Cormorant
A film by Eleanor Goulding (11 mins 14 secs)
Work in Progress (2026)
Summary
Cormorant is an experimental moving-image work developed through an Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant.
The work explores embodied perception, depths, and spatial orientation through poetic research, archival material, and sensory polar experience. It draws on perspectives from underwater life, geological time, and neurodivergent logic and frameworks of perception (vestibular, interoceptive, and proprioceptive systems).
The film is a series of tests currently in development, with image, structure, sound, and colour still evolving.
Context
Developed through Arts Council England DYCP funding, with mentoring support from Professor Becky Beasley. Presented in development at Pacing & Spacing: Crip Process, Form and Reception in Art and Writing (QUAD Derby, 2026).
Great news!
Arts Council have awarded this work a further Research and Development Grant to support the next phase of this work’s progress.
9th June 2026
Animal Life Underwater, Francis Ward, 1919
Copper ink, silver bowl
Cormorant
A film by Eleanor Goulding
Work in Progress
11 mins 16 sec
2026
Project Status / Development Notes
Cormorant is an experimental work-in-progress film shared here for viewing and feedback within its ongoing development context.
Credits
Sound and Music
Original music: Aeolian Mixtape and Quinta
Sound recorded in collaboration with the wind
Additional sound recordings: Borys Peter (Ukraine), Eleanor Goulding
Artwork and Archives
Original watercolours: Earth Shadows and Moon Halo by George Marston (Nimrod Expedition, 1908), held at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Window No. 1 (1908) — photograph with reflection by Eleanor Goulding
Francis Ward, Cormorant Searching for Fish in Dark Water, from Animal Life Underwater (1919)
Stills / Reference Image
Francis Ward, Cormorant Searching for Fish in Dark Water, Animal Life Underwater (1919)
Special Thanks
Becky Beasley, Kirsty Whatley, Angela Martin, Nick Collins, Quinta, Borys Peter, Heather Peak, Scott Polar Research Institute, Jenny Dickinson, Paul Haze, Gwen Denman, Russell Denman, Angela Graham, Judith Frost, Olena Posternak, Wareham Museum, Matthew Goulding, Eric Witheridge, Paul Shorthouse, Amanda Wallwork
Filming Locations
Portland Island (Dorset, England); Gower Peninsula (Wales); Rock Road Library (Cambridge, England); Gythio (Greece); Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam); River Severn (England/Wales); Oxley Sports Centre (Sherborne, Dorset, England); Lydney Harbour (Gloucestershire, England); Ryde (Isle of Wight, England); Teufelsberg Tower (Berlin, Germany); Rund Tarn (Copenhagen, Denmark); Ningaloo Reef (Western Australia, Australia); Crete (Greece); Liverpool Harbour (Liverpool, England)
Current Version 6th June 2026
As part of my mentoring process, Professor Becky Beasley has invited me to share Cormorant (a work-in-progress film) as part of the One-Day Symposium Pacing & Spacing: Crip Process, Form and Reception in Art and Writing.
The symposium is part of Beasley’s touring exhibition A Gentle Man (Part II) at QUAD, Derby, on 12 June.
Becky Beasley has been my mentor through my Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant.
Further text on the work can be found below..
This is a small extract from the seed/source PDF document I created at the end of a period of research and development supported by an Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice grant.
Tests / sampling book formats
