A Very Fine Day

'LadyFish' made by Glasgow Artists Studio - one of the winners in the 'People's Choice' category...displayed by tsBeall during the judging of The Govan Armada (photo Colin Tennant)

The sun shone, the river glistened, the trebuchet fired, the choir sang, the flags fluttered, the human megaphone announced, the cups were strung, the stories were telt, the languages were heard.......but most of people came, smiled and enjoyed being by the Clyde in Govan. Thank you to everyone who came and to everyone who has been involved in creating NothingAboutUs.....it has been immense!

A new public space by the river has been brought to life and many new working relationships and friendships have begun....Glorious Govan indeed!

Some photos are already coming in and we'd love to see yours and hear any thoughts that NothingAboutUs sparked in you:

Please email us at: aboutuswithoutus@gmail.com

Posting photos:

FB: GloriousGovan

Twitter: @GovanBeacon #GovanGI

Flickr: tag 'GovanGI'

We'll post some photos on the blog when we get our breath back....in the meantime Lizzie Freer from Fablevision has posted a set of photos on Facebook - here

Govan Cross #6

A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson

Exchanging Language

NothingAboutUs' Ingrid Shearer receiving translated texts from the Govan and Craigton Integration Network in the Pearce Institute

Ingrid next to the NothingAboutUs noticeboard in the halowed halls of the Pearce Institute

Govan Cross #5

A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson

Govan Cross #4

A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson

Glasgow, Art, TV and Govan

Matt Baker and Tara Beall ...contemporary art as a collective action

BBC Scotland's Newsnight last night looked at the launch of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and featured NothingAboutUs - you can watch the clip here (you need to scroll to 16 mins 40 secs)

Govan Cross #3

 

 A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson

The Legendary Salmon of Knowledge

The good folk of Northlight introduced a new character into the mix of NothingAboutUs today - the Salmon of Knowledge - you can read the legend here. Ingrid Shearer is leading the project for Northlight and is busy circulating material from the NothingAboutUs text resources to speakers of a bewildering array of languages from ancient Brythonic to modern Parsi. 

Northlight (and their helpers) will be contributing 'translation stations' on 28thApril at NothingAboutUs:

Govan has long been a vibrant, multi-cultural hub. From its early origins as the creative, spiritual, administrative and royal centre of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, Govan has played host to many languages and many voices. Norse and Pictish influence is literally ‘set in stone’ in the massive hogback monuments, sarcophagus and cross-slabs in Govan Old Church, but the ancient Cumbric tongue of the Strathclyde Britons is preserved in the name Govan itself, meaning ‘small hill’, and in Partick, ‘little grove’. 

Staged near the site of the ancient assembly point of ‘Doomster Hill’, this event aims to celebrate the many voices of the Clyde, both past and present. It will include speakers and translators of as many languages as we can gather together for the day, creating a ‘Babel’ on The Clyde. 

Voice testing over the Clyde

Frank from Voicebeat testing voice projection at the Riverside in Govan

Voicebeat choir members testing their voices across the Clyde with Steven Anderson.

About Us - Voices

The beautiful graphic was produced by Steven Anderson who is leading the 'Voices' strand of NothingAboutUs.

Full text for Human Megaphone is here:

-->

// = breaks in reading

Steinbeck

Results, not causes;// results, not causes.// The causes lie deep and simple//—the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times;// a hunger in a single soul,// hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times//; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, //multiplied a million times. //The last clear definite function of man//—muscles aching to work, //minds aching to create beyond the single need//—this is man.

To build a wall, to build a house, a dam//, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself,// and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house, the dam//; to take hard muscles from the lifting,// to take the clear lines and form from conceiving.// For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work,// walks up the stairs of his concepts,// emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

This you may say of man//—when theories change and crash//, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought//, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate,// man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes.// Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.// This you may say and know it and know it.

And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live//—for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken.// And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept,// for this one quality is the foundation of Manself,// and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.

Reid

Reject the insidious pressures in society// that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you,// that would caution silence in the face of injustice// lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.

The challenge we face is that of rooting out anything and everything that distorts and devalues human relations

Govan Cross #2

A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson

A message from one of the voices of Govan

Writer Ian Pattison

We are honoured to have received this message of support from Govan writer Ian Pattison - best known as the man behind Govan's finest....Mr Rab C Nesbitt:

‘’ It’s great to see people in Govan reclaiming the river in an imaginative way as part of their daily cultural landscape. As kids we would travel on the two ferries, the passenger ferry at the foot of McKechnie Street and the traffic ferry at Water Row, over the ocean to exotic Partick. Back then, the river seemed as busy as Sauchiehall Street. Latterly it’s had all the atmosphere of the average urban underpass. This river deserves to be celebrated. It’s been good to Govan and has earned its moment of veneration. Every rusty rivet or buckled bike dragged up from its silt is a battle scar. Thank you, River Clyde.’’   – Ian Pattison

His Rabness

 

Govan Cross #1

A series of six definitions of Govan Cross created for NothingAboutUs by poet Jim Ferguson