nomenclature / terminology

The name 'solexa' is a version of 'Sol Ek Sa', which is Old Norse for 'I saw the Sun'. That was not a difficult choice, based as we are on a northern island where the Vikings once trod, and facing east with a view to the mountains of the Scottish mainland and - on a clear morning - the rising sun.

But solexa what? Is solexa a workshop? Well, partly, though the term perhaps doesn't encapsulate all of its essence. Is it a studio? Maybe... but a significant aspect of what we do leans towards the use of hand, power and machine tools and gives rise to the fragrances of sawdust and machine oil. Neither 'studio' nor 'workshop' seemed to be enough on its own. The French atelier would in many ways have been ideal, covering as it does the full range of such workspaces from local welding shops through to fine art studios, and back again. However, we are on Skye, not in France, and the use of the French term would have introduced an arguably unhelpful kind of exoticism. Which is a pity, because as far as I am aware there is no equivalent term in English which so neatly does away - Bauhaus style - with 'the snobbish distinction between fine art and crafts'.

So, given solexa is both a studio and a workshop, we were left with 'studio workshop', 'studio / workshop', 'studio and workshop' and a small handful of other contenders. The winner was solexa studio + workshop, with that plus sign nodding in a vaguely Bauhausian direction.

So, onwards. Is solexa an 'I', a 'we' or an 'it'? Well, in reality it's a bit of each. It's true that the great majority of the things that are made here are made by myself, and that solexa is - for the most part - my project. But my partner Jeanne, who has some formidable projects of her own, is a constant presence and her creativity in living reverberates through our system, Along with her pragmatic wisdom and ideas, this inevitably finds its ways into pretty much everything that is made here.

So, it's 'solexa studio + workshop', and 'we'. Usually. Apart from in this blog. Where it's 'I'. Mostly.

Gary A. Ayres