Visualising the Rural
A Conference at the University of Cumbria 4th - 5th July
Š John Darwell, 2001
A conference exploring current conceptions and misconceptions of rural space based on photographic visualisation
According to the Office for National Statistics (2009) almost 80% of rural space in England is inhabited (and worked) by less than 20% of the population (slightly different percentages for Scotland and Wales). Modern and contemporary arts and thought represent and reflect on urban life as an environment most of us inhabit. Consequently, contemporary life is often understood as a synonym with urban existence. Yet, the space of Britain, as an example within Europe, consists primarily of countryside. There are arguably vast unrepresented and unseen spaces and places. This apparent lack of artistic and philosophical attention to the contemporary rural space can be said to have led to an alienation of country life. We have all seen idealised pastoral images used as a shorthand representation of farmland and the countryside. This romanticisation also underpins environmental dreams of purifying country retreats and smallholdings free from environmental guilt. Rural spaces tend to be seen as loci of escape from the human condition rather than expressing it.
Consequently they are seldom the focus of cutting edge arts practice and display. However, the countryside is arguably an industrial space inasmuch as it is the location of food production and an ever-increasing tourism economy, and therefore as much part of the same economic reality as urban work realms. Rural space is consequently a facet of the contemporary lifeworld, yet perhaps not represented as such. This conference aims to provide a platform for an interdisciplinary debate questioning the meaning of the contemporary rural landscape seen through photography. What does it mean to live in rural space? Does or can photography shape our understanding of the rural? What does the rural realm mean to the urban population? How do we view and evaluate rural depictions within the context of the wider contemporary art world? Katrin Joost
5 min chair 20 min each (80 min) 5 min each swap over time (20min) 15 min Q+A
13.00 - 15.00 Panels (3 speakers)
12.00 - 13.00 Lunch
10.00 – 11.30 Registration / Tea & Coffee
Common Area Learning Gateway
11.30 - 12.00 Welcome
Lecture Theatre
Conference Schedule - 4th July
Ken Marsden (UCL) The New Forest National Park Boundary: Seeing Landscape Differently
Fergus Heron (University of Brighton) Common
Jax Horswill Ruth Rutherford
Simon Robinson (Independent artist) What is Rural? Edgelands: the Last True Wilderness- A Photographic Exploration
Dara McGrath (Independent artist) The Grey Country: The Interzone Between the Rural and Urban
Lizzie Smith (Independent artist/architect) Panorama and Process: The Photographic Panorama of the River Clyde Exploring RuralUrban Relationship
Karen Sheperdson (Canterbury Christ University) Close to Home and Navigating the Parochial Heike LĂśwenstein (University of the Creative Arts Rochester) Panoramic Photography, Place and Identity
Between the Rural & Urban: Edgeland & Panorama
Room 2 / LG102
Questioning the Habits / Conventions of Looking at the Rural Landscape
Room 1 / LG101
Chair: Katrin Joost (University of Cumbria)
Matthew Andrew (University Campus Suffolk) Mark Edwards (Independent artist) Space & Place
Rob Fraser (Independent artist) Land Keepers
Will Clarkson (Independent artist) Game
Allison Hale (Independent artist) Hog Island: Picturing New England Agriculture
Rural Living: Work & Home
Room 3 / LG103
19.30 Conference Dinner @Alexandros - thegreek.co.uk/
18.00 - 19.30 Crown Gallery Exhibition Opening
17.00 - 18.00 Networking / Break
5 min chair 20 min each (80 min) 5 min each swap over time (20min) 15 min Q+A
15.00 - 15.30 Tea & Coffee 15.30 - 17.00 Panels (3 speakers)
Chair: Rob Sara University of Cumbria
Henry Iddon (Independent artist) Hill People: Who are the People Visiting Rural Upland Areas of Britain?
Ann-Marie Atkinson (Independent artist) Rugged Places
Rural Identity: Land, Language and Faces
Chair: Alex Hodby (Redeye)
Chair: Katrin Joost University of Cumbria
Harry Hall (University of Sunderland) Chin (Leaving): An Investigation of the Urbanisation of Nomadic People
Nick May (Independent artist) Supermarket FOODCHAIN: The Fresh and the Chilled
Yvonne Davies (Independent artist) ‘The photographer’s dialogue and the subject’s narrative in mixed media storytelling.’
Social Issues
Chair: Sarah Bonner (University of Cumbria)
(Independent artists) Intersections between the Rual and the Urban: Rurall Idyll2
Chair: John Kippin University of Sunderland
John Hillman (Falmouth University) Seeing and Living in the Diorama of the Post-Industrial Landscape
Michele Allen (Independent artist) Lost Topographies and Evolving Landscapes
Peter Gagen (Independent artist) Landscape Consciousness and the Exposure of the Rural Idyll
Post-Industrial Rural
10.00 - 12.00 Panels (3 speakers)
09.30 – 10.00 Registration / Tea & Coffee
Common Area Learning Gateway
Lecture Theatre
Conference Schedule - 5th July
Sam Storey (New College, Swindon) The Cinematic Rural
Hugh Greenland (Durham University) ”Discovery” of the Landscape: Photography, Tourism and the 18th Century Myth
Chair: Katrin Joost (University of Cumbria)
Cecilia Grönberg (Gothenburg University) The Pyramids of Westrogothia: From Local History to Cultural Tourism
Steve Clarke (University of Chester/Liverpool John Moores University) Space Invaders: Littering the Countryside
Martyn Hudson (Northumbrian Exchange Project) Micro-Topographies and Creative Economies in Northumberland Art & Music
Chair: Sarah Bonner (University of Cumbria)
Elisabeth Shannon (University of St Andrews) Vision/Version: Depictions of Luzzara by Paul Strand, Gianni Berengo Gardin and Stephen Shore
The Rural as Visual Construct
Room 2 / LG102
Tourism: Marketing Imagined & Invented Places
Room 1 / LG101
Chair: John Darwell (University of Cumbria)
Robyn Woolston (Independent artist) Rural Art - Cutting Edge or Provincial?
Linda Bussey (Independent artist) Deposition
Philip Harris (University of Derby)
James Brown (Norwich University of the Arts) Gaz Bar Blues: Architectural Resilience and Re-Use in East Anglia
Across the Rural Space: Infrastructure, Roads, Debris & Other Traces
Room 3 / LG103
13.00 - 14.30 Panels (3 speakers)
12.00 - 13.00 Lunch
14.30 - 15.00 Plenary
Chair: Sarah Bonner (University of Cumbria)
Chair: Rob Sara (University of Cumbria)
Ben Elliott (Northumbria University) Connecting with the Landscape: Contextual Sensitivity in Architecture
Stuart Parker (Independent artist) The Lake District - Three Perspectives
Simon Warner (Independent artist) Ways to the Stone House
Walter Lewis (Independent artist) East Keswick Encountered
Grorgina Barney (Independent artist) How is the Countryside Sold?
Adam O’Meara Rupert Hildyard (Lincoln University) Representing the Post-Rural: Agriculture as a Failed Experiment
Chair: Katrin Joost (University of Cumbria)
Rosemary Shirley (MMU) Performing the Village
Llinos Lanini (Independent artist) The Rural Olympics
Stuart Handley (Independent artist) Drowning fenlands?
Contemporary Village & Building
Economical Value of the Rural
Unchanging Rural Myth vs. Mutable Contemporary & Future of Rural Reality
Photography in Research and Education : A New Network