More thoughts from Derek

Derek sent me two different lots of information over the weekend so I'll split them into different posts.

The first was about complementary studies. This is how things were when I arrived (Year 1974/5) and as Derek points out, "The joy of the system was there was not a shred of paperwork involved."

Complementary studies projects 1972 - 74

Cooking rabbits on Attermire Scar / Victoria Cave

Casting cup and ring stones

I was asked by Glyn to contribute to a complementary studies project he was delivering on early settlements in the Dales. We went to Victoria Cave outside Settle which had been used in Neolithic times as a shelter and various finds had been discovered in excavations there. We then visited Attermire Scar Cave which is on an exposed, elevated ledge on the Scar, above what would have been a lake in Neolithic times, but is now a dry valley. The remains of a Roman chariot had been found walled up in the cave, presumably from a burial. I took a few students who were interested down the tight crawl into the cave and into the high rift passage ending in a cavern with a deep pool. A vertical fissure off that leads to a further complicated and sinuous crawl to the mud slide at the end, which at the time was still being excavated.

The plan was to spend the night in the cave entrance. A gift from a students’ father of several commercially bred rabbits were cooked on an open fire on the narrow ledge outside the cave, a memorable experience under a full moon.

As part of the same project Glyn was interested in casting a cup and ring stone on the moors at Baildon, so I helped him with that. We cast a mould from the stone using lashings of clay wash and then plaster bandage supported by a framework of sticks. A glass fibre cast was made from the mould back at college.

Canoe building / canoeing from Ilkley to East Keswick

This was an opportunity to use resin and glass fibre in a "correct" way - so much of Foundation work stressed the experimental approach to materials and processes and the development of form as an ongoing development, every problem being a "one off" in limited time restraints, that glass fibre work often was not playing to its strengths as a material. The opportunity to cast from a borrowed perfect fibreglass mould was too good an opportunity to miss. It was anticipated that a mixed group of students would spend a week making a canoe with one of them paying for the materials - in the event the proposal was so oversubscribed that we ended up making one canoe per day for ten days. Team work was essential and health and safety very heavily laid down. Customary breaks had to be abandoned, tasks completed on time and in a precise sequence and everyone being on hand at crucial points. The up side was that when breaks did occur they were generous (fresh air being essential away from the fumes) and on the following day when a canoe was released from the mould with a satisfying pop, a large shiny, pristine form beheld, the pride of a mixed bag of students was apparent. I could see that students were able to use skills from their area of study - Fashion students were a dab hand at pattern cutting, Furniture students had a sense of precision and craftsmanship, P&D students knew about mould preparation and cleaning brushes and the discipline needed when dealing with noxious substances.

A voluntary weekend excursion took place a few weeks later when seven or eight of us canoed the River Wharfe between Ilkley and East Keswick - no doubt illegally.

Geology

Malham topography: looking at the geological structure of Malham, the Tarn, watersinks and upwell, the Cove and Gordale Scar which is thought to be a collapsed cave, and building a 3D topographical map of the area.

Following a discussion with slides of the area and a general talk about the characteristics of karst landscape the map was started first - a contour map upscaled to table-sized proportions. Layers of polystyrene sheet glued down to the profile of the contours with a vertical height exaggeration for increased dramatic effect. This was sealed and cast in glass fibre to form a mould and then a cast taken from the mould. Whilst this long term project was taking place, discussions took place on landscape forming processes and students working in teams carried out experiments on alternately placing clay 'landscapes' under a dripping tap, drying it out, wetting again etc. to simulate erosion, forming cliffs, deltas, sedimentary plains etc. In another experiment, glaciers were simulated by pouring buckets of wet plaster down 'mountains' of sand to form U-shaped valleys and cuums. Various ideas to mimic the action of water in dissolving away limestone to form cave systems failed and only achieved success of a kind by making typical cave structures out of clay, then immersing that in wet plaster and removing the clay when set. When the plaster was cast in layers that could be separated the internal 'cave' structure could be explored quite nicely.

On the last day we visited Malham on a wild, vicious winters day and did the classic walk up Gordale Scar, following the dry valley to the Tarn and down to the Cove. The day was spoiled by the wind tearing off the bottom hinge of the rear door of the hired mini-bus as we were getting ready to leave Malham. The hire company were not pleased.

This complementary studies project highlighted for me the weakness of the system. I thought it was a great idea to have a mixed group from different courses within the college, but you had to be really careful not to alienate some of them. Usually a practical making project binds people together quite effectively, but on this occasion, although the majority of the students participated fully, there was an element that decided early on that they had no desire to think and were not in the least intellectually curious or willing to dirty their hands, and were not seen again after the first day.

The joy of the system was there was not a shred of paperwork involved – no assessment, no feedback to courses on student performance, no registers, no aims and objectives – just a satisfying feel of working with the students (rather than them working for you) on something that was fun and perhaps a little bit educational.