Outreach
OUTREACH PROJECT SUMMARY

Project Name: Let's get high
Project Date: -
Project Participants: Dan Shipsides, Higher Force Challenge, The Chinese Welfare Association
OUTREACH PROJECT PHOTOGRAPHS

OUTREACH PROJECT INFORMATION

Let's Get High is about getting high with Belfast teenagers.

Literally we have been gaining access to high spots around Belfast, seeing the city from new perspectives and feeling the excitement of being in high places.

The project is realised in collaboration with Dan Shipsides (artist), the Golden Thread Gallery and a number of local groups including Higher Force Challenge, The Chinese Welfare Association and others. We have sought and gained access a variety of high places such as the Hilton Hotel, Grainne House in the New Lodge, Whincroft House in Braniel, the Rathcoole flats and other residential flats and the nearby hills.

It's curious to think that there are fantastic views that few people get to see – and even fewer people get to see a wide collection of different high views. These views should be cherished, experienced and celebrated.

The desire to live and work high in the sky is being promoted again after the developments of 1960's such as the New Lodge and Rathcoole flats. New developments such as Obel and the proposed Bedford Square tower are promoting the qualities of living high. The suggested morality of the bigger the better is ironically referenced in relation to some of the supposedly less desirable living conditions of some of the 60's housing blocks and to slang references to drug abuse. Morality and success is often measured in terms of elevation with phrases like; the high life, the moral high ground, high achievers and upper and lower class.

This project addresses these ideas and by gaining access to the high places in the city and experiencing the actual viewpoints and locations. The project involves social interaction between the parties who come from different parts of the city. Such access is precious.

"This is the view Kylie Minogue had" — Concierge at the Hilton.

"It's great to wake up to such a view everyday. Most people just don't get to see this. But you get used to it too." — Resident of Grainne House, New Lodge.

The visiting teenagers and people who inhabit these places have stories to tell, places to describe and sights to point out. The experience allows an exciting and revealing perspective. The feeling of height with sometimes dizzying views looking down also gives a buzz - the sensation on top of the world - which also adds to the sense of a refreshed perspective of a place we know well.