Sixth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest
Photo: Pete Batchelor taking distance measurements between the trees.
On Wednesday 5 June, Pete and I went to Alice Holt forest on our sixth field trip to take some measurements for Pete’s installation and allocate suitable spots for the installations to be showcased on the 20th of June.
From Bentley Rail Station to Alice Holt Forest Research Station
This was the third occasion of walking from Bentley train station to the Alice Holt forest. This time I wanted to count the exact time that takes without any distractions. In my previous walks, I could not find the butterfly sculpture that appears on the route of Bentley Station to Alice Holt walk (PDF). This time, I realised that it is on the same path just in front of the Bentley Station Meadow Reserve, which I explored in the previous field trip.
As part of the Shipwrights Way, this sculpture is described as:
"a silver-washed fritillary, a woodland butterfly which uses the butterfly reserve in front for gathering nectar and breeding; it has a distinctive rapid, swooping flight as the sculpture shows.
It is surprising how the same path changes every time I go. It is worth mentioning how gorgeous it looks with the blossoming of the purple foxgloves!
Thinking about the exhibition day and the potential visitors coming from London, I took some photos of the triple fork right just before the main road and outside of the Forestry Research land, which can make you get lost if you don’t pay enough attention. We’ll ask Max and Danielle from Forestry England if it is possible to add some signposting there (e.g. temporarily putting a laminated label there). Would we need permission?
Overall, my walk took 35 minutes including the stops to take photos here and there. Hence, I guess that the walk can even take 30 minutes without any stops. Is this even possible with so many interesting spots to visit on the side of the walk?
Meeting at Alice Café
We met with Pete and Danielle at 9.45 to discuss updates and our plans for the day. It is always nice to start the day with a coffee in an outdoor office!
We talked about the organisation of the summer school and the practicalities related to the activities that we are planning to offer to the summer school participants and team.
Tests and measurements for Pete’s installation: our method
In the morning, we worked with Pete on his installation. Pete had a clear plan of tasks, which included testing the bird box hanging system, taking measurements for the speakers, and testing the EE mobile broadband network in the area of the installation to double-check our findings from the fourth field trip, and find resonant materials to be used for audio recordings.
Speaker enclosure hanging system
The speaker enclosure and hanging system designed by Pete worked amazingly well. The box looks fixed and the strap can surround the tree bark without scratching it. The enclosure still needs weatherproofing but it looks brilliant!
Distance measurements of the trees
For taking measurements, we created this method:
- Find the area
- Draw the potential trees on white paper with circles. Distinguish the type of trees by different colours.
- Locate the box with the electronics. Use this location as the starting point to measure the shortest distance to the trees expected to be used in the installation.
- Measure the distance.
Below you can see the resulting map.
A key tool was the 50-meter tape that Pete borrowed from Ian.
Most trees are oaks (dark green), some are beeches and a few are chestnuts. Pete showed me how to differentiate between oaks and beeches when looking at the tree bark and foliage.
Apart from these measurements, testing the EE mobile broadband network worked well in the area. Pete could not find resonant materials but we saw a baby deer!
Visit to the workshop
During lunchtime, we visited the workshop at the Alice Holt yard. Alex very kindly showed us the product they use for weatherproofing. It is a garden furniture clear oil with a smooth finish and water repellent that protects and nourishes.
We also discussed the maximum height that we can go when hanging the speaker enclosures, which seems to be 6 meters as shown in the below photo.
Lunch at the Alice Holt Café
During lunchtime, we went to the Alice Holt Café and discussed the practicalities of the project forms, taking notes of questions and characteristics of the locations if cited by the artists.
Allocations of the installations
Our method for allocating the installations was the following:
- Bring the notes from the project forms.
- Walk the expected itinerary with a map and start allocating the installations considering the artists’ requirements: draw it on the map with a distinctive colour and take at least one photo.
- If some locations are “tentative”, walk again (and again) to decide what the best spots are for each installation.
- Finish once the 13 artworks are allocated.
You can see the working map below.
Follow-up
This proved again to be a fruitful field trip. We felt that we progressed immensely.
Now, we plan to create a cleaner version of the itinerary map to send it to the summer school participants to confirm their locations combined with the photos taken by Pete.
Pete - use the map to design with more accuracy his sound installation.
Thanks to Danielle and Alex for their help onsite, Jo for the design of the itinerary map that we could use to draw on top and Hazel for suggesting this process in the first place. Also thanks to Ian for the 50-meter tape!