Scotland – EalaCreative

Connections over place : Cairngorm

The image above of swans flying over Loch Insh is by the photographer Charlie Marshall. The EalaCreative team selected this striking image as representative not just of the swans who migrate to and from Scotland and circumpolar regions but also in this case, as the photograph is from Loch Insh, to connect here to a particularly special place and landscape – the Cairngorm mountain region in north-east Scotland. This mountainous area, with forests including large tracts of Scotland’s ancient Caledonian woodland, and freshwater lochs of snowmelt, is notable as being an area of mountain plateau of alpine and tundra like climate and ecology, a unique landscape in the whole of the British Isles.

“The Cairngorms provide a unique alpine semi-tundra moorland habitat, home to many rare plants, birds and animals. Speciality bird species on the plateaux include breeding ptarmigan, dotterel, snow bunting, golden eagle, ring ouzel and red grouse,^[6] with snowy owl, twite, purple sandpiper and Lapland bunting seen on occasion.^[40] Mammal species include red deer and mountain hare,^[6] as well as the only herd of reindeer in the British Isles. They now roam the high Cairngorms, after being reintroduced in 1952 by a Swedish herdsman. The herd is now stable at around 150 individuals, some born in Scotland and some introduced from Sweden; since the individuals depend on humans for food and come from domesticated stock, they are not considered wild.^[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairngorms

The Cairngorm area is named after one of its main mountain peaks Cairn Gorm and the wider area most espcially in leisure and tourism terms is more often referred to as ‘The Cairgorms’. The region is now a designated national park (Scotland’s second) and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). More information on this can be found here NatureScot and a detailed summary of this Cairgorms SSSI can be downloaded from the NatureScot site, including the vegetation of alpine moss-heath, sedge and rush vegetation ‘communities’:

“The Cairngorms has the largest tracts in Britain of a range of alpine moss-heath and associated sedge and rush communities developed on base-poor granites and schists and the full range of these communities. The community characterised by three-leaved rush is
particularly well developed, with the full range of subtypes varying from those where woolly fringe-moss Racomitrium lanuginosum is co-dominant to open tussocky, lichen-rich areas.
Extensive areas of the plateau are dominated by stiff sedge Carex bigellowii and woolly hairmoss, particularly on the western spurs and ridges.”
Source: NatureScot, CAIRNGORMS SITE OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire

EALA Logo

EALA Logo by Bingrui Su (CC-BY-SA) at Flickr

Co-designing the EALA logo for EALA project by Bingrui Sui CC-BY-2.0 at Flickr

I was very happy when I knew that the shape of the EALA logo I was going to design was to be a swan. In the year or so that I have lived in Ayr, the wildlife I have seen often, and found most memorable, are the swans on the river. They are free to feed and play in the river in groups every day. In creating a graphic for the EALA project – with the name EALA the word for swan in Scottish Gaelic – I was inspired by the birds on the Ayr River, taking time to watch them and to sketch and model the creation of some ideas for an image. In terms of my developing of the initial design by EALA project lead for a swan shape logo, the first thing that came to my mind is the classic version of Swarovski swan logo image. In this logo, the swan wings are made of a bunch of dots, which makes the whole logo very elegant. But I wanted to design the image of the swan as a little more closer to life, and most especially I wanted to reflect the lively and flexible aspect of the swan’s movement. As for the final presentation form of this EALA logo, I choose to use strong lines for the outline. Because the simpler the shape, the easier it is for the viewer to remember. The lines created a sharp yet elegant feeling. In the design of the swan’s body shape, I gave the swan a rich and ‘full’ outline as observing the swans in the Ayr River impressed upon me this sense of fulllness, that they were ‘fat’. Fat is not a bad word, it reflects the swans’ freedom, unfettered, and that their living environment is good. The silhouette of the swan’s tail and wings is the highlight of the logo and the ‘punchline’ of the whole design. When I sourced various logo cases of swans online I found that most of the swan logos are dedicated to showing the posture of swans when they open their wings, depicting the wings of swans straight and high, just like the brilliance of a peacock. I found that swans spread their wings when bathing, fighting, and mating and I was drawn to this and learned much more about the nature of these birds. Working with the EALA lead (Kathryn A. Burnett) in Scotland we spoke about the design concept of our EALA logo and the idea of cultural links and partnership. The two swans being mirrored in the graphic logo represent Scotland and Finland respectively and how we are producing content about both Scotland and the Arctic under the commons of friendly cooperation. I chose the pose of a swan with its wings slightly spread. I like the upward tail of swans very much. The upward tail makes the overall flow shape of swans very smooth, and matches well with the long neck of swans, reflecting the graceful posture of swans. In terms of colour choice, I spoke to Kathryn and we explored both the colours of both Finland and Scotland’s flag. Both have a wonderful blue colour but in the end as I decided to use the blue from the Scottish flag as the outline colour of the swan as I personally now love the blue of the Scottish flag; it is very bright and vibrant. And for the swan’s beak I used orange to style the beak but it also works quite well to distinguish it from the blue, and the swan graphic looks more vivid, and with a more distinctive look.

River Ayr UWS campus landscape By EALA Project CC-BY-2.0 at Flickr
By Bingrui Su, MA Creative Media Practice, University of the West of Scotland

EALA BLOG : Hello : Hei

Welcome to the EALA project ‘blog post’ page. Some of our explorations and OER resources based around our EALA project learning are shared here with links to available materials and downloads. This is a learning space for the EALA team and so we may look to revise, amand and improved our materials and OER elements – learning as we go – so you may see some things (posts, images and other materials) change over time!

EALA LOGO by Bingrui Sui CC-BY-2.0 at Flickr

Why EALA ? – Our EALA project has taken its title – and its logo – from the swan. The swan represents Finland’s national bird and our University of Lapland partner as well as the symbolic connection the swan holds in many cultures of ‘the North’ as symbolic of mythical creatures, transformation, and other worlds, not least here in Scotland. In the Gaelic language of Scotland the word for swan is eala. As part of the original idea for the project we wished to select an image that represented ideas of partnership, connection, mobility and the migration of knowledge and understanding. We also wanted to celebrate the ecocultures of place while we explored our Arctic and near Arctic contexts. The UWS (University of the West of Scotland) Ayr Campus is located on the River Ayr and we see swans regularly in the rivers, coasts and lochs nearby. One of the EALA participants is international student Bingrui Sui studying MA Creative Media Practice at UWS who worked to develop our original first draft design to the final EALA logo you can see above. You can read about Bingrui’s reflection on the creation of this resource here.

This EALA learning exchange project (2022-2023) explored Scotland’s links to the Arctic through an OER focus for learning and creativity exchange. OER – open education resource – is a process and ambition to create, curate and circulate materials and artifacts such as images, texts and documents for wider access and sharing. EALA as a title also offers us a simple summary of the project’s frame of reference: Engagement, Alliance and Learning for Arts. Please click on the menu for more information and we look forward to sharing our artefacts and reflections with you.