Get involved

Red Road Underground is a joint exhibition with Chris Leslie, scheduled for February 2012. We are still fundraising for this, so if you have some Christmas presents to buy, and would like to help us out, click on the image below to donate!

Beyond that, Glasgow Dialectograms continues as a wider project…if you know of somewhere that you think might be worth taking a look at for the Dialecto-treatment then I would love to hear from you.The easiest way to rattle my cage is leave a comment below, or if you prefer not to appear on the public page, through the contact form below:

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17 comments

Comments feed for this article

20/12/2010 at 7:04 pm

Malcolm Tanner

What a great read.
I travelled with Robert and kitty broughton from the age of 13 untill 17 years traveling around cumbria.
I have memories of Roberts brothers, John and Alfi and other members of the Family.

Just wished that i could turn back the clock, Those where happy care free days.

Oh , I used to bunk off school to Visit Harthill, Polbeth, Leith during June, Wicked 😉

Thank you for such a insight into the showmens Life

Malc

24/12/2010 at 4:41 pm

Ishbel McFarlane

Well hello there,

I blimmin love this idea. It is properly right up my street/close/pend. I would like to congratulate your head for coming up with it and your hand for executing it.

I am a theatre maker (a handy blanket term to cover the fact that I act, direct, produce and write) but my background is in visual arts and poetry. The last one-woman show that I did was a personal, poetry tour amde in association with ScotRail on the train between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley (you can see a bit about it here: http://ishbelmcfarlane.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/glasgowedinburghglasgow/). As part of that I made an A3 programme to entertain and educate the audience (particularly as the vast majority of them were just on the train and happened to find a poetry event happening with a woman jabbering on about the landscape and communities, and, of course, about herself) which included ideograms of my Edinburgh and my Glasgow. I was quite pleased with the results, but if I had known you, I might have tried to leach your high-level powers of dedicated doodle.

It would be really interesting to see this technique used for a journey. Particularly as new lines (eg. Airdrie to Bathgate which opened earlier this year) will potentially transform communities into dormitory towns within a couple of years.

Anyway, I just discovered your website and wanted to let you know that I like it a lot. That is all.

24/12/2010 at 4:44 pm

ishbelmcfarlane

Well hello there,

I blimmin love this idea. It is properly right up my street/close/pend. I would like to congratulate your head for coming up with it and your hand for executing it.

I am a theatre maker (a handy blanket term to cover the fact that I act, direct, produce and write) but my background is in visual arts and poetry. The last one-woman show that I did was a personal, poetry tour on the train between Glasgow and Edinburgh (you can see a bit about it here: http://ishbelmcfarlane.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/glasgowedinburghglasgow/). As part of that I made an A3 programme to entertain and educate the audience (particularly as the vast majority of them were just on the train and happened to find a poetry event happening with a woman jabbering on about the landscape and communities, and, of course, about herself) which included ideograms of my Edinburgh and my Glasgow. I was quite pleased with the results, but if I had known you, I might have tried to leach your high-level powers of dedicated doodle.

It would be really interesting to use your technique to portray a journey, particularly as new train lines (eg. the Airdrie to Bathgate line which opened earlier this month) could transform communities into dormitory towns with in a few years.

Anyway, I just discovered your website and wanted to let you know that I like it a lot. That is all.

04/01/2011 at 7:58 pm

dialectogram

Hi Ishbel

Thanks for the kind comments (I will be using ‘high-level powers of dedicated doodle’ on some sort of promo material somewhere…) and the link to your own blog. Glasgow/Edinburgh/Glasgow sounds fascinating, and I’m sorry I missed it- will there be any repeat performances?

The idea of using dialectograms to depict journeys is a really interesting one, which I have tinkered with before, but never really explored. The Airdrie line, for example, is one I know well, as it is the train I occasionally take, instead of the bus, to visit my folks in Parkhead – you can see a lot of the Showman’s yards from the tracks, another form of community that lives in relation to the railways. Documenting changes to such towns would be fascinating however, and something I shall definitely give some thought to (ok, Airdrie isn’t Glasgow, but we can bend the rules here and there…)

More material will be appearing on the site over the next few weeks so please do keep checking – and keeping those ideas coming in! If in the future, you think my scrawls might come in useful, do please let me know!

with best wishes
Mitch

13/01/2011 at 11:05 pm

Dvaid Faithfull

Mitch
Just checking up on fellow contributors.
Enjoyed the panel collective at ECA on Tuesday. Felt all the comments from everyone else were spot on.
Great drawings – like the Dialectograms.
Interesting to see you are doing something at An Tobar. I spent Hogmanay on Mull on the south side – working on various ventures.
Keep me posted with future projects
cheers
-David

13/01/2011 at 11:06 pm

Dvaid Faithfull

15/02/2011 at 3:37 pm

dialectogram

Hi David

Sorry for the late reply but good to hear from you! Likewise, I enjoyed the session and felt everyone had something interesting to say. Very jealous at you spending time up in Mull at Hogmanay – an Tobar is one of my favourite places to show, and I am very fond of everyone up there.

Incidentally, I tried to access your website – is it down right now?

cheers
Mitch

15/02/2011 at 10:32 am

Derek Bainton

Hello Mitch.

My name is Derek, and am a lecturer and illustrator from down Wales way. I have been following the development or your Dialectogram, and your thought-provoking writings for some months. John O’Reilly, the editor of Varoom, told me about you.

I have written a feature article for Varoom, which will be published at the end of March. The working title is “The Self and the City” and it discusses powerful examples of illustrations that communicate new ways of apprehending the urban environment.

Included in the article is your Concierge Station illustration from Red Road. I am writing to request your permission to feature it in the article, which will also be published on the VaroomLab website. We are hoping to feature the work of Stuart Murray too. (I am having to write to him as his email box is full.) Such a postman!

I hope you are able to offer your permission, and I hope to hear from you.

With thanks,

Derek

20/03/2011 at 4:49 am

Martin Kielty

Oh dear – I’m in trouble now! I was only surfing for a little background information on a scene in a book I’d like to set in the travellers’ yards in Dalmarnock in 1965ish… but this stuff is fascinating! I’d never have known anything about your particular lifestyle if I hadn’t been captivated by the dynamic of the yards I saw on the train between Queen Street and Easterhouse during the short time I worked for a radio station recently. Wondering if that old truck called “Me and My Boy” could possibly run, and how much effort it takes to park things so closely together… Now I understand you have a demo film you’ve been making – love to see that!

Okay, okay, calm down… deep breath… Sorry! I’d still like to start with my initial inquiry. I’m interested in whether the east-end showmen had any fledgling relationship with the young pseudo pop stars who began appearing in the early 1960s. I’m wondering if there were enough connections for some young chaps to have gathered advice about life on the road from those who knew, rather than sleeping in the back of converted taxis or stolen Commer vans… And I was wondering if you might be able to help, or recommend someone I could speak to?

Apologies for the rambling. I’m delighted to have discovered your work, I hope you’re able to help me, and now I’m not going to get any sleep as the ideas I’ve come across here will keep me awake with nervous energy until Tuesday at least…

My compliments and warm regards. If you can, please drop me a line: martin@martinkielty.com – thanks!

Ch;M.

09/06/2011 at 11:12 pm

ishbelmcfarlane

I have just found this now! Failbel. Well, handily, you can indeed see my show again in the Fringe. The guide came out today. Have a look on my website http://www.ishbelmcfarlane.com, which is a wordpress blog masquerading as a website. See what you think of the show from the various stuffs about it in the Fringe guide (http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/even-in-edinburgh-glasgow) and maybe drop me an email. You can get my address on my website.

I hope that you are still alive and that my delay in replying did not bring on some early death. (I REALLY hope that now I’ve said it).

28/06/2011 at 11:35 am

Jenny Soep

So so lovely to find your blog (Via Kyla Tomlinson) but I first saw your fascinating piece on Red Road at the Market Gallery exhibition on comic art. So pleased to find you again. Will very much enjoy reading on, and checking out Boswell in Space!

24/07/2011 at 12:30 am

dialectogram

Hi Jenny

Thanks for the kind comments, and for coming along to Market Gallery! I of course know Kyla (I think we’re technically near-in-laws or something) and she was telling me about some of the work you do. Do you have a link or somesuch you can share?

09/08/2011 at 9:46 am

Helen Scalway

Hi Mitch
sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you, been busy though not by the sound of it quite as busy as you!
I wrote not long ago here on my own place charts – the Green Street textile shop in London. You mentioned possibly meeting, in fact I’ll be in Glasgow around late September, is there anyway we can meet up around Sept 26th for a chat?
Might be easier to continue this conversation by email.
Good wishes
Helen

09/08/2011 at 9:49 am

Helen Scalway

mis-spelt the email address, the one with this message is correct

09/08/2011 at 10:45 am

Helen Scalway

Hi Mitch
I ‘m the one who has also been making charts of places (London Textile Shop) sorry it’s been some time since last message but so happens I’ll be in Glasgow round 26th Sept, any good for a chat ? Can see you’re busy, all very exciting!
Suggest this might be better now by email.
Good wishes
Helen

14/10/2011 at 3:17 am

Gilbert Brogley