ART PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO

Collective, a new centre for contemporary art, is now open on Calton Hill, Edinburgh. Videographer: Aly Wight Soundtrack: With kind permission of Django Django

Acts of Observation is a group show by artists and writers Ana García Jácome, Jeda Pearl, Abi Palmer and Simon Yuill. The exhibition spans Collective's entire site and is presented as a series of solo presentations, or ‘acts’, throughout our different buildings, spaces, and online. Dynamic in form and content, the artists brought together present a diverse range of works including film, interactive installation, writing and architectural interventions. Acts of Observation directly questions, contextualises and challenges how we negotiate institutional language and spaces, and how disability is represented. The participating artists articulate and politicise notions of recovery and offer visions of positive, inclusive futures.

Christian Newby's 2021 exhibition in the City Dome, at Collective, features "Flower-Necklace-Cargo-Net," a large-scale textile piece that responds to the dome's history, originally built for an astronomical telescope.

Satellites Programme is Collective’s development programme for emergent artists at a pivotal point in their careers and has provided unique opportunities for artists and practitioners in Scotland for over 15 years. This short film features interviews with past and current participants of the programme, facilitator James N Hutchinson, and Collective’s Producer Frances Stacey.

We heard from audiences at Young Fathers during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival. The Edinburgh-based trio won the Mercury Prize in 2014 for their debut studio album Dead, described as a unique take on British urban music. Their equally acclaimed 2015 follow-up, White Men Are Black Men Too, tackles issues of race and identity, bringing together euphoric pop and darker sounds. Young Fathers was part of the 2016 International Festival. You can find out more information about the event here: http:http://eif.buzz/2aWtStZ

Have you been up to Collective yet this summer? With artwork by James Richards and Helen McCrorie as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, new products for sale in our shop Collective Matter, and a new outdoor terrace with an informal summer menu by The Lookout restaurant, there’s plenty to tempt you up Calton Hill. Collective is open daily throughout August, 10am–5pm. Admission is free, donations are welcome. Visit www.collective-edinburgh.art for more information. Videographer: Aly Wright Soundtrack: ‘Lionlicker’, with kind permission of The Leg

Ideologies and Identities: Exploring the architecture of Calton Hill In this film Dr Kirsten Carter McKee explores the history of Collective’s home in the City Observatory, which is intertwined with the art, architecture, politics and society of both Edinburgh and Scotland and their placement within the wider British Empire. From the Observatory’s origins in 18th century and the desire to contrast wild Calton Hill with ‘picturesque’ architecture, to the playing out of Scotland’s Imperial aspirations, and as a focus for an emergent Scottish identity in the 20th century, the history of this unique place has continued to reflect both a local and global story. Revealing some of the many grand schemes for Calton Hill which were never realised, as well as exploring more recent artistic interventions and the arrival of Collective, Kirsten shows that, far from being a historical curiosity, the Hill continues to be an anchor in the landscape for the city and its people. Dr Kirsten Carter McKee is a specialist in urban history and heritage and teaches at Edinburgh University, where she gained her PhD in 2013. Her work has engaged with the development of imperial landscapes, and her book on Calton Hill and the Third new Town (Birlinn 2018) addresses this from the perspective of Scotland’s role in Imperial expansion between the 18th and 20th centuries. Her current research expands this discourse around imperial landscapes in our urban realm to consider how we can be more inclusive in our narrative of trans-Atlantic slave trade and Empire in Scotland’s interpretation of its built environment. Collective Observations Historically observations made from the City Observatory on Calton Hill, have re-shaped how we view and relate to the world around us. It is where astronomers observed and calculated accurate time, aiding ships docked in Leith to navigate and connecting Edinburgh to the world. It is also where the artist Robert Barker created the first panorama, expanding the pictorial field and horizon. As custodians of this site, Collective are inspired by the history of ingenuity but we understand that narrative of progress is incomplete and complicated. Collective Observations is a series of online commissions which explore these complications, re-question the dominant narratives of the past, and consider them anew in our current social and political landscape.

Placing an Observatory: Calton Hill and the Evolution of Science, Technology and Society In the third film in our Collective Observations series, Dr Matjaz Vidmar explores the astronomical origins of Collective’s home in the City Observatory site on Calton Hill. Matjaz begins from the premise that observatories are intensely political places, where power is derived from control of technology and knowledge. His short film charts the often-troubled course of development of astronomy in Edinburgh, from early attempts to establish an observatory on Calton Hill and the first telescopes installed by James and Thomas Short, to the activities of the Edinburgh Astronomical Society in the 20th century. Matjaz pays homage to pioneers of science in Scotland who have contributed to this story, particularly those women whose achievements are not monumentalised on the Hill, such as Mary Somerville, Wilhelmina Fleming, and Mary Bruck. He celebrates the Calton Hill observatory as a symbol of a city dedicated to collaborative science, albeit a practical failure and, in the shadow of the National Monument, an example of the political hegemony Edinburgh’s elites. Dr Matjaz Vidmar is a Lecturer in Engineering Management and is based in the Institute for Materials and Processes at the University of Edinburgh. His background is in physics and he is a specialist in astronomy, astronomical technology, space and satellite engineering, data processing and artificial intelligence. Matjaz is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society. Collective Observations Historically observations made from the City Observatory on Calton Hill, have re-shaped how we view and relate to the world around us. It is where astronomers observed and calculated accurate time, aiding ships docked in Leith to navigate and connecting Edinburgh to the world. It is also where the artist Robert Barker created the first panorama, expanding the pictorial field and horizon. As custodians of this site, Collective are inspired by the history of ingenuity but we understand that narrative of progress is incomplete and complicated. Collective Observations is a series of online commissions which explore these complications, re-question the dominant narratives of the past, and consider them anew in our current social and political landscape.

"Sugar, ships and science: The City Observatory and Caribbean commerce" Lisa Williams, author, poet, and founder of the Edinburgh Caribbean Association, will explore the role that the City Observatory played in shipping to and from Leith. Now home to Collective, the City Observatory site has a long history as a crucial provider of accurate time to the city of Edinburgh and the Port of Leith. Time was kept by tracking celestial objects passing over the transit telescope which still sits in the Observatory today. In her presentation, Lisa will discuss the lives of the founding members of the Observatory and the development of mathematics and science, both of which were intertwined with the Transatlantic slave trade and buoyed up by colonial commerce.