APPROACHING CARIBOU HARBOUR - 45°40′53″N 62°42′43″W

In response to an invitation for contribution to the Caribou Harbour Memory Factory - a web portal developed by artist and York University professor Katherine Knight - visual artist Cheryl Rondeau performs her latest cycling intervention. Caribou Harbour Memory Factory is a virtual mechanism intended to explore the cultural and physical geography of Caribou Harbour, Nova Scotia. For her contribution, Rondeau discovers the region from a number of different conceptual entry points – represented by one the following municipal demarcations: Truro; Pugwash; Cape George Point; Caribou River; and Murray River in Prince Edward Island. Cycling from each point back to Caribou Harbour, she collects information - in the form of accumulated ephemera, shared anecdotes and captured photo/video - in an attempt to illustrate and examine terrain, culture and history. This is ultimately a process of getting there one preoccupied with the in between and taking account of its effects on perception. The use of the body in displacement is central to the project – the body becomes deeply integrated and engaged physically in the experience of discovery – of Caribou Harbour, its communities and its varied histories.

The five entry points with route and details:

Prologue: 2009.08.17 In preparation - Toronto <> Kettleby

Stage 1: 2009.08.22 Murray River PEI > Caribou Harbour NS - 49km (includes Ferry ride between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia)

Stage 2: 2009.08.24 Truro NS > Caribou Harbour NS - 71km

Stage 3: 2009.08.25 Cape George Point > Caribou Harbour - 110km

Stage 4: 2009.08.26 Caribou River > Caribou Harbour AND Pictou > Caribou Harbour -

Stage 5: 2009.08.27 Pugwash > Caribou Harbour - 104km

Cheryl Rondeau would like to acknowledge the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada through the funding of the Caribou Harbour Memory Factory project.

Special thanks to Katherine Knight, David Craig, Peter Williams of East Wind Cycle, William Huffman and the members of the communities traversed in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island for their generosity (the counties of Pictou, Antigonish, Colchester and Southern Kings County, PEI).