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Stonesongs
Paul Bristow • April 23, 2020
Archaeological Inspirations
Pupils in Port Glasgow have been celebrating the year of History, Heritage and Archaeology by creating poetry, photos, comics and music, inspired by the archaeology of Inverclyde – in particular, Craigmarloch Iron Age Hillfort. The project was supported by Heritage Lottery Fund.
We’ve delivered projects on so many different aspects of Inverclyde’s history and heritage – but we had never used archaeology as the starting point, so this year seemed like the ideal time. Craigmarloch Iron Age fort is a site which isn’t all that well known and in fact, there’s not much of the site to see physically, you have to wander across two fields and up a hill covered in bracken to even find it. But that meant there was lots of scope for inspiration and interpretation.
We worked with archaeologists from Scotland’s Urban Past, who introduced pupils from Newark Primary School, Port Glasgow High School and St Stephen’s High School to the history of Craigmarloch Hill Fort. The stories of Iron Age life and Roman occupation were the starting points for creative projects. Pupils also looked at other archaeological and historic sites in the area for inspiration.
Pupils from Newark Primary P5 and P5/4 worked with poet Julie Anne Douglas and photographer Louie Pastore to create a book. St Stephens High School worked with the Magic Torch Comics team to produce a comic inspired by archaeological finds and Port Glasgow High School worked with Erskine Media to develop a piece of music featuring sounds inspired by Iron Age objects.
The book and comic were launched during Book Week Scotland. Over 80 young people were involved in the project and all received Heritage Hero awards from Historic Environment Scotland.
You can now read the Stonesongs Comic online
and listen to the music created in the video below...
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Earlier this month, we were asked to produce some artwork for the Afrowegian Project , imagining an Afro-Futurist version of the story of real world cycling superhero, Marshall 'Major' Taylor. The comic display panels form part of an exhibition by the riverside in Glasgow throughout October. You can read more about the work of the project and how to get involved. We're looking forward to doing some more collaborative work with Afrowegian's Jim Muotone, down in Inverclyde over the next few months.
Earlier this year, our director Paul Bristow spoke to Tall Tale films as part of CVS Inverclyde's Digital Open Studios project. Check out the short video below to hear Paul chat about storytelling, communities and his creative process for his own writing and his work with Magic Torch Comics CIC. You can also see his fairly messy home office under the stairs...
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PA15 2RL