In keeping with the spirit of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (whose members include academics from the arts and sciences as well as creative artists), Loch Computer is a research network that brings together artists, scientists and humanities scholars who have not met one another before the project began.
Meetings of the network are being held in St Andrews and Edinburgh between Spring 2014 and Spring 2016. Each meeting encourages participants to explain to one another what they do, and to look for connections, frictions or synergies which might lead to productive work. Often 'work' will mean a piece of art stimulated by the group's conversations and exchanges on the topic of 'remoteness' and 'connectedness,' but other outcomes may range from modifications to an app to a publication in library science.
The photographer Norman McBeath is creating a photographic essay on the theme of Iona. Some of Norman's work features on this website.
Participating poets have been asked to produce a poem incorporating the words 'loch' and 'computer,' and the fiction writers in the network have been invited to write a story set on Iona, and which involves in some way 'remoteness' and 'connectedness.'
Some of Norman McBeath's photographs will accompany poems in a publication entitled Loch Computer.
Examples of the work created by the project will be displayed on this website's Gallery pages as it develops.