Message from the skies 2020 - Chapter 5 - Robin Robertson - Ten Thousand Miles of Edge
Channel: Szilárd Zsolt Sztupák
Date: 2020-01-28

Message from the skies 2020

Robin Robertson - Ten Thousand Miles of Edge
Nelson Monument, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland

About the creative team

Writer: Robin Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland. After taking degrees in Scotland and Canada he moved to London and a career in publishing. He has written five collections of poetry, selected in Sailing the Forest (2014), and translated Euripides and the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. His narrative poem, The Long Take, won the 2019 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize for innovative fiction and was the first poem to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Long Take has been optioned for film.

Designers and Filmmakers: Cristina Spiteri and Susanna Murphy of Bright Side Studios, connect the space between art and technology to create powerful human experiences. Together they create rich animated and interactive digital content and are established innovators in the creation of immersive environments. They have a passion for playing with illusion and visual wonderment to weave compelling stories that create emotional connections with their audience.

Composer: Alasdair Roberts is musician of mixed Scottish and German parentage, raised in the Trossachs, resident in Glasgow for a quarter of a century and currently temporarily exiled in London.  Primarily a singer, guitarist, composer of new music and interpreter of traditional songs and ballads, he has released several LPs via Chicago-based label Drag City and has toured extensively in Scotland, Europe and beyond.  He has collaborated with a diverse range of fellow musicians as well as with film- and theatre-makers, poets, poseurs, painters and puppeteers.  His most recent LP The Fiery Margin was released in September 2019.

About this location

On the top of the highest point on Calton Hill, the Nelson Monument stands offering one of the best panoramic views of Edinburgh from its viewing platform. Originally built between 1807-1815 as a tribute to Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, an esteemed British officer in the Royal Navy, for both his role in the victory of the Battle of Trafalgar as well as his death in the same battle, this monument was also often used by ships in the port of Leith and the Firth of Forth to tell time and allow them to set their chronometers. Installed in 1853, a time ball still sits on top of the monument and is raised and lowered manually to mark the time.