THE BIG BORDER BOGLE HUNT

Jules Horne began a year-long residency with Alchemy Film & Arts in November 2022. Inspired by the Borders Hand Ba tradition of ‘town as game pitch’, and drawing on her experience of site-specific theatre and interpretation, Jules explored how community film archives of Hawick can be playfully reactivated through creative experiments with augmented reality, interactivity and communal participation.

On Saturday 28 October 2023, The Big Border Bogle Hunt culminated in a new play and live cinema performance, written by Jules, directed by Fiona Mackinnon and starring Cate Barr, Esmé Babineaux and Emily Larner; and an augmented reality exhibition in Wilton Lodge Park (28 October – 12 November), which showcased community-made archive footage of Hawick accessed via QR codes through mobile phones. The play and AR exhibition also included a new print publication bringing together some of the research underpinning the project.

Jules’s residency was part of The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil, Alchemy Film & Arts’ programme exploring the borders, boundaries and lines of Hawick and the Scottish Borders.

The Big Border Bogle Hunt was supported by Creative Scotland’s Culture Collective, William Grant Foundation and Women’s Fund for Scotland.