The Macquaries and Glenorchy

 

CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE 

If Lauchlan Macquiarie did name Glenorchy Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land then) after his wife's, Elizabeth's, 'home', one has to wonder what he might have seen in this place, or  its PLACEscape,  in 1811, almost as far from home as it is possible to get without again getting closer, that reminded him. or Elizabeth, of home –  [ 1 ] • [ 2 ] .Whatever, there is power in naming – and never more so than in the naming of places.

Were Lauchlan and Elizabeth musing upon home while being elsewhere? Indeed were they mindful of the HOMEness of here or were they imaging that here could be translated into home as far away from it as one can get? Perhaps they had other thoughts?

In any event it is an interesting muse in 2011 given that Tasmanian Glenochians believe that Macquarie named their home for his wife's. In the context of 21st C NOWness & HEREness it is an interesting muse that may help us better understand the 'placedness' before us now.

TASMANIA: Before & After The Macquaries' Visit

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

 

PLEASE CLICK HERE

To access the program of events commemorating 

the Macquaries' visit to Tasmania in 1811

Placemaking in this space/place

Below there is a set of DRAFT PROPOSALS to do with a place and a celebration of its CULTURALcargo and the layerings of stories and story telling attached to it. The project NOW has been sparked by the 200th Anniversary of the Macquaries taking breakfast on or near this pace on the 27th of November 1811. 

The Maquaries hold a special place in the cultural imagination of many Australians and Tasmanians – and even Scots and the Macquaries' descendants. This place is one where some of this comes into play and one that offers a chance to muse upon the stories that belong to the place – stories that come into focus with looming 200th Anniversary of the Macquaries' presence upon it.

To simply celebrate the Macquaries' presence upon – albeit ever so briefly – without acknowledging the 40,000 years (?) of prior Aboriginal presence upon it would be one dimensional –  to put the kindest inflection upon it. Thus an audit of this place's Community of Ownership & Interest is arguably an imperative given Tasmania's colonial histories and the cultural cargoes and social tensions they carry. This audit/exercise/research will without doubt enrich community understandings of not only this place but others like them – especially so in Tasmania.

In addition to this audit, over time, there will need to be wide ranging consultations with people who have cultural imaginings, professional interests and histories that belong to, or are attached to, this place – Black Snake Point, The Derwent, Tasmania, Australia, etc.

Simply plopping/plonking a marker/artwork/installation/signage in the landscape is likely to cause derision in the wider community. This is entirely avoidable!

The PLACEmaking & PLACEscaping on this site maye well include:

• Consulting the Tasmanian Aboriginal community to discuss the Aboriginal histories, knowledge and imaginings that belong to this site/space/PLACE;
• Attempting to re-establish the kind of vegitation that Macquarie might have encountered;
• A program of fund raising over an extended time to raise funding and seek sponsorship for the PLACEmaking;
• Documenting the PLACE and the PLACEmaking.

THE URL

NB: The URL to the CYBERplace in CYBERspace where the "Macquarie Black Snake Breakfast" 'resides'... well it  has been adjusted to reflect vernacular understandings and expressions of language plus the personal and cultural memories embedded within it. If you like this URL  is the doorKNOB to the 'portal' that opens out into this place in CYBERplacescape with all its attendant histories, memories and imaginings.

•••

NOTE: This site and the research attached to it has been sponsored by 'the nudgelbah institute' and its contents should be regarded as being Commercial-in-Confidence. Furthermore the research attache to this site is a part of the institute's ongoing action research into place, placemaking and the cognative ownerships attached to place and more specifically case studies to do with Communities of Ownership and Interest.

Thhe ANTplonk Process

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

CONTEXT
 
ANTIplonk is a loose and eclectic network of cultural producers working in the public domain. Rather than do anything in the public domain we'd rather be doing something collaboratively with someone, a group, whoever, than either for them or to them. The ANTIplonk network is a network of networks working with the realisation that as 'a collective', and with pooled resources, a collaboration involving EVERYONE can deliver more appropriate cultural outcomes.

ANTIplonk takes inspiration from the pejorative slang term for public art, "plop art" – but with an Ozzie vernacular twist – "reality hacking" and conceptual art. ANTIplonk is informed by the artmaking cum cultural production of the late 20th Century. Minimalism, Fluxus and Dada holds attractions for the network. 'Neofluxusism' in particular, like its foreshadow, is:
• More an attitude and/or an aesthetic than it could ever be a movement;
•A lot to do with the idea of 'intermedia' – the exploration/exploitation of what happens when different media bump up against each other;
• Where all kinds of everyday objects, sounds, images, and words can have a newness of meaning in combination.

The idea of the ordinary being extraordinary, fun even, is an attraction. But more than that, the realisation that working as a collective, and collaboratively, almost anything can be realised .Indeed, what might have been out of reach while working as individuals, becomes a possibility and within reach. ... click here to read more

A GOOGLE-iVIEW of the PLACE and the proposal/s

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

A Proposal for a "Macquarie's Black Snake Breakfast" Placemarker

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

NOTE: The key element in this proposal is the visual language/poetry more than its manifestation in this format. There is a myriad of formats via which this visual poem (concrete poem) might be realised. One alternative might be as a milestone but there would be many others depending upon its placement in a PLACEscape, budget constraints, site management concerns, public safety, etc. This proposal might serve as a starting point for a process of finding a SITEappropriate manifestation.

This manifestation would involve an ANTIplonk collaboration and research process.

NB: The placement of the apostrophe and or it need is open to conjecture

Ray Norman 2011

WATCH THIS SPACE

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

SORRY! ... That should have been 'WATCH THIS PLACE' because this project is all about turning a space in the landscape into a place, or better still, a PLACEscape. Unavoidably there are many stories and imaginings that belong to this place – a place with Aboriginal imaginings attached to it; a place with colonial imaginings and histories, a place with family imaginings, memories and histories; a place filled with geographers' imaginings; a place with political imaginings, a place with personal histories linked to it, and more still.

These things overlap and interface and each has as much credence as another. The 'keepers' of these stories and imaginings are this place's Community of Ownership and Interest – its COI. This COI has both obligations to the place and rights that belong to them as much as they belong in their various ways to this 'place'.

The occasion of the bicentenary of Lauchlan & Elizabeth Macquarie taking breakfast in this place is:

• An opportunity to not only quietly muse upon the place and the stories that belong to it ; and

• Likewise an opportunity for the place's  COI with its various attachments to it, contemplate the layers of stories that belong to it; and also 

• An opportunity to invite others to join them in their contemplations.

IMAGE LEGEND

1.  Proposed sign enunciating the BLACK SNAKE JETTY site
2. The BLACK  SNAKE INN
3. Proposed signage for MACQUARIE'S BLACK SNAKE BREAKFAST – a visual poem
   
4. Proposed signage for the BLACK  SNAKE INN
5. A proposed 'cairn'  of a kind for visitors to leave a token of their visit – perhaps a pebble from home or one from the site perhaps??
   
6. A BLACK  SNAKE symbol on the reverse side of the 'Give Way Sign'.
7. Light pole bearing the URL  enunciating the MACQUARIE'S BLACK SNAKE BREAKFAST CYBERplace on the Internet
8. Placemarker and RUBBINGsite plus signage/installation acknowledging Aboriginal prior presence
9. Proposed location for a bronze casting of a BLACK SNAKE to be installed in the PLACEscaping
10. Proposed signage enunciating the name of BLACK SNAKE CREEK
11. A marker denoting the point that is BLACK SNAKE POINT – the point that the Macquaries headed towards Nov 27 1811

THE URL

NB: This URL http://macquaries27novhere.blogspot.com/ has been adjusted to reflect the vernacular language in operation within the place's Community of Ownership & Interest [REFERENCE]. If you like ...  the URL might be imagined as a DOORknob of a kind to the PORTAL that opens out to the CYBERspace occupied by the CYBERplacescape relevant to the terrestrial PLACEscape at Grantham Tasmania.

The ANTIplonk Larder & Network

The ANTIplonk Network is quite extensive and one that enables the realisation of unlikely project outcomes because of the network and the possible PROJECTspecific  collaborations the network can arrange.

 

For more information about the network please use these LINKS

WEBsite #1: http://antiplonk.blogspot.com/
WEBsite #2: http://antiplonkprocess.blogspot.com/
WEBsite # 3: http://antiplonkscores.blogspot.com/
eMAIL: ANTIplonk@7250.net

 

As require images will be added to this entry. These three following images are examples of the network's MASTERblacksmith Nick Hackett  ... CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE