Thursday 9 May 2013

A Walk Through the Underworld


We are working on our new interactive art event, ‘A Walk Through the Underworld’, to take place in the autumn. We aim to lead a series of curated walks around Nottingham’s caves in September, which explore the mysterious and fantastical qualities of the unique environment.

Deep beneath the streets of Nottingham lies a hidden world that has been forgotten. The subterranean labyrinth has been developing for hundreds of years and there are currently over 450 known caves with a rich history. The caves have served as dungeons, houses, beer/wine cellars, tanneries, secret tunnels, air-raid shelters, and many more intriguing things. We are creating an interactive art walk that explores some of these mysterious spaces and re-imagines what may have occurred in these secret chambers.

Mythology is particularly important to Nottingham, a city known for its hero Robin Hood. The event will encourage participants to imagine the activities that may have occurred in these secret chambers through storytelling and through installation artworks posing as relics. Unlike other existing cave tours, ‘A Walk Through the Underworld’ is an imaginative experience, weaving tales and dreaming of otherworlds. We ask our participants to contribute their own ideas in response to our own, making each event unique. A publication will record our experiences.

 In ‘A Walk Through the Underworld’, participants will gain special access to Nottingham’s hidden caves that are usually closed to the public. We are still confirming the exact caves we will visit, though we think we have 2 out of 3 sorted, so we are close! As soon as we have all the details we will post again, so keep following for details.

We are also looking for additional funding and sponsors to realise all aspects of the project. There will be rewards for anybody who donates, which will be listed on a page on this blog in the next few weeks. Rewards will include guaranteed entry to one of our cave walks, exclusive artworks and publications relating to the event.

If you would like to know more, make a donation or want to be kept up to date on our progress, please email us or join our mailing list.

We hope you can join us for an imaginative subterranean adventure!

2 comments:

  1. Jo and Laura- Jade,

    Excellent pictures and great idea.

    Are there any caves under "Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem"?

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  2. Thanks for the comment!

    Yes indeed there are caves under the Trip, they use them as beer cellars.

    We have been working with Nottingham Caves Survey who have surveyed most of the caves now, and produce these fabulous digital flythroughs of some of the cave systems - see this link for the ones under the Trip!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEERJb8eLU

    Jo

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