Between The Tides | Jack Lockhart

BETWEEN THE TIDES

On Tiree, filmmaker Jack Lockhart and a small team of collaborators developed the project Between the Tides with Screen Argyll. Between the Tides explored the coastal landscape, the high water and low water marks, the beach in between, its patterns, rock pools, and more. Between August 2023 and January 2024, there were a range of creative opportunities for the local community to engage with tidal themes and work alongside Jack as he created a time-lapse film exploring Tiree’s tidal coastline.

In total, Between the Tides hosted 8 workshops, 2 events and 5 screenings with 215 individual attendances and 6 community organisations engaging and benefitting from the project activity.

Between the Tides launched in August 2023 with a range of family-focused activities across two days. This included beach art, drop-in sessions (including a talk from 2 local coastguard volunteers), animation workshops using beach finds and a film screening. An exciting development for Between the Tides was securing a space at the Hynish Centre in Tiree for the duration of the project. Set within a group of historically significant buildings, it provided a base for activities and workshops, for Screen Argyll to host special screenings and for Jack to offer informal drop-ins for anyone wanting to engage with the project. 

The Hynish venue was appreciated by many and conveyed a sense that such activities weren’t just ‘pop up’ and transitory:

‘The space is so lovely, it has a great atmosphere, we have the best cinema! It makes it into much more of an experience.’

During the course of the project, there was an open invitation to locals and visitors to come along to view the Hynish space and add to ‘The Net’ – literally, a net hung on the wall to which people added images, thoughts and responses around the theme of tides. It also served to document the various activities.

Coastal Cultures – Islands Project Manager Mary Morrison was on Tiree for the launch weekend and, with CHARTS Steering Group member Jen Skinner of Screen Argyll, hosted an artist’s gathering with the Tiree Arts Enterprises to listen and also to talk about CHARTS support to practitioners and organisations and the focus on islands through Ràmh.

After the initial project launch in August, Jack and collaborators Jim Parkyn and Alasdair Satchel hosted an intensive two days of activities at the end of September under the banner of ‘Totally Tidal’.  Jack worked with Jim, an Aardman animator, to deliver beach art and animation workshops, and Jim brought his ‘Amazing Scene Machine Workshop’ to the Hynish Centre for the weekend.

Mull-based creative and Gaelic speaker Alasdair Satchel (from What We Do In The Winter Podcast) led a guided walk of the coastline, exploring a Gaelic glossary of words for places and things found in tidal areas. As well as sharing and exchanging his knowledge, Alasdair also used microphones to create a sonic podcast for the Between the Tides project, which you can listen to here. You can also listen to Alasdair Satchel's interview on Radio Nan Gaidheal about the project and his role in the Totally Tidal Weekend in September: Feasgar an-diugh (29/09/2023) BBC Sounds. (Interview Runs from 26:10 to 37:10)

There were also themed screenings for different ages, including The Silence of the Tides and a family-friendly Gaelic film screening of Òran na Mara (Song of The Sea), an animated film drawing on Irish folklore and encompassing shape-shifting, the spirit world, family and heritage

Artist Brodie Sim supported Jack in engaging directly with participants and audiences over the weekend to gather feedback and comments.

Quotes from participants:

‘You are really changing young people’s lives with these activities. They take part in things that not only do they have fun and enjoy but they can have a huge effect on their future; it can influence their pathways in life enormously.’ 

‘As an older person living on my own it’s really valuable to have these creative opportunities that I can come to on my own and feel part of something.’ 

‘It means all the world to have these things brought to your doorstep. It’s one of the things that you need living here, ‘fills up your cup’ as it were.’

From October onwards, Jack Lockhart started to edit and gather final elements for the Between the Tides film, which formed the backbone of this project, a poetic collage of footage relating to the Tiree coastline, bridging people and place.  Footage was gathered throughout the duration of the project, from Jack’s individual walks, observing the rhythms and power of the tides on an ongoing basis.  Also woven into the film are sequences showing project activities along with a soundtrack with participant’s comments, thoughts and observations. Jack also conducted interviews with local ‘heritage keeper’ Donald Brown and Dr John Holliday of the local museum An Iodhlann, who spoke about works in the collection relating to the tides. The final film was premiered at a community screening at the Hynish Centre on Tiree in January 2024, with all project participants invited along. The film was screened as part of a curated programme with 2 other films relating to tides and coastlines (Making Her Mark by Mairéad Maclean and Seaweed by Julia Parks).  

Comments from those at the screening show that it engendered a sense of pride and ownership, a reflection of their lives and experiences and an inspiring way of expressing their relationship with the sea and coastline:  

‘It inspired me to see more beauty in Tiree in the winter when the weather is not the best. It allowed me to appreciate where I live even more.’

‘It showed the island in a different way …and it was great to have local people involved.’

‘It inspired me to listen to the sounds more closely, to be more connected to it as well.’

‘The tides’ theme was interesting because we live with the tides, and it is inspiring in many ways, artistically, scientifically and philosophically.’

For Jack, it was a unique commission as an artist who had a profound impact: 

‘My own work as a visual artist/videographer developed as part of being involved in the project. It allowed me the time to explore and respond to Tiree’s coastal landscape. I often walk up and down the high and low tide lines when thinking about my work or a project that I’m involved with. Tiree is a great place for this and offers you space to think and reflect. With this project, the work offered me space for reflection, which also became the subject of the work.’ - Jack Lockhart

The Between the Tides film was made available for touring to the Screen Argyll local cinemas network in a mini programme with Mairéad and Julia’s films. The film is also available for online viewing on Stream Screen Argyll. Between the Tides films key themes have also found synergies with other island and coastal communities, including internationally. This enhanced the work of Screen Argyll and the offerings available to local and broader audiences. For local audiences, seeing a film made on an Argyll island, focusing on coastlines and experiences of living in these landscapes, is particularly meaningful.  

The impacts on both participants and those delivering are clear:

 ‘As an organisation made up of artists, we really valued this project as most of our work is funded by film-specific projects, and this enabled us to develop our own ideas and engage directly with our landscape and our community. Another significant outcome of this project was allowing us as an organisation to work together in person and face-to-face with participants rather than working together and delivering via Zoom or online. This is often the case due to our locations and Covid.  The project helped us with our continuing engagement with the community of Tiree.’ - Screen Argyll

Having the base at the Hynish Centre also proved pivotal: 

‘This … enabled us to deliver a 6-month programme of films and activities … across all audiences including establishing a weekly Film Club through Into Film for Young People.’ - Screen Argyll

Although the space is now needed again by the Hynish Trust for their activities, Jack Lockhart along with other Tiree artists is in the process of establishing a new shared creative space in new business units set up by the local development trust. 

‘We look forward to putting our learning from our time at the Hynish Centre with this project to use in another dedicated arts space. Our long-term aims are to build an audience and community that regularly engages with creative cultural opportunities and makes the most of these opportunities to learn new skills, build confident individuals and strengthen community.  Given the current post Covid situation, those aims are now more challenging and perhaps more important.’ - Jack Lockhart

BETWEEN THE TIDES

Artist Interview

Between the Tides blog

Screen Argyll 

Stream Between the Tides film for free

Coastal Cultures - Islands is funded by Creative Scotland and supported by The Scottish Government, Argyll and Bute Council and Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Coastal Cultures, Islands, supports the aims of the Argyll and Bute Economic Strategy, the National Plan for Scotland’s Islands and the Scottish Government's Gaelic Language Plan.