-pool’), it plays that content to you (and, no, it doesn’t need a network signal, it just needs a GPS-trigger). You can then wander both of the Poetry Parks, exploring the poetic audio-landscape and looking for (well, ‘listening out for’!) poems, some of which will be hidden.

Would you like to have your own original work hidden in the landscape for others to enjoy?

1. You can sign up for one of our FREE Poetry Park 2-day Creative Writing Workshops by booking with Emma Fernandez. Email: emma@violetprdorset.co.uk Mobile: 07849 748434
2. You can only sign up for one 2-day workshop and must be able to commit to both workshop days (dates above):

 

Day 1 day is spent on location at Eggardon Hill or Maiden Castle gathering material and being inspired by the landscape, history, myth, genius loci, what landscape says about us as human beings etc., to create your own poetic work. An archeological expert will join us during the afternoon to help us uncover the secrets of the site and inspire our writing.

On Day 2, you will be able to continue working on your piece/s either on site (weather!) or in the workshop space. Your work will then be recorded (with your own voice).

 

 

SATSYMPH, then, with your permission, use your work as part of the mix to build the audio-app. Your voice is permanently inserted into the landscape for others to find and enjoy.

 

 

If your work is not used in the app it will still be published as sound-files on the South Dorset AONB’s new interactive map, on Soundcloud and on a new Facebook page for the Poetry Parks, so all recorded works will be published online.

 

WHAT IS NEW ABOUT THIS? We, SATSYMPH, say: ‘it’s as if the landscape is singing to you’, or, ‘it’s as if you’re in a virtual auditorium’: the literary work is experienced IN the place it was conceived

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE? To respond (in poetry or poetic prose) to location, to the genius loci, to history, to myth, to the natural world, to the bones of the earth, the sociology of location, your own inner voice, by creating a new poetic work.

WHERE ARE THE LOCATIONS? The ancient ‘iconic’ Dorset landmarks of Eggardon Hill (east of Bridport) and Maiden Castle, south-west of Dorchester.

WHERE CAN I FIND FURTHER INFORMATION? The Poetry Park apps are a continuation of SATSYMPH’s work with the South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership, Land of Bone and Stone and Dorset AONB. You can get an idea of what the apps cover by clicking here.

The Workshop Leader is SATSYMPH’s writer, Ralph Hoyte. Ralph created 1831 Riot! – the world’s first located audio-play for an intelligent environment – in 2004 with Mobile Bristol. He is currently collaborating with the University of the West of England Regional History Centre to create ‘Romancing the Gibbet’, another ‘located poetic walk’ about the theatrical public crime-scene executions of the 18th/early 19th century, set over the West Country.

 

DAY 1	POETRY PARKS WORKSHOP PROGRAMME (flexible)
10.30-11.00	Meet and greet, teas and coffees
11.00-12.00	Indoors in workshop facility: intro / context / sharing of work to get a handle on where we’re all coming from
12.00-12.45	Lunch (bring own!)
12.45-15.30	·       Car share/walk to location ·       Absorbing the genius loci; collecting content (in writing / audio / visuals / any other means) & joined by archaeological expert.
15.30-15.45	Car share back to workshop facility
15.45-16.30	Group reflection: ·       impressions of the  location ·       indications of emerging work ·       some things to think about overnight for the next day
16.30	FINISH
DAY 2	NOTE: if it’s fine weather, we may prefer to return to location and do all this there! Otherwise, in workshop
10.30 – 12.30	Contemplation, sharing and writing time – informally structured; getting work together, trying things out, practising delivery mechanisms etc
12.30-13.15	Lunch (bring own!)
13.30 – 16.15	·       Practising for performance and recording
16.15-16.30	FINISH

 

Link to Martinstown Cricket Pavilion details. 

 

Link to Askerswell Village Hall details:  Hall Directions: From A35, follow signs to centre of village by telephone kiosk and post box. Leaving these on your right, head up the hill towards Spyway. On first bend take turning to right, signed Village Hall and Medway Farm. The hall is almost immediately on your right.

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Workshops are free
• only one 2-day workshop per person
• participants must commit to doing both days
• participants must agree with and sign the permissions document (see below)
• Group size maximum is 17 people
• First come, first served for booking
• Cancellations will be offered to the next names gathered on the list
• Tea and coffee/squash provided at the venues but not on location
• Participants bring their own lunches and flasks if they want warm drinks outside
• Bring their own writing materials and paper
• Bring any external seating etc.
• Bring suitable clothing for the weather conditions
• Provide their own transport to and from the venue and site
• Parking is available at both venues
• Please note toilet facilities (including disabled) are available at the venues but the sites have no toilet facilites
• A moderate level of fitness is required to fully move around the site
• The ground is uneven and steep in some areas and needs to be approached with caution
• Disabled access is extremely limited at Eggardon Hill and only possible at Maiden Castle to certain areas. In general, wheelchair access would prove difficult or impossible. We will do our best to support challenges around accessing the site.

Copies of permission forms are available from Emma Fernandez upon booking

STANDARD CONTRIBUTOR’S RELEASE FORM (example):

I understand and agree that:

1. SATSYMPH may audio record and photograph me as part of the Poetry Parks workshop days at Maiden Castle or Eggardon Hill Fort.
2. If I am audio recorded or photographed I understand my work may or may not be in in either of the Apps (Maiden castle or Eggardon Hill) but will be published online on a Poetry Parks Facebook Page, Soundcloud page and the new Land Bone and Stone interactive online map.
3. The material recorded belongs to SATSYMPH and some content will be used in a mobile phone application created by SATSYMPH.
4. SATSYMPH can use the material recorded in any form or media. This can be shown in the UK, Europe or anywhere in the world.
5. Recordings and photographs documenting the project may be used for publicity purposes by Dorset AONB and other project partners.
6. The copyright of any material generated as part of these workshops remains with the artist (writer).

Name of participant

Address

Telephone

E-mail

Signature of participant

Date

 

We can’t wait to work with you on this amazing project!