Talks
By late 2010 I had gathered a large body of research data for this project and wanted to investigate other methods of presenting my work to the public. To do this I decided to give some talks so that I could get more feedback from the general public to see what their reactions to my findings were. This would also allow me to try and source any remaining data on Crathes Castle that I had not yet discovered in private collections.
Talk One – Banchory Heritage Society I originally met Anne Lamb who chairs the Banchory Heritage Society whilst visiting Banchory Museum where she works. I was looking for material on Crathes Castle for my research and was surprised to discover the museum had none. We met again later in the year at a history weekend held at Crathes Castle where she saw some of my early work and asked if I would give a talk on my Masters project to the Banchory Heritage Society. Nearer the time of the talk I was thinking I was a bit mad to throw myself into the 'lions den' of local experts but I wanted to see if I could present my findings, especially for my “construction” image, to the local heritage society to see what they thought as a number of them are quite well versed in the history of the castle, having worked there or having had a life-long interest. I also wanted to use the talk to see if any of the members had further material for my visual timeline as this group would no doubt have some collectors who may own unusual images relating to Crathes Castle. The talk was initially cancelled due to bad weather on the 9th of December but was rescheduled for the 31st January 2011. The talk second time around turned out to be very popular and the church hall was packed out with about 60 people. I was advised this was the highest turnout the group has had for a number of years. Some of the attendees were current and retired staff from Crathes Castle, which was good to see plus a mix of members and locals that joined just for this talk. Thankfully having had a number of year’s experience of talking to large groups of people through my work at Gray’s School of Art I think my talk went relatively well and I was able to present the ideas and information that I had intended without any problems. At the end of my talk I asked if there were any questions but only received very complimentary thank yous from various members of the audience. I also asked if anyone had further information on the castle if they could fill out a form I had supplied and I would contact them at a later point to document the information. Afterwards a number of local people came up to say they had enjoyed my talk and passed on information. So far it has presented a number of very interesting leads such as a member of the Strathespey and Reel Society whose band used to play on the front lawn of the castle each week through the summer in the 70’s and 80’s, a local photographer who took pictures of the building when it was having repairs made in the 90’s and a local collector who very generously allowed me to document his lifetime collection of memorabilia connected to Crathes Castle. Overall I really enjoyed giving this lecture and meeting the members of the Banchory Heritage Society and those who were able to donate further information to my project later on. I think meeting a group like this has provided me with information I would never have discovered through libraries and the web. Getting out and meeting the public has given my project a much more personal element to the research which allowed me to provide more detailed outcomes in the information graphics relating to social issues. Talk Two – School of Architecture, Construction and Surveying, The Robert Gordon University
My second lecture of 2011 happened while I was looking for further information on traditional building skills relating to castles. I discovered that Prof. Richard Laing at the School of Architecture, Construction and Surveying at RGU had been involved in a research project that had sourced Scottish craftsmen and women that could be contacted to assist with the restoration work for historic buildings. I contacted him to discuss this further and he was very interested in my project and in the research methods that I had used for my information graphics images. After meeting him a number of times to discuss my project, he invited me to give a talk to his 4th year students. The talk would concentrate on my research techniques for my project and how I was using historical images to timeline alterations to a building. The talk took place on the 14th April 2011 to a group of about 24 students and featured a trimmed back presentation to the one that I had given for the Banchory Heritage Society. I had removed information for supporting projects to allow me to concentrate on how I had developed my research and made my decisions for the ‘Construction’ image. They were intrigued in the historical element of information graphics and discussed its use in early work by William Playfair and Florence Nightingale. Most had assumed it was a more modern design technique. We also discussed how some of the early images may not be factually correct and how you often find that historical documents can be wrong. Just because its written in 1800 does not mean its correct and I was able to explain how gathering a large amount of information can allow you to cross reference to confirm information. This can lead to having images that you know are supported by two or three further images giving a strong body of evidence. I was pleased to hear that some of the BA students were currently working on a short project with another castle and they commented that my presentation would give them some other options for how to investigate the history of the building. |