Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters
Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters is giving us the opportunity to develop a range of new events, among them an opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of Swona, with its seals and flowers and feral cattle. 360-degree photospheres and the voices of people past and present give a vivid picture of the uninhabited island, lying at the edge of the Pentland Firth’s tidal stream.
The deep influences of the sea on us all are brought out in a short performance film, with accompanying abstract sound and music, costume and actions responding to the dialogue between ebb and flow. Our bodies follow the tidal movement of ebb and flow, hope and despair, joy and sorrow, it says – are we carried in a deeper flow?
And the old sea-routes that came to the fore in Norse times are featured in a concert of music titled Sagas and Seascapes. There is much from Icelandic on an Icelandic theme, and music from Orkney and Faroe.
Elsewhere in the programme there are talks on new marine research in Orkney and on the trans-Atlantic links that developed in the old days of the Hudson’s Bay Company. We look at the shaping of the sea-cliffs and the life of the shore. There is insight into the ways in which the tall ships could use the power of the wind to sail several hundred miles in a day, and news of developments in offshore wind to open up new energy opportunities. And through it all runs the theme of the sea which has shaped the coasts and lives of the islands.
