Blackford Hill: Quarry Podcast Series

Welcome to the official page for the BBC's brand new podcast series. I, Brian Naysmith will take you on a short journey into the mysterious history of one of Edinburgh's most heralded locations - Blackford Hill. 

There are 4 parts to the series and each have a unique insight into how and why this place is rooted in suspicion and mystery.

Blackford Hill Part 1

Blackford Hill Part 2

Blackford Hill Part 3

Blackford Hill Part 4

I progressed from an earlier version of this piece. I cut it down after rubbing out the pencil marks and mounted it on black paper, leaving a downward slant along the bottom.

I wrote ‘you are here this is happening’ with my left hand. This allowed me to let go. This act felt natural, I kept focusing on how hard it must of been for 5 year old me as I first grabbed a pencil and began to write with my right hand. I have no memories of learning to write, but using my left hand for this piece was the closest I’ll get.

Because it was my left hand instead of right, I began to think about the 2 sides of my personality. One side tells the truth and doesn’t back down from difficult situations. The other takes a different approach and deceives me, it tells me things it can’t possibly know, things that can’t be true. This side hides things, feelings and emotions and truths.

I was thinking about this as I tried not to focus too hard writing with my left hand.

My left hand wrote the phrase with no fear, with no experience, it had never written this phrase before.

I think being honest with yourself is very hard.

This projects theme began with the intention of visualising how protection is the ultimate outcome of lying to the people you love.

Can I be one of these 'people’?

Because, I AM one of these people..

You Are Here, This Is Happening

Radiohead are one of my favourite bands. When I found out that the lyrics ‘I’m not here, this isn’t happening’ were actually words of advice that were given to Thom Yorke by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. - the song got so much cooler…

Anyway, I thought I would reverse those words around and write ‘I’m here, this is happening’ over and over and over again. I did this because the song those lyrics are from - ‘How To Disappear Completely’ - is very comforting for me to listen to, like a lot of Radioheads songs. I see it as a kind of mantra, repeating a phrase over and over and over again and achieving comfort from it.

Since the role of ‘Protection’ (the theme of the project) plays a part in lying for positive reasons (the focus of my work) I figured that being honest with yourself is a key factor.

When we find ourselves in difficult situations, one technique we consider helpful is to deny the truth, the discomfort and the pain by convincing ourselves everything will be okay. In a sense, we are lying to ourselves, we recognise the status quo, admit discontent then deceive ourselves temporarily (sometimes longer).

I recognise this behaviour in myself, I’ve been doing it for years. How else would we make it through the day?

So, the point I’m making is that I wanted to keep it positive. This work is a development piece and I wanted it to deal with honesty, and being honest with yourself.

Sometimes we need to face up to reality and say..

I AM HERE AND THIS IS HAPPENING

Look it right in the face and get on with it.

(forgive me Mr. Yorke, Mr. Stipe)

Oh and the handwritten text in the piece was completed using my left hand. This way I felt less precious about how it turned out.

Barbara Krugers work has always interested me. I love working with text and typefaces. The direct communication is a beautiful and clear way of evoking feelings. Placing a strong phrase on top of an appropriate image is so effective.

‘I Shop Therefore I Am’ is such a powerful commentary on materialism and our need to indulge in consumerism. We are all under the guise of this phenomenon and this work addresses that clearly and distinctly. The visual aesthetic alone comforts me in a way that no work has ever comforted me before. The hand placed behind the box and text is in black and white, creating a strong contrast. The sharp corners of the bright red box almost poke into the fleshy background.

Owning things and purchasing material items is something everyone has in common. We all fall victim to consumerism and the way Kruger has executed this in a straightforward art work is just sublime.

‘Your Body Is A Battleground’ is another piece of Krugers that I like very much. Referring to the female body, I feel this is a very empowering piece of work. Not just to women but to men as well. While it doesn’t refer to men directly, I personally get feelings of pride, confidence, power, strength and happiness from this piece.

I am a firm believer in civil rights and human rights. I see men and women as equals and I support any opportunity that raises awareness of equality, especially in the art world. Calling myself a Feminist would make sense, but I would feel like a fraud because I don’t actively do anything about inequality. I need to educate myself on the history of it. Whenever I am in a conversation or debate about gender equality I will fight my corner and air my views like any other Feminist - I just need to read more about it all so I feel justified. I hope that doesn’t sound naive. We see discrimination every day in many forms and whenever I witness it I feel ashamed on behalf of the human race. People I call my friends and even relatives are racist and sexist at times - what should I do? They would make homophobic comments and when I call them out on it they would label me a kill joy and brush it off as joke. I can take that, I can take their ignorance in small doses.

This is why artworks like Krugers make me feel positive. She cuts the bullshit and gets straight to the point.

'A Minimalist Guide To Lying (or is it?)'

Is revealing too much, too much?

I was talking with fellow students earlier about a piece of work that evoked the feeling of being vulnerable. We were discussing whether it was because the subject the work was based on - the subject of sex - was a taboo, a topic that some people aren’t too comfortable with talking about.

It is a taboo.

I’m a pretty open minded, laid back guy when it comes to talking about my feelings. I like to think the person I am bearing my soul to appreciates that.

When it comes to expressing ones sexuality through art, it can have many effects on the viewer. I know some people that if confronted with an intimate Tracy Emin confessional, after one look they would turn and run a mile (and some of these people claim they have taste…). 

Although, I also know some people who would embrace how they felt when they experienced one of her works. I know some people who would begin feeling things and would question why they felt these things, and why this piece of work has made them feel that way. 

This is why I think it is worth exposing your vulnerable side. 

And if that makes someone else feel vulnerable… GOOD

Spacial Awareness & The Senses

Edinburgh Colleges’ artist in residence Pavlos Georgiou gave us a talk about his work on Friday morning. I was very interested to hear about how he carried out researching and developing his ideas. His whole focus for his degree show when he was at ECA, was the relationship and history behind various objects. Pav displayed photographs of his pieces along with documentation of the final works at the degree show. He talked about how he worked tirelessly to make sure no light passed through into the space. This rendered the room holding his pieces completely black, except for the lights above the pieces, illuminating them for the viewer.

Pav explained how much freedom and space he got to work with at certain points in his education. I felt inspired to think bigger and branch out my ideas. Thinking about the space that a piece of work can be displayed in is interesting, on one hand you might not consider this, but on the other the piece might not work without it.

Working delicately with fine liners and felt tips. I like to spend a lot of time making sure the white page is clear of any smudges. Clean lines and sharp marks on the page are nice to look at.

‘Grass, rock, stone and the terror surrounding’

This is the video piece I presented at the Conceputal Project crit yesterday!

After developing various ideas over the past 2 weeks this is the stage I am at now. My initial thoughts were to create a performance or video piece that would convey the title ‘Nation’. I wanted to pair this project up with my interest in time, and felt it would be an appropriate combination since I could relate our nation of Scotland with our history and the people who experienced it.


I played around with photography, video, text and performance. I felt more at ease creating work when I put the thought of producing a ‘final piece’ out of my head. This way I was able to experiment with a handful of ideas and materials without any irrational pressure to come up with a polished end piece.

My close friend Calum is staying with us at the flat every Monday and Tuesday until December for work here in Edinburgh at a publishing firm. Calum writes and performs poetry and is extremely good at it. We have discussed working on more projects together as we did in the summer and I felt his input on this occasion would prove to be a worth while venture.

I already had a dozen or so photographs showing my flatmate CJ in a dimly lit room in motion holding a clock. After adjusting settings on my camera I was able to manipulate the shutter speed and create blurred images. I wanted to do something with 2 specific photographs so I jumped on iMovie and played around with layering the 2 on top of each other. Along with some contrast and saturation adjustments I flipped one of the images upside down and for a minute I liked what saw.

Next, I spoke to Calum about how he would feel contributing to the project. He was up for it! I presented him with the brief we received along with one of my own detailing my intentions for the piece. I showed him the minute long slide I had prepared on the iMac and he began to write.

5 minutes later he read out what he had come up with. (I posted a photograph of the transcript yesterday)

Pleased with the narrative Calum had written I got to work on figuring out how to record his voice and import it onto iMovie. Once that was done I listened to the piece a few times through and adjusted the 1 minute slide so that it panned slowly from the bottom left corner up to the right hand corner. The pace at which Calum spoke was something I had to keep in mind when adjusting the speed of the panning. I wanted the viewer to be able to notice the panning and maybe wonder what exactly it is they are looking at as well.

Overall I think the piece works. I couldn’t have achieved it without Calum so a lot of credit is headed his way! I was pleased that my initial vision of making a work that conveys a torrid and passionate 3 way relationship between Scotland, it’s people and it’s history was able to be fulfilled. I still believe the piece needs development and maybe split apart and looked at again.

Getting Started

Since starting this course I have been relishing the thought of getting to grips with a conceptual art work. Now that we have the opportunity to not only create a piece of work but also write an essay on conceptual art, I have been making mind maps and jotting down things that come into my head when I think of our title ‘Nation’.
I’m thinking about moving away from flat art work as in working on paper or canvas and moving towards installation work and possibly performance. The ability to express oneself is something that needs to be explored.
The more I work with different media and materials the more flexible I become when it comes to developing ideas. I tend to think a lot more open mindedly about where my work could go especially when I know it is going to be a conceptual piece.
Now that we have received the deadlines regarding our contextual, conceptual and developmental drawing projects I have been able to days and times when and where I can work on each one. The college library has provided me with a selection of books that I am working my way through when I am at home. Mondays and Fridays in our studio spaces are a great opportunity to get some practical work done as well as taking time to update my blog.
I am determined to keep on track when it comes to time keeping and deadlines. Also, group crits have been enjoyable so far! They outline my strengths and weaknesses when presenting my work. Sometimes I tend to drift off in presentations and go off on wild tangents. This is probably due to my enthusiasm and lack of planning talks.
P.S. I will probably be posting to my tumblr page more often from now since most of my classmates are on there. Here is the link below!

www.martinpringle.co.uk