| March 2008 |
All work copyright
the owner. No
reproduction
without consent.
the owner. No
reproduction
without consent.
NON-FICTION
The second Nose Hill Narrative by Vivian Hansen. Read last month's Site.
When the fur traders came with blankets and guns to exchange them for the furs brought by the Indians,
they also brought beads and mirrors. The mirrors were popular with the women, and with the men, because
they used them for signaling. Spy Hill, a westward continuation of Nose Hill, has a small ‘peak’, altitude
4200 feet. This was often used for signaling, hence the name “Spy Hill.”
Sight
It may have been about this time every year, the early spring in March or April, when traders mounted the
Paskapoo Rocks on Nose Hill and sat down to flicker mirrors onto the far horizons of the Plains. The flash
told the native traders “We’re here again, and ready to trade skins and furs.”
On a cold day in March 2007, I climb that same escarpment to experiment with a small mirror. The only
difference between my experiment and the 18th Century call to trade is the era, which is now the 21st
Century. The mirror’s astonished light ricochets off the east side of the Social Sciences building at the
University of Calgary. Professors live and work in that building – historians, sociologists, economists,
anthropologists, linguists, some English professors, graduate students in any discipline. Layers of
empirical knowledge embedded in people. Do they see this sign today, this mirror’s roar of silver flash?
Do they know that it is a signal to trade, to call on human endeavour to encounter Nose Hill?
Soon I will disappear from these sandstone rocks, lest the seekers find me and chastise me for the
experiment. I have been careful to avoid flashing the mirror at the snake of traffic on John Laurie Boulevard.
I have bounced the beam completely across the sight of northwest Calgary.
I tickle the wide light against the LRT station at Brentwood – simply because the grain elevator architecture
begs a scratch in the armpit of its glass. It yawns. The grain elevator signifier is a prairie cliché rerouting
its origins from wood to glass to a place of journey and possibility – even if only north/south along an LRT
track. The elevator still wants the coulee of east/west to snuggle with, to remind it of flexing boundaries and
borders. In the cast light of a mirror-signal from Nose Hill, Brentwood Station becomes an ignited being,
one that houses a dynamic of people, if only in patterns of travel.
These C-train travelers create a modern presence from their boundary that “operates, is at work, between
various entities, mutually constructing them and itself in the working…furthermore, as practices they are
generative, instigate new directions, turn moments into events. From this boundary at Nose Hill, I can
escape the events that comprise the great city, reduce my consciousness to a moment outside of its
citizens. In the summer I can observe the material green value of trees that wash over brick schools. The
insane pace of a real estate market is observable from these heights, and the muscle of social
organization that is realized in the bricollage of human institutions.
This practice of Calgary is the traffic of the 21st Century that risks abandoning its prairie significance. We
hold an ancient glacial drumlin to the thrall of its past – making a boundary between what is then and what
is now. We practice saving a demographic identity under glass, for example: The Brentwood Station LRT
terminal. This social and economic enterprise is the movement that represents the modern city and
generates its clarity in the present time.
I have put away my tiny mirror that transcends the sight of city. The mirror has no wish to capture time
inside its body. This tool is merely a method of tease for me - a reminder of silent communication in the
days of the fur traders. I tease the buildings; flutter the light around the distant mountains. If I stir this
butterfly of light against the human wind of this city, will it create an aberration of breeze that is robust
enough to announce the presence of Nose Hill – the accretion of its past and its living, immediate
boundary?
Back to Main
The second Nose Hill Narrative by Vivian Hansen. Read last month's Site.
When the fur traders came with blankets and guns to exchange them for the furs brought by the Indians,
they also brought beads and mirrors. The mirrors were popular with the women, and with the men, because
they used them for signaling. Spy Hill, a westward continuation of Nose Hill, has a small ‘peak’, altitude
4200 feet. This was often used for signaling, hence the name “Spy Hill.”
Sight
It may have been about this time every year, the early spring in March or April, when traders mounted the
Paskapoo Rocks on Nose Hill and sat down to flicker mirrors onto the far horizons of the Plains. The flash
told the native traders “We’re here again, and ready to trade skins and furs.”
On a cold day in March 2007, I climb that same escarpment to experiment with a small mirror. The only
difference between my experiment and the 18th Century call to trade is the era, which is now the 21st
Century. The mirror’s astonished light ricochets off the east side of the Social Sciences building at the
University of Calgary. Professors live and work in that building – historians, sociologists, economists,
anthropologists, linguists, some English professors, graduate students in any discipline. Layers of
empirical knowledge embedded in people. Do they see this sign today, this mirror’s roar of silver flash?
Do they know that it is a signal to trade, to call on human endeavour to encounter Nose Hill?
Soon I will disappear from these sandstone rocks, lest the seekers find me and chastise me for the
experiment. I have been careful to avoid flashing the mirror at the snake of traffic on John Laurie Boulevard.
I have bounced the beam completely across the sight of northwest Calgary.
I tickle the wide light against the LRT station at Brentwood – simply because the grain elevator architecture
begs a scratch in the armpit of its glass. It yawns. The grain elevator signifier is a prairie cliché rerouting
its origins from wood to glass to a place of journey and possibility – even if only north/south along an LRT
track. The elevator still wants the coulee of east/west to snuggle with, to remind it of flexing boundaries and
borders. In the cast light of a mirror-signal from Nose Hill, Brentwood Station becomes an ignited being,
one that houses a dynamic of people, if only in patterns of travel.
These C-train travelers create a modern presence from their boundary that “operates, is at work, between
various entities, mutually constructing them and itself in the working…furthermore, as practices they are
generative, instigate new directions, turn moments into events. From this boundary at Nose Hill, I can
escape the events that comprise the great city, reduce my consciousness to a moment outside of its
citizens. In the summer I can observe the material green value of trees that wash over brick schools. The
insane pace of a real estate market is observable from these heights, and the muscle of social
organization that is realized in the bricollage of human institutions.
This practice of Calgary is the traffic of the 21st Century that risks abandoning its prairie significance. We
hold an ancient glacial drumlin to the thrall of its past – making a boundary between what is then and what
is now. We practice saving a demographic identity under glass, for example: The Brentwood Station LRT
terminal. This social and economic enterprise is the movement that represents the modern city and
generates its clarity in the present time.
I have put away my tiny mirror that transcends the sight of city. The mirror has no wish to capture time
inside its body. This tool is merely a method of tease for me - a reminder of silent communication in the
days of the fur traders. I tease the buildings; flutter the light around the distant mountains. If I stir this
butterfly of light against the human wind of this city, will it create an aberration of breeze that is robust
enough to announce the presence of Nose Hill – the accretion of its past and its living, immediate
boundary?
Back to Main
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few monetary expenses that love on its
own does not pay for. Any small token
is greatly appreciated and will be put
towards good use.
If you like the magazine, or any
content in particular, please take a few
moments to share the link with your
friends.
Feel free to join our Mailing list or our
Facebook group.
few monetary expenses that love on its
own does not pay for. Any small token
is greatly appreciated and will be put
towards good use.
If you like the magazine, or any
content in particular, please take a few
moments to share the link with your
friends.
Feel free to join our Mailing list or our
Facebook group.
