Shifting Ground

Today, Thursday 19th, we set off for The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Joe has told us that this canyon is a unique place with extraordinary geology and power. So our expectations are high. When we arrived we were able to hike around the site and explore the trails around the dramatic Yellowstone River which cuts through the most amazingly colourful canyon. The weather has improved a  lot, but its still cold when the sun goes in and this means that its the first time this week that we have the freedom to and draw on location. The title of this post refers to the unstable edges of the canyon which are continually changing through frequent seismic activity. Ideas of the sublime cannot be ignored here! 
Michelle Rowley

Our first view of the Upper Falls on the Yellowstone River

How are our ideas shaping up while we spend time in this wild environment?  And it is a wild environment - the huge underground forces of the earth in constant evidence.

There is a cross-fertilisation of ideas between the art/dance/music students, with a dominant concept emerging about the effect of human animals on the wild.  So ideas are shaping within the group about the sounds we make, the impact of our bodies and movement, the herd instinct of the human pack.  Collaborations are springing up between visual art and music students, film-making and print projects.

And how will we shape these ideas into art that we make next week?  Personally, my ideas will be inspired by the elemental forces of the earth, but I change my mind daily as to subject.  Each new day brings some new awe-inspiring landform that supersedes the day's before.

Clare Flinn

The view down the canyon from the Lower Falls

Challenge Intervention

Today was our day to deliver a group challenge. The idea behind the challenge is to respond to the collaborative nature of this project and the performative possibilities introduced by our Dance and Music partners our challenge. Our guide in shaping our ideas is Steve Sheehan whose practice involves performance art and who was unfortunately unable to join us on this trip.

It's definitely another activity which is out of our comfort zone.

Our intention is to get the group to focus on our own human behaviour which we have all exhibited d during our interaction with the environment of Yellowstone Park and to reimagine ourselves as the animal.

All week in the park we have found ourselves in queuing traffic as cars slow down to see any wild animal. As one stops others stop too and before long there's a mile long tailback with everyone in that queue expecting to see a wild animal.

This morning Gary our BYU print professor consulted the park rangers to get advice on the best site for us to use and we were directed to a large meadow area a short distance from the visitor centre in the Canyon area. Unfortunately our presence there inadvertently created our own incident with traffic slowing and stopping in anticipation that we were looking at the wild life. It wasn’t long before a park ranger came to see what we were doing and gently asked us to move on.

And so our challenge will take place on our way home when we visit the salt lake shore tomorrow. Our meeting with the ranger was a sobering insight into the way we as humans interact with the park environment and we noted that we have probably highlighted the oddness of human behaviour in the park simply by stepping out of our vans. We are of course disappointed to postpone the activity as everyone was keyed up to participate and intrigued by our proposal, lets see what tomorrow brings.

Michelle Rowley