A collaborative writing experiment created in response to the Group Residency Air, Sea and Soil: Writing into Place (September 2023), Birsay, Orkney, Scotland. Organised by the Museum of Loss and Renewal, and facilitated by me and Tracy Mackenna.
 

Particpants: Rosie Cunningham, Jean Fleming, Giovanna Mackenna, Tracy Mackenna, Emily Orley, Polly Poupore, Anna Tallach Kennedy

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Our time in Orkney, in the Bay of Birsay, between 23 and 30 September 2023 was unique. All group residencies are unique, of course, made up of the particular ingredients of the people gathered there, how they interact with each other and the place that holds them, but also the particularities of the time, that time, in that location and in the world more generally. Each place, as a throwntogetherness, is affected by how the stars and weather patterns align in that moment, the moving of tides, tectonic plates and all those living in between. 

  

It was a week of warmth and laughter above all else, although we also, between us, experienced illness and injury. It was a week of holding and thinking and reading and writing, walking and looking and breathing and swimming and watching swimmers and seals, and recording and listening and sharing and being quiet and still and also raucous. To reflect back on it now and produce something tangible, we engaged in a collaborative writing experiment, a kind of exquisite corpse exercise running in two directions from a singular prompt. In the spirit of generosity that underscored the week, people responded with openness and care. Here are the results, published by the Museum of Loss and Renewal.