#ArTEEtude 351 - Visual artist Detlef Schlich continues his journey back to Lackavaun on the remote Northside of the Mizen Peninsula, where he began a radically different life in 2003. The episode closes with the song “The House That Built Me.” performed by Los Inorganicos.

THE HOUSE THAT BUILT ME — Water, Stone and the Little Ruin Podcast Summary In ArTEEtude 351, “The House That Built Me — Water, Stone and the Little Ruin,” visual artist Detlef Schlich continues his journey back to Lackavaun on the remote Northside of the Mizen Peninsula, where he began a radically different life in 2003. After the arrival described in episode 350, Schlich now finds himself largely alone in a damaged rural house without running water, learning how to create the basic conditions for living. With no driving licence, a scooter becomes his connection to Goleen, supplies, local knowledge and the outside world. Sand, gravel, cement, a concrete mixer and eventually belongings transported from Cologne slowly turn survival into construction. Rather than immediately tackling the main house, Schlich begins with a small ruin beside it. The building becomes both shelter and experiment: a place to learn how to mix mortar, rebuild walls, restore a chimney and transform an abandoned structure into a functioning home. Water becomes the central element of the episode. Before a borehole existed, construction water had to be carried by hand from a nearby spring and poured bucket by bucket into large rain barrels. Only later did Schlich discover that the source was locally regarded as a holy well , retrospectively giving the physical act of building an unexpected ritual dimension. The arrival of a huge drilling rig marks another transformation. Approximately seventy metres are drilled into the ground before water can finally be brought directly into the building. Material extracted from deep beneath the landscape is reused around the property, while plumbing, electricity, fire and a loft bed gradually turn the little ruin into a genuinely habitable space. Looking back more than two decades later, Schlich recognises something he could not yet articulate in 2003: he was not simply learning how to rebuild a house. The repetitive physical relationship between body, landscape, water, stone and material was beginning to shape an artistic language that would later emerge in his work with ritual, media archaeology and performance. The episode closes with the song “The House That Built Me.” performed by Los Inorganicos. A ruin has become a home. And now the real work can begin. About Detlef Schlich Detlef Schlich is a rock musician, podcaster, visual artist, filmmaker, ritual designer, and media archaeologist based in West Cork, Ireland. His artistic practice moves between performance, photography, painting, sound, installation, film, music, podcasting, and digital image-making. Across these fields, Schlich reflects on the human condition, the relationship between ritual and technology, and the changing role of the artist in digital culture. As a media archaeologist, he explores how media shape perception, memory, culture, politics, and artistic expression. His work often uses the figure of the digital shaman as an alter ego — a method for navigating the space between ancient ritual structures, contemporary media, and technological transformation. Research & Artistic Method Detlef Schlich’s artistic research is rooted in his essay Shamanism, Art and Digital Culture: Cause and Effect , which investigates the relationship between ritual, artistic transformation, media, and digital culture. Download here for free: Shamanism, Art and Digital Culture: Cause and Effect https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303749640_Shamanism_Art_and_Digital_Culture_Cause_and_Effect Building on this foundation,