Shen Xin: Highland Embassy

Alison Scott reads the first of her written episodes for open-weather.

https://www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/alison-scott-open-weather

open-weather with Alison Scott - Episode 1: The Outset

Collective and Talbot Rice Gallery presented an open public lecture with leading feminist thinker Silvia Federici, addressing interpersonal and institutional violence against women as discussed in her new book 'Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women'.

Silvia Federici

Juliana Cape audio describes Liza Sylvestre's exhibition 'asweetsea' at Collective, Edinburgh.

Detailed description of drawings.

Audio recordings of gallery texts for Mercedes Azpilicueta's exhibition 'Fire on the Mountain, Light on the Hill', 20 June - 7 September 2025.

About the Exhibition

About the Artist

Artist Acknowledgements

Section 3

Section 4

Section 1

Section 2 Time + Space Application Guidelines

Audio Description

Exhibition Guide

Ross & The Realifers – Free Guitars for Teenagers

In the first of the Observer's Walks series Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston concentrated on the monuments and geology of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill. Centering around the Political Martyrs’ Monument, this tour reveals the stories behind this glaciated landscape and the rocks we have placed upon it, inviting us to re-engage with the rich diversity of history on Calton Hill. Narrated by Tam Dean Burn and Ruth Milne.

Observers’ Walks is a series of downloadable audio guides commissioned by Collective and created by artists specifically to be listened to on Calton Hill.

54 mins

Funded by Outset, Scotland.

'Memorialmania' — Track 8: The Old Calton Burial Ground and The Martyrs Monument

In the first of the Observer's Walks series Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston concentrated on the monuments and geology of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill. Centering around the Political Martyrs’ Monument, this tour reveals the stories behind this glaciated landscape and the rocks we have placed upon it, inviting us to re-engage with the rich diversity of history on Calton Hill. Narrated by Tam Dean Burn and Ruth Milne.

Observers’ Walks is a series of downloadable audio guides commissioned by Collective and created by artists specifically to be listened to on Calton Hill.

Funded by Outset, Scotland.

'Memorialmania' — Track 7: 21st Century Monuments And Salisbury Crags

'Memorialmania' — Track 6: Gatherings

In the first of the Observer's Walks series Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston concentrated on the monuments and geology of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill. Centering around the Political Martyrs’ Monument, this tour reveals the stories behind this glaciated landscape and the rocks we have placed upon it, inviting us to re-engage with the rich diversity of history on Calton Hill. Narrated by Tam Dean Burn and Ruth Milne.

Funded by Outset, Scotland.

'Memorialmania' — Track 5: The Monuments

'Memorialmania' — Track 4: Calton Hill - Climbing The Hill

'Memorialmania' — Track 3: Regent Road

'Memorialmania' — Track 2: Calton

'The Artist and the Gravedigger: after D.O.Hill' by Tris Vonna-Michell is the third in the Observers’ Walks series, downloadable audio guides commissioned by Collective and created by artists specifically to be listened to on Calton Hill.

Tris Vonna-Michell is an artist who has gained international recognition for his performances, story-telling actions and photo-installations. His work often features his own voice in live performance or as a narrated soundtrack within an installation.

'The Artist and the Gravedigger: after D.O. Hill' draws on the history of two significant buildings on Calton Hill – St Andrew’s House and Rock House. Built on the site of the old Calton Jail, St Andrew’s House is the headquarters of the Scottish Government. Rock House is now a residential property but was the first photography studio in Scotland, established by Robert Adamson who worked there with pioneering calotype photographer David Octavius Hill. The title of this work was inspired by a Hill and Adamson photographic series made in the in the mid-19th century, depicting subjects in Greyfriars’ cemetery, in which, one of the photographic plates is labelled ‘The Artist and the Gravedigger’.

Central to 'The Artist and the Gravedigger: after D.O. Hill' is a tension between lived experience and historical accounts. The work is comprised of layered audio, weaving together a recorded walking tour of St Andrew’s House with extracts performed by the artist from Eduardo Cadava's book 'Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History'(1998); a meditation on philosopher and theorist Walter Benjamin’s use of the language of photography to inform his conception of history.

Tris Vonna-Michell was born in Southend-on-Sea and is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art. His recent solo exhibitions include: 'VOX', Centre de l’image contemporaine, Montreal(2014); 'Postscript II(Berlin)', Jan Mot, Brussels; 'Pebble Dash', T293, Rome (2013); 'Ulterior Vistas', BALTIC, Gateshead (2012); Metro Pictures, New York (2011); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea(2010); 'Auto-Tracking-Auto-Tracking', Kunsthalle Zurich (2008-2009); Cabinet Gallery, London (2008) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2007). Group exhibitions include 'Un Nouveau Festival', Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); 'Unrest of Form. Imagining the Political Subject', Secession, Vienna; 'The Buttery Image', MUDAM, Luxembourg (2013); 'The Other Tradition', Wiels, Brussels (2011); British Art Show 7, (2010-11); Manifesta 8, Murcia (2010).

Tris Vonna Michell, 'The Artist and The Gravedigger: after D.O. Hill'

Performed by Hilary Lyon.

'Outwith' by Bedwyr Williams is the second Observers’ Walks, Collective’s series of downloadable audio guides specially created by artists to be listened to on Calton Hill.

Bedwyr Williams’ working practice spans live performances,  lm and installations. Often drawing on the banalities of existence, Bedwyrs’ work merges art and life with an idiosyncratic twist.

'Outwith' is performed by Scottish actor and writer Hilary Lyon and takes the listener through a series of stories created by the artist which all take place at a hotel visible from Calton Hill.

This audio guide starts at the grey gates of Collective. Directions are given at the beginning of the guide to lead you to the park bench where the narrative takes place. There is a map inside this booklet to help you navigate.

Bedwyr Williams represented Wales in Venice at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia 2013 and had a major solo exhibition at Tramway for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2014. Solo exhibitions include; 'My Bad', Mission Gallery, Swansea; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; 'Nimrod', Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales; 'The Jinx', 1857, Oslo; and 'Nimro', Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool.

Bedwyr Williams, 'Outwith'

A symposium chaired by Ian White (formerly of LUX, London) held at the City Observatory, featuring 
 
This symposium was arranged alongside the launch of two commissions: "In Free Fall", a new film by Hito Steyerl and "Staged", a site specific multi-channel video installation at the City Observatory by Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth. 
 
Speakers also included artists Hito Steyerl, Kim Coleman, Jenny Hogarth, theorist Alfredo Cramerotti (author of Aesthetic Journalism), Francis McKee (curator and writer), Lisa Panting (Director of Picture This, Bristol) and Collective director Kate Gray

Symposium: How to inform without informing

'The Sightseers' is an Observers Walk made by artist James N Hutchinson and the Lothian Blind Ramblers. It forms part of James’ wider long-term research project – Rumours of a New Planet - which investigates some of the alternative historic narratives and figures connected to Calton Hill. 

James’ initial research centered around astronomers associated with Calton Hill but he quickly became interested in the asides or footnotes of the astronomer’s stories rather than the dominant, popular narratives. 'The Sightseers' was inspired by the stories of Thomas Henderson (1789-1844) and Thomas Anderson (1853-1932), both astronomers who made significant discoveries despite having visual impairments and James Gall, (1784–1874) an astronomer, publisher and advocate of accessible mapping for blind people. 

Henderson and Anderson’s stories raise questions about what it means to observe when sight isn’t the primary sense and how this could enable us to reimagine or rediscover a place. To explore this, James worked with members of the Lothian Blind Ramblers, who he met through Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) based at the bottom of Calton Hill. The group walked and talked on Calton Hill and considered how description can become an active practice for the walker and guide. 

Field recordings were made from each walking pair round a pre-determined route on Calton Hill. James created a script from by transcribing the recordings, editing and added stories of Henderson, Anderson and Gall. The script was then performed and recorded live on Calton Hill by actors Eliza Langland and Simon Tait to ensure the ambient sounds and feel of Calton Hill was captured.

James N Hutchinson is based in Glasgow where he is undertaking a PhD at the Glasgow School of Art. Exhibitions and curatorial projects include: 'Voices from the Archive', Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, 2016; 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air', with Jeremy Deller, Hayward Touring, London, 2013; 'Proposal For A Warehouse or Towards A Museum Of Reorganisation', part of 'How to Turn the World by Hand', Collective, Edinburgh, and PiST, Istanbul, 2011.

James N Hutchinson with Lothian Blind Ramblers, 'The Sightseers'

Composer: P. Staff
Sound Engineer: Jules Gimbrone
Clarinet and Alto Sax Musician: Logan Hone
Supervising Sound Editor: Tom Sedgwick

'To Those in Search of Immunity' by P. Staff is the fourth in the Observers’ Walks series, downloadable audio guides commissioned by Collective and created by artists specifically to be listened to on Calton Hill. 

P. Staff is an interdisciplinary artist who works with film, installation, dance and performance to investigate dissent, labour and the queer body. Through collaborative projects their work explores the ways that stories of counter-cultures and radical activity have been told and retold, particularly in relation to both the material and social constitution of the body. 

'To Those In Search of Immunity' draws on P. Staff’s research into the ecology and botanical formations of Calton Hill. Written, scored and narrated by the artist, the audio melds essay, memoir, spoken word, and rhythmic soundscape to examine illness, health, and both the communal and individual body. Historical, scientific, and botanical narrative is punctuated, perhaps contaminated by, stories of messy, leaking bodies, weeds, and nocturnal encounters. Rooted in Calton Hill’s position as a site for municipal buildings, along with numerous political and scientific monuments, Staff’s narrative employs the disruptive potential of overgrowing weeds, traveling diseases, bodily fluids and our human contributions to unexpected ecologies. Exploring ideas of immunity and the possible effects of ingestion and the constitution of substances on the body, P. Staff's Observer's Walk reflects social concerns such as: sex, gender and the construction of community.

Portions of this work contain graphic imagery and explicit content. Discretion is advised.

P. Staff (b.1987, Bognor Regis, England) lives and works in Los Angeles, USA and London, UK.Their work has been exhibited at Serpentine Galleries, London (2019); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland (2019); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2017); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2017); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2016); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2015); Tate Liverpool, England (2014); Tate Modern, London (2012), among others.

P. Staff, 'To Those In Search of Immunity'

For Edinburgh Art Festival 2018 Collective is delighted to present Time Capsule, a new Walk by artist Catherine Payton made with Abbeyhill and Leith Walk Primary Schools.

The year is 2168, Edinburgh is flooded and all that remains are a series of islands made from the city’s seven hills. Join the pupils of Calton Hill Island School while they describe a day in their lives; including what they eat, learn, worship, play and how they defend themselves against other islands.

Catherine Payton is an artist based in Edinburgh. She has exhibited at Supercollider, Blackpool, Generator Projects, Dundee and Collective, through New Work Scotland Programme. Catherine was a founding member of Rhubaba.

Catherine Payton, 'Time Capsule'

Collective is a free contemporary art centre that brings creative new perspectives to the city of Edinburgh.

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