The Learned Pig

Art – Thinking – Nature – Writing

Tag: Scotland

  • Sing the Gloaming

    Sing the Gloaming

    An interview with Professor Simon Kirby and artist/ musicians Tommy Perman and Rob St. John discussing their ongoing collaborative project, Sing the Gloaming.

  • Way-Hame Poems

    Way-Hame Poems

    “For a time, I used to get the train from Dunbar to Edinburgh and back again at least twice a week.” Poetry from a rhythmic commute – by Hannah Lavery.

  • Undertow

    Undertow

    Walking the Edge A trusted mentor once told me, having read my work, “You often write about the meeting places of land and water.” She was right, though I’d never thought about the habit before; my tendency to do so was neither intentional nor premeditated. “There are few things more ancient than humans walking to…

  • Foregathered wi’ the beast

    Foregathered wi’ the beast

    I am standing in a lay-by of the A9, 2 miles north of Brora. I am face to face, for the first time, with a stone that I encountered a photograph of a year earlier, in a book about the wondrous wildlife of Scotland. Paving slabs ascend the bank to a hefty lump of granite…

  • Wild City Manifesto

    Wild City Manifesto

      the wild city is only the past repeating * wildness doesn’t begin or end at the edge of the city * the wild doesn’t shut at 10pm * wild things have their own sequence * bring back the seasons! * our material existence cannot be sustained without wildness * the wild city reverses destiny…

  • Carnevale

    Carnevale

    On the morning of April 21st, my phone showed several missed calls. My colleague Cath had been burgled in the early hours. We spoke briefly as she waited for the police to arrive, and then a text came through, ‘The car’s gone, I’m catching the bus.’ I text back, ‘Forget it, we can postpone’. She…

  • What is it like to be a pig?

    What is it like to be a pig?

    Most people know little about the characters and habits of the farm animals that live around us, often hidden away from view in large industrial sheds. What are they like, how do they live? Through careful observation we can learn more. Take, for example pigs. Pigs are quite like dogs – friendly, playful, tactile, really…

  • How do we improve the lives of pigs?

    How do we improve the lives of pigs?

    Ever since the idea of ‘intensifying’ pig production began to be discussed there has been a lively debate surrounding the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of taking pigs from outside and housing them indoors. Abigail Woodsi has written an historical account of the development of intensive pig production where she has drawn on records to display the…

  • Pig Dreams Pig Life

    Pig Dreams Pig Life

    In some dreams we are dead. It is never a surprise. Life doesn’t last long after all. Someone did ask, what is a life? Does it feel like something? Is it solid or a shadow? Comfortable? Forgiveable? ‘A pig is an unlikely bird’, grunted a pig. It couldn’t speak the answers and it wanted to…

  • VIDEO: Pigs at Play

    VIDEO: Pigs at Play

        This is part of CARNEVALE, a collaborative art-science project that explores animal welfare questions and the enthusiasm of pigs for investigative play. Click to see the rest.      

  • In pictures: Objects designed for pigs

    In pictures: Objects designed for pigs

    Popcorn Piñata         Pig Kerplunk     Melon Mines     House of Many Doors     Fruit Machine     Apple Barrel         This is part of CARNEVALE, a collaborative art-science project that explores animal welfare questions and the enthusiasm of pigs for investigative play. Click to see…