Dymock, Howard

25/08/2009

Audio file duration: 00:21:34 Format of original recording: wav 44.1 khz 16 bit ZOOM digital recorder.

These recordings are part of the One & Other interview series that has been licensed by the Wellcome Trust for public use under Creative Commons Attribution-non commercial-Share Alike 3.00 UK. This means that anyone based in the UK can share and remix the material, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Credits, where given, should be to the library at Wellcome Collection, London. (c) Wellcome Trust.

Howard Dymock is a Theology teacher from Bournemouth. Despite a whole summer to prepare, he has only really focused over the last week and decided to base his time on the plinth around Saint Simeon Stylites, a character he discovered whilst studying Theology at university and now teaches about at school. Stylites an early Christian ascetic and philosopher was chosen as he apparently spent 30 years living on a pillar, in what's now Syria. Howard has seen this pillar and thought it would be interesting to see how his one hour experience would compare to Stylites. On the plinth he hopes to emulate Stylites who spent his time contemplating as a philosopher. Stylites allowed visitors to ask questions and Howard hopes to do a similar interaction. He feels the audience wants to be entertained but he does not want to put on a show. Instead he will invite people to ask a question via a tube with paper in it. He does not consider himself a fountain of wisdom, but is interested in what people will ask and if he can answer. He has also brought a tent structure with him should he need to 'retreat from the plinth' to stay away from any unwanted attention.