This is the latest in a series of pocket travel companions which artist Tim Brennan launched in the late 1990’s. Working with the forms of the guidebook and guided tour, Brennan produces a performance score that readers can adopt as critical travel writing, a performance document, an artist’s book, and an itinerary. These books activate Brennan’s broader, aesthetic project: Since 1994 he has developed a methodology based on travel, recitation and conversation as art. He refers to this methodology as the manoeuvre. Manoeuvres work between traditions of performance art, loco-description, poetry and history to develop a concept of discursive performance that inspects how place is constructed, and subsequently displaced, as a consequence of the laws of Capital. 

Enchiridion presents a three-part journey in North East Scotland: a train route from Aberdeen to Huntly; a walk from Huntly rail station through Battle Hill Woods; and then the return by train. Along the way, Brennan offers instruction, direction and selected quotations to enable the viewer to way-find whilst reflecting critically upon the construction of place. Recurring themes ebb and flow, prompting critiques of and contemplation on topics including ‘nature’, ‘rebellion’, ‘ecology’ and ‘empire’.

This is also the first of Brennan’s guides to consciously outline a journey through a place in flux – Battle Hill, 2009-12. Which is to say, this book functions as an active itinerary. It includes an introduction from Donald Boyd, the development Manager of Huntly Development Trust, and a critical essay by Alex Lockwood.