criticism

Here is a conversation I had with my friend Paul, in the comments section. I was mildly alarmed too...

Definition.

Power /pow’er or poer/ n the skill, physical ability, opportunity or authority to do something; strength ore energy; force or effectiveness; an individual faculty or skill; capacity for producing an effect; the moving force of anything; control or influence exercised over others; right to command, authority; political control; rule; governing office; permission to act; a paper giving authority to act; potentiality; a person or group wielding authority or strong influence; that in which such authority or influence resides; a state influential in international affairs; (a state having) military strength of a specified kind; a great deal(inf); an armed force (archaic); (often in pl) a spiritual agent; a being of the sixth order of the celestial hierarchy (medieval theology); a great deal or great many (now dialect or inf); a mark of subjection (Bible, 1 Corinthians 11.10; New English Bible ‘a sign of authority’); the sound value of a letter; the rate at which a system absorbs energy from, or passes energy into, another system esp the rate of doing mechanical work, measured in watts or other unit of work done per unit of time (mech, phys etc); any of the forms of energy, or any of these as the driving force of a machine etc; mechanical or electrical energy as distinct from manual effort. * adj concerned with power; (of eg a tool) worked, or assisted in working, by mechanical or electrical power; motor driven; involving a high degree of physical strength and skill (esp sport, as in power tennis) * vt (often with up) to equip with mechanical or electrical power. * vi and vt (inf) to move or propel with great force, energy or speed.

very, very sunny sunset.

its a pipeline, its a pylon's shadow, its an organic field, its called trespassing, its nearly sunset and isn't it lovely. power. walk. power. walk. power. walk. power. walk. power?

Here she is...

So yes, after a very brief period of timidity we got quite used to putting our wee stencil here there and everywhere around the route of our power walk for tomorrow evening! Initially we had thought we would just do one every 100 metres or so, but erm, then we did two side by side alarmingly near my house and the rest is history.

Trespassing...

So recently we've been indulging our inner child's and playing around on building sites. We've also taken to the arts of graffiti too! Breaking rules is an addictive business and we're starting to find ourselves doing it all over the place. Spent the first sunny evening in a long time driving around looking for interesting bits of pipe, found some in deep trenches, some surrounded by workmen and still others piled up in fields with organic signs in. It didn't seem as easy to do in bright sunlight as it was in the rain, one felt very exposed in the middle of a field that doesn't belong to you surrounded by signs that proclaim the presence of dogs patrolling 24 hours a day and various danger signs. Which all made taking out the violins and ukeleles' a lot more fun, and scary at the same time. I get very nervous, El seems to rather enjoy it, she particularly enjoyed the spray paint.... photos soon enough.

some pretty pictures

Devon Pipes

Just spent a Sunday afternoon playing around these pipes - they sound amazing - everyone should go and have some fun. This particular bits near Staverton, Devon. This pipeline's costing £90million, improving the gas supply to Plymouth. Another beautiful National Grid project carving through the countryside. The engineering is once again impressive - and I like the colour of this pipe.

POWER WALK 003

POWER WALK 003.

Join El and Bram for Power Walk 003. An energetic walk around town leading to an installation where participants will be rewarded with the energy they have just burnt given back to them!

Meet El and Bram outside the Barrel house, Totnes High Street, Thursday 2nd August at 6pm.

Come prepared.

my head does not feel right

after not very long at all my head started doing strange things, i found myself making stupid decisions and babbling deliriously to myself - admittedly this happens to a certain degree on most walks but the babbling is usually coherent and on a theme - and by god did i have a headache. do sheep get headaches? do lambs get leukemia? anyone?

On and on and on

As I walked along just a small part of this pathway I fluctuated from being shocked and awed by the scale of this project. Liquid natural gas coming from Qatar, Nigeria and Malaysia, being piped through to Gloucester, providing power for 1000s of homes. I just kept thinking about how much power does it really take to get that power here and how much power is wasted– to construct this pipe, to extract, pressurize and transport the gas, to create the political and social systems that mean this is seen as the best way to meet our energy needs...

And yes... its more pipe

So a little retrospective blogging here..
Its saturday and the pipe just keeps on going carving its ways through the land. Its amazing that everyone who has land in its path has to agree to this. There is no choice. And the pipe's covered in little instructions - I wondered what they mean.
Here's some of my thoughts as I slide around in the mud...

Pipe

Pipes and pylons

Skirting around one of the oil refineries, this is how much of friday looked, continuing the them of large scale industry - this bits owned by Murco and TOTAL - whoever they are exactly..

Industrial nature

Torrential rain, soaked to the skin, flares burning out to sea, cement mixer boats, pipe sections stacked. Industrial nature. Its been like that for hundreds of years here. There's a napoleonic fort just over the way on an island and I'm sitting on an old WWII bunker. Milford Haven's where they first brought whale oil which was then transported off to London to provide power for the city's new street lamps. Its always been on the edge - 2nd deepest natural port in the world apparently - bigger and better.