[pilot, a steersman, one who conducts ships in and out of a harbour along a dangerous coast]

Site specific installation

Cardiff Art in Time Festival, 1995, Pilotage House, Stuart Street, Cardiff

The grey stone building had been the headquarters for shipping pilots, but was now, due to regeneration, offices for the Docklands Development Trust and a restaurant. The work developed from talking to shipping pilots who had worked from the building, and research carried out as a result of these conversations, mainly around the subject of navigation. I worked directly with the pilots at Cardiff Docks, conducting interviews, exploring the (technical) language used and accompanying them on a 'launch' to meet an incoming ship. 

The building was situated in an area, which, when the docks were fully operational, was a place where 'foreigners/strangers' were located. How did the local population react to this? Most immigrants in the 1950's, like my own parents who settled in the area, would have experienced difficulties adjusting to these major shifts in language and culture — another form of navigation/of locating oneself. ('Pilotage' is about guidance — finding one's way with the help of a guide).

The film was taken on a pilot launch with a hand held Super 8 camera, the image being of coastline as the launch came back into port. The loop of film repeatedly takes us closer to the shore then further away from it. As the film repeats the motion, we are stuck ‘offshore’, at a distance or 'placed abroad'. The film was projected onto a wall of the space, and a plumb line hung so that it just touched a small pile of salt on the floor. The plumb line, which moves minutely all the time because of the earth's gravitational field leaves a trace of this movement in the salt.

In the room a transmitter was set up to receive information via an aerial positioned outside the building. Normally installed on commercial ships, the NAVTEX LOKATA prints out current navigation warnings and other Marine Safety Information, including Pilot Service Messages, as they are received at random intervals during the day for coastal waters up to 300 to 400 miles from the transmitter. NAVTEX is mandatory for commercial vessels under the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. The print-out contains information on weather warnings, search and rescue, debris lost at sea, buoys out of position, etc.