Introduction
Re-enchantment and Reclamation is a two-year research project which aims to develop methods in dance, film, and the sonic arts for transforming the perceptions that different communities have of the place to which they belong. Specifically, through four workshops and ten public lectures with artists and philosophers of international distinction, the project aims to discover, develop and explore possibilities for the artistic re-enchantment and reclamation of the landscape of Morecambe Bay and the Lune Estuary, and to contribute positively to the changing perceptions and understandings of the area’s different communities and interest groups. Particular attention will be given to the aesthetic and cultural significance of aquatic, terrestrial and aerial phenomena: sea, tides, rivers, shoreline, estuary, bay, weather and light.
Context
There is widespread concern about our current relationship with the natural environment. The problems go beyond those posed by specific initiatives (new power plants, industries, housing, roads etc.) to the routine and pervasive ways in which environmental features are thought about and perceived, that is, as a problem to be dealt with or an exploitable resource. All too often this leads to careless, insensitive, even damaging relationships and developments, which ironically neglect the very features that may be vital to cultural and economic regeneration. Intimate perception, reverie, memory, and love of place, through which an area might be imaginatively and sympathetically re-enchanted and reclaimed, belong to the everyday experiences of residents and visitors alike. However, they can be reaffirmed, strengthened and enhanced by artistic artefacts and events that question the inevitability of disenchantment and instrumentality.
Wider significance and benefits
The project will demonstrate the practical capacity of art to contribute in ways that are distinctive and significant to wider debates about the relationship between human beings and the natural world. It will raise awareness of the unique historical, cultural and environmental features of the area, and of its specific identity, thus acting as a counterbalance to the prominence of its neighbour the Lake District. The project has already begun to generate plans for public art works that will share the results of the practical and theoretical research undertaken in its first phase with communities, interest groups and stakeholders who are all directly concerned with the area’s future direction.