Wolfson Creative Arts Fellow releases Trio of Wolfscapes

Below John describes the inspiration behind and process of creating these three videos:

"I originally conceived Wolfscapes as a set of three collages that would describe, in sound, the life of the College over the course of the three university terms. I made many hours of field recordings and, by Trinity term, I had finished Parts I and II and these were played at the opening of the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium on 6 June.

Wolfscape I from John Duggan on Vimeo.

A week later, I was sitting at the Foundation Dinner and fell into conversation with Dr Jonathan Barrett. Foolishly he let slip that he was the proud owner of a brand new microscope and, at that moment, I had an idea. Why not put together some visuals to go with the audio? After all, it couldn't be that difficult, or time consuming’

Wolfscape II from John Duggan on Vimeo.

I began by thinking about simple photographs put together as a slide show to accompany the soundscape. The idea expanded over several glasses of wine and Jonathan and I arranged to go on a mini field trip around College and gather samples for microscopic examination. Over time, we found that what seemed to work best was video footage of the many tiny creatures that inhabit the water in the harbour.

Whilst Jonathan was working hard on putting together some interesting film clips I got in touch with an artist friend, Geoff J Harris, and invited him up for a weekend to shoot some footage around the College. Geoff recorded plenty of great material, which he edited together to accompany Parts I and II, whilst I edited the microscopic footage whilst also putting the sound together for Part III. It was all finished in plenty of time’ well, at least four hours before the first broadcast in the Auditorium in November."

Wolfscape III from John Duggan on Vimeo.

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