University of Nottingham
  

Imagining Change: Coastal Conversations

 

The film

As part of the Impact Fellowship, the Programme Directorate was invited to produce the AHRC contribution for the international conference 'Planet under Pressure', in London, 26-29th March 2012.

In our final meeting with our Advisory Board it had been suggested that we make a film featuring research undertaken by projects funded by the AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme. This sounded like a good idea and when we were asked to contribute to 'Planet under Pressure' we immediately thought of producing a short film that would showcase the value of arts and humanities research in understanding environmental change, through their focus on landscape, culture and imagination.

Titled Imagining Change: Coastal Conversations, the film features three projects that showcase different kinds of creative engagements between arts and humanities scholars and coastal landscapes. The main body of the film consists of interviews/conversations between Stephen Daniels and our kind contributors.

The main aim is to show how we need human and natural histories, and artistic as well as scientific perspectives on coastal change.

Filming took place between 6th and 10th February 2012 at Mullion Harbour, Cornwall, Alkborough Flats, North Lincolnshire, and the Deben estuary, Suffolk. You can read about the filming trip on the University of Nottingham's School of Geography blog and in our paper in cultural geographies. The film is produced by the company 'Nice and Serious' who specialise in making films about environmental and ethical issues. 

The screening

The film was premiered at Planet under Pressure on Tuesday 27th March 2012. The screening was followed by presentations by the film’s contributors and an open discussion chaired by Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia.  

Artwork commission

Following his contribution to the film, Simon Read was commissioned by the Impact Fellowship to produce a piece of work based at Alkborough Flats coastal realignment scheme in North Lincolnshire. The resulting work is on display in the School of Geography at Nottingham. We held an event on Lincolnshire Landscapes to officially 'launch' the work in April 2013.

Planet under Pressure logo

 

Nice and Serious logo

 

Contributors

Caitlin DeSilvey, a cultural geographer from the University of Exeter (Cornwall campus), an investigator on the Anticipatory Histories Researching Environmental Change network.

Mike Pearson, Professor of Performance Studies and Leverhulme Research Fellow at Aberystwyth University and PI of Carrlands and creator of Warplands.

Simon Read, a visual artist and lecturer at Middlesex University who was part of the Learning to Live with Water Researching Environmental Change network.   

Imagining Change: Coastal Conversations received a Highly Commended Award at the 2012 IVCA Clarion Awards in the Public Sector Communications category!
A podcast with Stephen Daniels and Lucy Veale talking about Cultural Conversations is available as part of the Placing Culture podcast.
 

 

 

 

Landscape and Environment Programme

School of Geography
University Park
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0) 115 84 66071
email: landscape@nottingham.ac.uk