#TransitGateway – The introductory seminar phase of 'Transit Gateway- A Deep Mapping of Dublin Port' organised by Silvia Loeffler is to take place next week in the capital.

The project is part of “Dublin Port Perspectives 2017” that documents the transitional changes of the shape of Dublin Port from its medieval shoreline to its current infrastructure. The Speaker panel of this first seminar are Howard Clarke (medieval historian) Niall Brady (marine archaeologist) and Sheila Dooley (curator of Dublinia).

Due to popular demand tickets for the seminar, Mapping Phase 1: ‘The Medieval City as a Maritime Hub / A Shoreline of Anxiety’ have already been sold out. There will however be further opportunities to attend the mapping project seminar series, that in total will have run for nine months, in which Afloat will highlight.

Each specific seminar, which are free but have limited places, will likewise of next week’s introductory seminar are to be held in the LAB on Foley Street (off Talbot Street, Dublin 1).

On this occasion the speakers will among the topics discuss the earliest jetties to the south of modern Wood Quay and Merchant’s Quay which were important features of medieval city life, just like the 'fysshe slypp' at Fishamble Street and the socialising places on Winetavern Street.

The following Transport Gateway seminars will also explore the changes of the port as a gateway to the city bring to mind the void of communication of the 18th century, on the ships before Marconi, the forced emigrations of the 19th century, the modern context of maritime holiday migration that shaped the 20th century. In addition to where the port has extended itself to the cruise business of the 21st century, and how cargo volumes changed over the centuries in terms of goods, locations and quantity.

Transit Gateway is an artistic mapping cartography that will show the changing connections of the city and the port throughout the years, and how the port as a gateway creates a vital connection of the city with the wider world.

In collaboration with partners and the local community, the artist Silvia Loeffler has been commissioned by Dublin Port Company to create a social and collaborative artistic mapping project that looks at the port’s transitional phases over the nine month timeframe.

A large-scale installation series loosely based on the various maps used by H.A. Gilligan in his “History of the Port of Dublin” will be created, and the works will be displayed in the Terminal 1 Building in Dublin Port. As each month passes with the specific seminars, a new map layer will be added to the installation in order ‘to bring the port back into the city’.

The Transit Gateway seminars are part of a wider public engagement programme for Port Perspectives 2017. They are funded by Dublin Port Company and the LAB Gallery. 'Dublin Port's 2017 Port Perspectives / Engagement Programme has been developed in collaboration with Dublin City Council, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, UCD School of Architecture, National College of Art and Design, Irish Architecture Foundation, Create [the National Collaborative Arts Agency] and Business to Arts.'

Dr. Silvia Loeffler is an artist, researcher and educator in Visual Culture. She is the organiser of the Transit Gateway seminars, funded by Dublin Port Company, and run in close collaboration with the LAB. The seminar series will continue until October 2017.