Everglades reverberations (2014)

The following writeup was originally published on the Knight Arts website on July 25th 2014

By Daniel Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc, AIRIE

We came from the north. As we approached Miami, the pilot said something about the weather while swerving to miss storm cells. A few hours later, after we had landed, the downpour started in earnest. The rain was heavy, the sky black. It was a big storm; actually it was the first tropical storm of the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season. It later strengthened to become Hurricane Arthur and it was tracking northward. Hurricanes often follow the Gulf Stream current and affect the Maritime region of Canada where we live. But this one was going for the jugular; our town was right in the middle of its path. There were a slew of warnings posted on the Environment Canada website, tropical storm, rainfall, wind, special weather statement, and a tropical cyclone information statement. We followed the evolution of Arthur and worried for our house. At the last moment the storm veered left and the town where we live got a good soaking but not the anticipated deluge. It was pretty amazing to arrive in Florida just in time to witness the birth of a storm that slowly moved northward to die almost outside of our doorstep. It was a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things.

Hurricane Arthur, July 5, 2014, National Hurricane Center

We are here to do a soundwalk project; fictional stories, voices, swamp recordings. It is this concept of interconnectness that is calling for our attention. We are looking at the connections between: the Everglades National Park geography and its inhabitants; those living close to its borders; and those, like ourselves, who come here to commune with the environment. We recognize that ecologically speaking, our understanding and experience of the Everglades is a relatively short moment in time. As we research through the networks and components that is the Everglades, we try to understand something of where it all sits in the grand scheme of things.

Upon arriving, the first thing that we did was to try to visualize the park, to construct a mental chart of what exists where. In the first few days we covered as much ground as we could, recording ambient sound, the weather, and the insects. The mosquitos hit the shotgun mic with anger. We saw sunrises, sunsets, walked in the warm waters of the slough at Pa-Hay-Okee, attempted to hike among the mangroves at Christian Point Trail, immersed ourselves in the song of crickets, frogs, of rustling in the bush, of movement in the trees.

Daniel, Chokoloskee

The type of collaboration that we do is diverse. We have been collaborating for over twenty years on many projects. Often we work within a framework that allows for individual sensitivities to bubble to the surface, this is the case with our Everglades project. As we go out on hikes and explorations we experience the same location but from two different perspectives. Our individual takes are like stones thrown into a lake; the ripples of both, the points on intersections lie where the waves combine. That is often the place of creation.

Soon after arriving, we realized that we were in a world of layers. That we would have to see through the mosquito layer, the mosquito net layer, the humidity layer, the heat stress layer and the DEET layer. Every task becomes monumental, every clap of thunder, every raindrop intensifies, maximizes the experience.

We quickly learned to operate in the environment, to be there. Because audio recording demands silence and stillness, it is an obvious target for the hordes of skitters. In the spirit of adaptation, Valerie developed a Tai-Chi-like series of movements to repel them away from the microphone pickup area. This slow motioned waving of blue rubber gloved hands became the symbol of a certain level of peace.

Valerie’s Tai-Chi-like series of movements, Pa-Hay-Okee

Of all the layers present within the Park, it is the human presence that has become the focus of our work. Whether it is the recently abandoned Chekika Day Use Area, the HM69 Nike Missile Base,

Valerie and Daniel, HM69 Nike Missile Base

the shell mounds of the Calusa Indians on Sandfly Island or the Deer Pen ruins near Paradise Key, all of these traces reveal something about human interventions in this place. Trace elements become covered, overgrown, eaten or corroded as plants, animals and climate reclaim. Sites can be seen as momento mori, reminders of mortality, but they are also reverberations of life.

Deer Pen, Paradise Key, NPS archives July, 1934

Deer Pen, July 2014, left to right: Daniel Dugas; Hillary Cooley, Botanist, Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks and Valerie LeBlanc

Announcing 2014 AIRIE Fellows

Valerie LeBlanc and myself are extremely happy to have been invited by the Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park to be the artists in residence for July 2014.  It is a prestigious opportunity and referring to the tradition of invited artists, as stated in the 1st paragraph of the letter, ‘our work there will become part of the permanent record of the parks that helps to preserve them’.  Described as a subtropical wilderness, with a unique combination of temperate and tropical characteristics, the Everglades has been designated as a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere reserve, and a Wetland of International Importance.  One of the main outcomes that the Park hopes to gain from the visiting artists is ‘to help visitors make emotional and intellectual connections with this amazing place’.  As per our practice(s), we are looking forward to continuing to create poetic storylines within the exploration of this new media locative soundwalk project.

Artists in Residence in Everglades proudly announces the 2014 AIRIE Fellows. This year, AIRIE boasts a creative group of local, national and international artists across several disciplines including painters, installation artists, new media artists, photographers, and writers, who will live and work in the Everglades for a month at a time.

2014 AIRIE Fellows include photographers Adam Nadel and Dana Levy, poet Breanna Dixon, painter Rodney Dickson, video artists Karl Staven and duo Daniel Dugas & Valerie LeBlanc, as well as Florida natives including multi-disciplinary artist Elite Kedan, photographer Emily Myerscough, visual artist Reed Van Brunschot, Regina Jestrow and Prudence Gill and writer Nathaniel Sandler. Read more about each of the AIRIE 2014 fellows.

South Florida is home to the only subtropical wilderness area in the country, AIRIE is the only program bringing artists to the Everglades. AIRIE’s purpose is to inform, connect, and support artists, writers and musicians who wish to be inspired by the Everglades and then become ambassadors for the Park and its resources. AIRIE partners with Everglades National Park staff to offer month-long artist residencies in the Park’s subtropical wilderness. At least twelve AIRIE Fellows per year live and create new work in the Park, and in return lead interactive activities with visitors and donate artwork to the Park.

With generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Arts Challenge Grant, AIRIE connects Fellows with the South Florida cultural community to bring attention to this unique and endangered part of our national heritage. AIRIE’s expanded programming will feature a year-round calendar of events both in the Everglades and outside the Park, including readings, performances, workshops and lectures. Through these outreach events, Fellows will use their art forms to engage the public, showcasing the Everglades as inspiring, important and worth protecting.

AIRIE Fellows have the unique opportunity to get to know the ecology of the Everglades by being immersed in it, and then share their perspective through creative public programs. “In a park known for its spectacular and diverse wildlife, the art and voices of AIRIE artists reveal other unique, and often missed, dimensions of this special place,” remarks Park Superintendent Dan Kimball.

from: http://airie.org/2013/announcing-2014-airie-fellow/