Radio Dreaming Kickstarter Campaign is LIVE!

Join in the final push to help my collaborator, Anna Keleher, and I to launch our new 5-part Radio Dreaming series and Pod Tour this spring!

Almost two years in the making, Radio Dreaming is definitely our most ambitious (and expensive) collaborative project to date. Despite our shoestring budget, we still need funds to have a successful launch.

So we've created a special video and Kickstarter campaign, which is now LIVE!

Check it out, spread the word and contribute, what you can!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radiodreaming/claire-and-anna-radio-dreaming

THANK YOU SO MUCH for supporting our project in any way that you can. We are very grateful for your support!

Where have I been - you ask?

DREAMING PLACE: Marble Arch Caves Geopark

I've just returned from 40 days and 40 nights of “action research” and experiment above and below ground in a traveling residency at the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark, Eire/Northern Ireland. (To locate the geopark on google maps click here.) Supported by Marble Arch Caves Geopark and funded by Arts Council England, DREAMING PLACE asks the question, “Does the land dream through us?”

During our "traveling residency" we camped at various sites throughout the Geopark and encountered an array of people, places and things which helped us to explore our three main focuses of the project: dúlra – ecosystem; dúchas– heritage; aisling – dream. We captured our experiences, ideas and insights both in sound with our trusty digital audio recorders and pen and ink through an evolving collaborative drawing. We also created a "DREAMING PLACE toolkit", which we plan to share in the form of a book - more details forthcoming.

Our field work at Marble Arch Caves Geopark is now complete, but there is still so much we want to share so Anna and I are still blogging! Visit our blog at www.dreamingplace.eu for daily audio, image and stories.

To give you a little background on the collaborative project: Anna Keleher and I met at Dartington College of Art in 2007 during our studies on the M.A. Arts and Ecology course, at which time we began our collaborative practice. When we finished our studies we vowed we would meet up again in Ireland one day to continue our collaboration and further research prehistoric ecologies. During our recent 40-day residency, we “made good” on our promise to each other.

Many thanks to all those who helped make DREAMING PLACE a success. We miss the people, places and things of MAC Geopark. We´ll be back! Our special thanks to Fermanagh Council officers Diane Henshaw and Rose Cremin, Geopark Manager Richard Watson and Education Director, Martina McGee of MAC Geopark, David Scott of Gortatole Activity Centre, Outland Arts and all the other wonderful people who gave us tea, lent us boats and shared their good craic with us.

Follow us on the DREAMING PLACE project blog as we bring our collaborative drawing into the public eye and transform our audio recordings into a three-part radio series.....

"How Far From Home Are We?" Photos and update!

There is something magical about having a vision of something for a long time and then coaxing and birthing this vision into reality. This is how I felt with the recent collaborative exhibition, "How Far From Home Are We?" that has been/will be installed for the month of April at the Harwood Arts Center in Albuquerque. The process of bringing this show into the world was more magical because it was all done with my project collaborators Anna and Becky in the UK. The show took shape over the course of months through flurries of emails, reports and reponses. And then I manifested our vision at the Harwood with the indispensable help of my husband Chris and my friend Aimee Deans. It all started over two years ago when I applied to have a show of "How Far From Home Are We?" at the Harwood Art Center in 2009. At the time, Chris and I were still in New Zealand and the dates for the show seemed far off. And they got moved from that fall to the next fall and then to the Spring of 2011. So this show was a long time coming and it is wonderful to see the vision and the many experiences of the journey that the show comes from in a new form at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque!

Peruse images of the show and opening here.

Listen an excerpt or the entire Radio Journey here! (It was broadcast on Sound Art Radio in the UK and on KRZA radio Alamos-Taos during the exhibition.)

Check out images of my "Sounds Surround Workshop" here.

Read about the exhibition in the Taos News here.

The project website is howfarfromhomearewe.com We'd love to have your feedback on the show!!

How Far From Home Are We? - Opens April 1st

“How Far From Home Are We?” An illustrated Radio Journey by Anna Keleher, Claire Coté and Rebecca Beinart

Opening Reception April 1, 6 – 8pm

Exhibition installed April 1 – 29, 2011 Harwood Art Center, 1114 7^th St. NW, Albuquerque, NM Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 10 AM to 4 PM, and Fri Apr. 15^th 6-8 PM

Making its debut in the United States, this exhibition is the collaborative outcome of a voyage in a small van from Totnes England to Helsinki Finland via the Baltic States and back through Scandinavia, across 16 borders, over 5,700 kilometers and all in seventeen days. On-site recordings and creative reflection are woven together to provide illuminating glimpses of a journey by land and sea. Collaborative pen and ink drawings created over bumpy roads and by the light of headlamps offer illustrated glimpses. Whittled tally-sticks provide a sculptural “account” of the expedition. Come and experience this intimate multi-sensory journey and join the collaboration through listening, smelling and drawing!

Dates pending for broadcasts of this radio journey on Sound Art Radio 102.5 fm, Totnes, England and KRZA Radio 88.7 fm , Alamosa CO. / Taos, NM. Check our website below of updates and live streaming opportunities!

Sounds clips, drawings and more info at: howfarfromhomearewe.com