...landscape and performance, performance in landscape, performance about landscape, performance as landscape, landscape as performance...
...site-specific events, walking projects, land art, environmental activism, traditional customs, mediated visits, guided tours, leisure activities...
...phenomenology, performativity, non-representational theory, mobility, dwelling, embodiment, dynamism, affect...
The AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme Conference 2009 was hosted bythe Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University. Under the title “Living Landscapes – An International Conference on Performance, Landscape and Environment” the conference brought together multi-disciplinary approaches to the myriad ways in which performance shapes and is shaped by landscape and environment. The theme was chosen because of its currency for a field of enquiry in which diverse scholarly, artistic and activist practices and perspectives mutually inform and challenge one another. As Professor Stephen Daniels, Director of the AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme, stated in his welcome: “Performance has emerged strongly as a programme theme, reflecting its influence as a paradigm across the arts and humanities and social sciences, especially in research and practice concerned with site, space and place. Performance enriches and enlivens landscape and environment as fields of research and arenas of creativity and public engagement.”
The success of the conference confirmed the importance of the theme. Its widespread appeal was evidenced by the remarkable number of proposals, inquiries and registrations we received from around the United Kingdom and beyond, which far exceeded our original projections. Over the 4 days of the conference, 167 individual events took place. These included plenaries, panels, performances, film works, exhibitions, roundtables, interactive installations and walks. Final registration at the conference counted 217 delegates, representing 110 academic and artistic institutions across the United Kingdom and from 14 other countries.
Presenters included scholars from Performance, Theatre and Dance Studies, Geography, Anthropology, Archaeology, English, Film Studies, Communication Studies, Religious Studies, Folklore, Music, Fine Art, Architecture, Design and Engineering. Practising artists came from the fields of theatre, dance, performance, video, film, fine art and sound art. Other delegates included architects, arts administrators and environmental activists.