Rock Rituals

A rural psychogeographical* walk on 24th May 1977(Empire Day)

Stones were collected from the beach at Great Yarmouth, painted with the place and date. Pieces of Yarmouth rock were bagged with these.

This is the longest it has taken for a Final Major Project to see the light of day. Myself  and fellow students completed this experiment/ excursion in addition to paintings.

Natural and manmade items were incorporated in a symbolic distribution in the estuary and marsh landscape.

Sites were chosen along the route for burial of Yarmouth rock and stones from the beach.

As it was a fine day we had a grand walk along Breydon water.

Burial sites.

• First outside the college. Great Yarmouth college of Art and Design was closed in 1996
• Start of the footpath behind Yarmouth Vauxhall station.
• All due respect was paid to the buried objects.
• The party then marched along the path observing interesting wildfowl.
• Third sites Ornithologists hut a found box was used to inter the rocks. Plants were deposited on the grave.
• Fourth burial site. Pill box stopped on small beach and prepared tea.
• Fifth site Berney Arms the most isolated railway station in the U.K only reachable by foot or water.

Participants

Marian Blake(now English)

Derek Mace(Foundation Tutor) R.I.P

Ruth

Liz

*Psychogeography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography

Psychogeography is an approach to geography that emphasizes playfulness and “drifting” around urban environments. It has links to the Situationist International. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.”^[1] Another definition is “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.”^[2]