LODE
A performance of signs
A cargo of questions
LODE from the Old English 'lad'.
1. Way, journey, a road.
2. A watercourse; an aqueduct, channel; an open drain in fenny districts.
3. Leading, guidance.
4. A lodestone; literally 'waystone', from the use of the magnet in guiding mariners, something that attracts.
5. A vein of metal ore.
LODESMAN from the Old English "ladmann". A leader, guide, later a pilot.
LODESTAR A star that shows the way; especially the pole-star.
LOAD from the Old English 'lad' feminine, way, course, journey, conveyance and Old Teutonic 'laida' (whence 'laidjan' to LEAD).
1. Carriage. Also an act of loading.
2. That which is to be carried, a burden. Also the amount usually carried: e.g. cart-load, wagon load.
LOAD from the Old English 'lad' feminine, way, course, journey, conveyance and Old Teutonic 'laida' (whence 'laidjan' to LEAD).
1. Carriage. Also an act of loading.
2. That which is to be carried, a burden. Also the amount usually carried: e.g. cart-load, wagon load.
LODE Artliner was a combined arts research activity, video installation and performance project that took place in Liverpool and Hull in 1992. This began with the ‘LODE-Line’, a ‘way’ traversing the circumference of the Earth, which artist Philip Courtenay imagined and which provided a zone for a journey he then made to circumnavigate the globe.
The project was initiated in England, where the broad zone that sits across the LODE-Line linked Merseyside on the West coast with Humberside on the East coast, both maritime regions and centres of commerce and cultural exchange. It then extended beyond the horizon, girding the planet in a great circle to link ports, cities and places that were both centres and peripheries defined to some extent by a relationship to these centres
Along the LODE-Line at 22 locations where a physical or sociopolitical boundary exists, or existed, rudimentary magnetic compasses were made from locally sourced bowls, water and floating material. These were documented, filmed, then wrapped in newspaper containing the stories of that particular day. Back in England, they were packed into crates - ‘cargoes’ that were unloaded on the quayside and unpacked as a performance before being placed in a video installation, firstly at Bluecoat in Liverpool, and then in the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. The first question on the LODE leaflet available free to all visitors was:
When will we learn to see what is behind our eyes?
A great circle girds the planet. It is an invisible line that passes here and stretches out over the sea to places across the world.
Where does it point?
A ship comes to the quayside bringing a cargo of 22 crates containing objects wrapped in newspapers, simple household bowls, surrounded, packed and protected by information, ideas, questions and messages.
This cargo comes from places on a pathway that links Liverpool and Hull with Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Each crate contains the signs of a questioning, a cultural orientation, or a political navigation.
Each of these bowls was filled with water and floating things to make a simple magnetic compass.
So, as we unload this cargo, a space is covered in magnetic compasses.
Where do they point?
Magnetic North?
Bring another compass, set it down in the field.
All the needles tremble at the presence of this new element.
Then they settle down, forming a new pattern corresponding to the invisible field of magnetic power.
This is a cargo of messages, patterns and questions.
And as we open each crate and place it together with the rest of the cargo a new pattern of perception begins to form.
But this is a cargo of our questions, our projection onto the world.
As the cargo returns we withdraw these projections.
Journeys belong to our mental life, and our questions belong to our presence here!
And what we have already known is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
LODE in Liverpool
1992
Along the LODE-Line at 22 locations where a physical or sociopolitical boundary exists, or existed, rudimentary magnetic compasses were made from locally sourced bowls, water and floating material. These were documented, filmed, then wrapped in newspaper containing the stories of that particular day. Back in England, they were packed into crates - ‘cargoes’ that were unloaded on the quayside and unpacked as a performance before being placed in a video installation, firstly at Bluecoat in Liverpool, and then in the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. The first question on the LODE leaflet available free to all visitors was:
When will we learn to see what is behind our eyes?
A great circle girds the planet. It is an invisible line that passes here and stretches out over the sea to places across the world.
Where does it point?
A ship comes to the quayside bringing a cargo of 22 crates containing objects wrapped in newspapers, simple household bowls, surrounded, packed and protected by information, ideas, questions and messages.
This cargo comes from places on a pathway that links Liverpool and Hull with Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Each crate contains the signs of a questioning, a cultural orientation, or a political navigation.
Each of these bowls was filled with water and floating things to make a simple magnetic compass.
So, as we unload this cargo, a space is covered in magnetic compasses.
Where do they point?
Magnetic North?
Bring another compass, set it down in the field.
All the needles tremble at the presence of this new element.
Then they settle down, forming a new pattern corresponding to the invisible field of magnetic power.
This is a cargo of messages, patterns and questions.
And as we open each crate and place it together with the rest of the cargo a new pattern of perception begins to form.
But this is a cargo of our questions, our projection onto the world.
As the cargo returns we withdraw these projections.
Journeys belong to our mental life, and our questions belong to our presence here!
And what we have already known is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
1992
LODE Artliner in Hull 1992
Re:LODE
Re:LODE will re-launch the project in 2017, revisiting the 22 locations but using a completely different set of methods made possible by current communication and information technologies. The 1992 project relied on materials, print, paper and analogue technology to sample aspects of the information environment that LODE passed through. In contrast, the re-launch has a digital focus, engaging with the information environment as a frame, or container, that surrounds the planet as an invisible, sociocultural and political atmosphere.The project is about information retrieval, an examination of how things have changed over the last 25 years along a line connecting Germany, Poland, India, Java, Australia, Colombia and Ireland, as well as Liverpool and Hull, as places that are the product of geography and history. Contemporary information technology means that today every point along the line is now a centre, and the project will interrogate distinctions of centre and periphery and contest the notion of a margin.
