In
the late 1800s the islanders’ basic means of transportation, a single
boat, was destroyed. In their struggle to survive, the community resorted
to desperate means of communication and devised their now famous ‘mailboat’ system,
in which SOS messages were attached to rough-hewn pieces of wood shaped
like a boat. These ‘boats’ were attached to a sheep’s
bladder that provided a float, and were cast onto
the sea in the hope that
they would reach
the mainland.
Issues of isolation and
integration were particularly resonant with NORD. In forging a contemporary parallel
between the remoteness experienced by commuters
and the far-off nature of island life, ‘The Politics of Remoteness’ encourages
us to look at issues of distance from both an individual and social perspective.
“City communities are in someway breaking down because people don’t
work and live in tight-knit environments as they used to. Instead they are always
on the move. In addressing the issues of transport, mobility and sustainability,
we considered the everyday journeys between work and home and people are spending
more and more time traveling. For many people, their relationship with work stops
when work finishes. By the time they get home, they entered into a different
kind of relationship.
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