THE HOUSE THAT BUILT ME — Water, Stone and the Little RuinPodcast SummaryIn 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 SchlichDetlef 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 MethodDetlef 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, Schlich developed Multilayerism: A New Paradigm in Contemporary Art – A Manifesto, an artistic method and conceptual framework for understanding contemporary art through layers of media, memory, technology, ritual, emotion, misunderstanding, and lived experience. Read here: Multilayerism: A New Paradigm in Contemporary Art – A Manifesto by Detlef Schlich https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375665507_Multilayerism_A_New_Paradigm_in_Contemporary_Art_-_A_Manifesto_by_Detlef_Schlich Together, these texts form the theoretical backbone of Schlich’s ongoing work as a visual artist, media archaeologist, ritual designer, musician, and host of the Arteetude podcast. WEBSITE LINKS Music ProjectsWAW / Wild Atlantic WayWAW is the music project by Detlef Schlich and Dirk Schlömer. Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WAWBand From the forthcoming WAW album The Stories of Nil YoungTwo songs from WAW’s developing album project The Stories of Nil Young form part of a mythopoetic journey along the Nile, where river, memory, loss, cooperation, and hope flow into music. AfricaSmile AfricaSmile follows the Nile as an imagined journey from its sources to the Mediterranean Sea — a river of memory, movement, rhythm, and myth. The song turns the meeting of the White Nile and the Blue Nile into a fragile image of cooperation. It is not a naïve peace anthem, but a wounded musical hope: two different currents meeting, listening, and still moving forward together. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnQbsh01YWU The Nile’s Bittersweet Song The Nile’s Bittersweet Song is the first official single by WAW / Wild Atlantic Way — Detlef Schlich and Dirk Schlömer. The song follows the Nile as a river of memory, beauty, loss, and contradiction: a life-giver, but also a force that can take away what it once nourished. Through the story of Kamau, it becomes a poetic reflection on childhood, fragile hope, and the emotional landscape carried by a river that is both kind and cruel. Inspired by East African storytelling traditions and shaped along the Wild Atlantic Way in West Cork, The Nile’s Bittersweet Song is a mythopoetic musical journey about water, grief, resilience, and the deep human longing to keep moving with the current. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33AWko4IkKI WAW on BandcampSilent Night In a world shadowed by conflict and unrest, Dirk Schlömer and Detlef Schlich felt compelled to reinterpret Silent Night to reflect the complexities and contradictions of modern life. https://studiomuskau.bandcamp.com/track/silent-night Wild Atlantic Way This song emerged from a trip to West Cork, Ireland, where the beautiful coastal Wild Atlantic Way stretches along the west coast. https://studiomuskau.bandcamp.com/track/wild-atlantic-way YouTubeSilent Night Reimagined – A Multilayered Avant-Garde Journey by WAW aka Dirk Schlömer & Detlef Schlich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAbytLSfgCw Detlef SchlichInstagram Detlef Schlich ArTEEtude I love West Cork Artists Facebook Detlef Schlich I love West Cork Artists Group ArTEEtude YouTube Channels visual Podcast ArTEEtude Cute Alien TV official Website ArTEEtude Detlef Schlich Det Design Tribal Loop Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/arteetude-a-podcast-with-artists-by-detlef-schlich/exclusive-content