ADAM SIMMS

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.  

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.  

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.

Mug Up is a video and sound performance piece in which Adam isolates aspects of traditional Newfoundland culture and dialect from their original contexts. A traditional Newfoundland mug up consists of tea and a snack consumed between meals around the hearth of a Newfoundland home, a space that the family reconfigures throughout the day to suit the task at hand. In this project, Adam releases the mug up from its traditional setting. Instead of being confined by the architecture of the home, the ritual transpires at an outdoor table seemingly positioned at the end of the earth. The performance takes place between Adam and his grandmother Doris in a community called Little Bay Islands; no other signs of human life are visible. The Canadian government is in the process of resettling this sparsely populated area in an effort to cut the costs of providing services to the remote location. Similarly, Doris was resettled from Pinchard’s Island in the 1950s, along with inhabitants of several other remote islands, to places with greater economic prospects. Though its proponents have framed resettlement as a win-win scenario—the government saves funds, the residents gain access to better services and more jobs—it is built on a foundation of loss. As a result of resettlement, many of the fundamental aspects of Newfoundland culture and language were uprooted, and some were forgotten entirely.

In the video, the time and distance of the ferry rides to and from the island seem hard to gauge. Though the ferry is in motion, it feels quite still. The long camera shots and the calm of the open ocean lead the viewer to search for proof that the vessel is indeed moving. The rhythmic motion of the water and the white noise of the engine create a sense of monotony, but a swatch of sunshine moving steadily along a bench makes time appear to elapse more quickly than it should. On both legs of the trip, Doris looks out at the horizon. Besides shifting occasionally to get a better view, she barely moves.

As Adam and Doris and arrange the tea, biscuits, and place settings, the only sound comes from the water lapping at the shore and their footsteps crunching in the gravel. Once the mug up begins, the soundscape changes: a conversation about resettlement practices is erased, but the vestiges of traditional Newfoundland dialect—specifically the inhaled affirmative yes—remain. In the piece, Adam documents uprooting the mug up from the hearth. He also looks at the question of which elements of the Newfoundland dialect have been lost and which remain, though perhaps barely noticed by the people who use them daily. The sound aspect of the piece emphasizes those particular cadences and idiosyncrasies, bringing them to the forefront. Like the process of resettlement, Mug Up also has an undercurrent of loss: time sped up rather than savoured; a hearth-based ritual separated from the home; an entire conversation reduced to a single element of the unique Newfoundland dialect.