Close Encounters:
A Community Deep Map
Close Encounters is a collaboration between Aberdeen’s SMART Art Agency, photographer Steve Smith, writer and researcher Ian Grosz, and artist & film maker Callum Kellie.
It aims to celebrate, record, and reveal the historic and contemporary stories that make up the Castlegate’s unique sense of place in the east end of Aberdeen City Centre, and attempts to capture the social history of the area at a time when the city is on the cusp of change.
The project is funded by Aberdeen City Council and is part of a pilot for a wider Heritage and Place project through a grant awarded by Historic Environment Scotland. You can learn more about Historic Environment Scotland’s Heritage and Place Programme here.
The project consists of
three main elements:
1.
Photography of People & Place
2.
Oral Histories that gather the Stories of Place
3.
An Interactive Digital Platform
Beginnings
The project began with contemporary documentary and portrait photography by photographer and NESCOL lecturer Steve Smith to highlight the area’s rich culture and heritage. This was continued alongside a series of community-based workshops led by creative writer and researcher Ian Grosz, where participants were encouraged to create ‘memory maps’ of their locales, and to share their memories and experiences in open dialogue within a group setting. Some of the workshop participants then took part in audio recorded personal story-gathering sessions; a sample of which is included on the Close Encounters website.
We worked within the following
community-based settings:
St. Andrew’s Cathedral Church
St. Peter’s Church
The Salvation Army Citadel & Community Hub
Castle Street, Justice Street & Peacock’s Close
The final outputs of the research phase are an exhibition produced by SMART Art, opened at Aberdeen Arts Centre in June 2024, alongside an online interactive platform and digital map developed by artist and film maker Callum Kellie.
Users of the site are able to explore the Castlegate by entering a digital space where the community stories, histories, and images are revealed. We hope it is a tool that can be used by both residents and wider visitors to explore Aberdeen’s rich heritage
Close Encounters are:
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Founded in January 2007 by Sally Reaper (Moir) and Claire Bruce, SMART Art Agency has significantly enriched Aberdeen's cultural scene. Dedicated to fostering a creative community, SMART offers platforms for emerging and established artists to showcase their work.
Their services include arts consultancy, curation, artist representation, exhibition and collections installation, bespoke commissions, design showcases, pop-up events, specialist craft projects, and artwork leasing. Through diverse art projects, gallery programmes, and community outreach, SMART makes art accessible and engaging, benefiting Aberdeen and beyond.
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Steve Smith’s early professional photographic career was centred around the fashion industry, working for fashion houses and magazines such as Dazed and Confused and i-D Magazine. His portfolio includes celebrity portraiture, for clients such as InStyle Magazine, The Telegraph and The Times.
In 2007 he returned home to Aberdeen to embark on his current role as a lecturer in photography at North East Scotland College. This move allowed him a return to earlier photographic pursuits, far removed from the commercial constraints of a client’s brief. His most recent work has documented areas of social concern with an inquisitive pursuit of neutrality and impartiality that may be impossible to achieve but fuels his deeper understanding of the subject.
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Ian Grosz is a writer and researcher with a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Aberdeen. His research was funded through a New King’s Studentship and focused on the complex relationships between place and identity. His writing has been published widely both in print and online, and he runs regular workshops with the charity Open Book Reading and through the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature Scheme. Drawing on his interest in Deep Mapping and prior experience working with Steve Smith on the 2019 Look Again Visual Arts Festival project Trading Faces, he authored the initial proposal for Close Encounters in response to an Aberdeen City Council brief. You can visit Ian’s website to learn more here.
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Callum Kellie is an artist, film maker, and educator based in Aberdeenshire. Working at the Robert Gordon University, he primarily teaches media production and film making skills across both journalism and media courses.
His arts practice has been heavily influenced by his experiences of working offshore within the North Sea oil industry. With previous work exploring the social impact of the industry on its workforce and surrounding communities.
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Kirstie Clark is a Robert Gordon University graduate who obtained a first-class degree in BA (Hons) Journalism. She recently achieved Design of the Year at the Herald's Student Press Awards 2024. She has expertise in design and the arts having an HNC from Glasgow Clyde College and is a copy contributor for Close Encounters.
Contact her: kirstieclark104@gmail.com.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following organisations & people:
Aberdeen City Council for commissioning the project.
Amy Liptrott for hosting an early workshop and the final project exhibition at Aberdeen Arts Centre.
All at Peacock & The Worm for their openness, particularly Jon Reid and Neil Corall for their co-operation and permission in accessing their photographic archive and Rosemary Baxter’s wonderful and sadly rare book Peacock Looks Back (1997): a vital and fascinating source of local history.
Rev. Isaac Poobalan, who welcomed us into the St. Andrew’s community and enthusiastically embraced the project, helping to facilitate a workshop and focus group, and always being willing to engage with both photography and oral history.
The volunteers and staff at Aberdeen’s historic Citadel, likewise, for welcoming us into their Community Hub, and for their delicious soup. We’d like to particularly thank Major Peter Renshaw for his willingness to help with the project, Margaret Ross for her inexhaustive historical knowledge and for facilitating the workshop, portraits and interviews, and Wande Yoloye for his openness, passion and positivity.
Finally, we’d like to thank all those who took part and were willing to feature in this project, for being open and vulnerable enough to share their stories and be seen.