Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The Cillini spreads across rural Ireland, dotted along margins, the corner of fields and the interiors of circular fairy forts, each of its rocks a marker, each stone a grave. Iron age circles as liminal spaces, betwixt and between worlds embedded with mythology and folklore, fairy tradition, taboo and curses. The Cillini take up root as traumatic sites of oppressive religious practices, they are the sites of unconsecrated burials, of suicides, of unchurched mothers who died in childbirth but mainly of unbaptised infants. Within this paper, I discuss the use of drones and 360 degree cameras as a form of practice to reveal stories embedded within the landscape. The harrowing spaces of the Cillini are explored using drones to create an emotive sense of place, an eerie encounter between worlds, the contemporary and the ancient, the world of the living and the world of limbo, of fairy lore and tragedy in a landscape embedded with sorrow. 360 degree cameras in my work allow viewers to experience the interior of these sites and begin to engage with the storytelling opportunities they encounter. Whilst these sites refer to exclusion, trauma and of being forgotten, my work Is to aid in the remembrance of these sites, to evoke a memory space and provide an opportunity for communities to grieve. The use of technologies in order to tell the stories of these sites aids access to spaces that are hidden from sight and enables the creative potential of technology to the documentary storytelling process.