Field || guides
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Classics and Ancient History
Abstract
The Field || guides follow-on funding programme of activities will see new learning and ideas about field landscapes, landscapes and agricultural ethics impacting upon a range of users, stakeholders and custodians in SW England. Through a series of landscape interventions with professional artists and educators, it directs our research on temporality and ethics into impactful and participatory activities which invite the public to imagine themselves as current and future landscape custodians. In so doing, our work will also contribute to the wider UKRI Landscape Decisions programme, specifically by bringing the voices and views of a range of people and interest groups to attention.
Our impact and engagement activities in Field || Guides build upon the work and findings of our AHRC-funded Field\work Research Network, which both precedes and works in tandem with our impact and engagement plans. In focusing on the iconic landscape of the Devon field, the Field\work network draws into dialogue arts and humanities academics, artists, farmers and key local land managers. The network will generate new learning and perspectives regarding how narratives, experiences and ethics help constitute landscape values.
The Field || guides follow-on work takes materials, methods and insights from the network forward, to engage diverse groups of people in questions of landscape value. Firstly we will work with teachers and primary schoolchildren (future landscape custodians) from urban/rural schools in Devon, to engage them in innovative interactive learning about field landscapes, past present and future. We will do this by collaborating with Beaford Arts, an Arts Council England national portfolio organisation, and a professional map artist, to organise and deliver a series of professionally-curated field-based learning opportunities such as field-walks, sound-drawing, and poetic provocation, so the children and teachers can consider past, present and future landscape value. This work will produce a range of outcomes, and leads to an innovative set of National Curriculum primary resources.
Secondly, we will collaborate with poet technologist Chris Jelley on an innovative 'field poetry' programme, employing physical 'poetry boxes' and geo-locational digital tagging to key locations in Devon, either in, or with a perspective on fields (including National Trust properties, right-to-roam areas, Exeter city centre). In summer 2021 the physical poetry boxes will be sited in carefully chosen locations across Devon to engage visitors and tourists in questions of landscape value, and will produce a large ensemble of curated public voices and perceptions.
Thirdly, we will create a Field || guides website on fields and the cultural value of agricultural landscapes with significant new online resources and engagement opportunities regarding landscape values for public audiences. The website will host findings and resources from the impact and engagement activities discussed, as well as materials from the prior research network. The site will become a long-term resource, supporting the 'Countryside Classroom' resources and visitor experience; the front page will provide entry points for teachers and tourists, as well as other constituencies, including academics and artists. We will launch the website with a physical/digital interactive public exhibition and legacy plenary at the University of Exeter's state-of-the-art Digital Humanities laboratory.
As our impact and engagement activities progress through lifespan of the work, we aim to bring the lived complexities of cultural landscape value into discussions and land-use and policy. We will do this through feeding back into the wider work of the landscape decisions programme, and by engaging with key stakeholders and policy-makers in Devon specifically with whom we have established connections and relationships, including the National Trust, Exeter City Council and Devon Country Council.
Our impact and engagement activities in Field || Guides build upon the work and findings of our AHRC-funded Field\work Research Network, which both precedes and works in tandem with our impact and engagement plans. In focusing on the iconic landscape of the Devon field, the Field\work network draws into dialogue arts and humanities academics, artists, farmers and key local land managers. The network will generate new learning and perspectives regarding how narratives, experiences and ethics help constitute landscape values.
The Field || guides follow-on work takes materials, methods and insights from the network forward, to engage diverse groups of people in questions of landscape value. Firstly we will work with teachers and primary schoolchildren (future landscape custodians) from urban/rural schools in Devon, to engage them in innovative interactive learning about field landscapes, past present and future. We will do this by collaborating with Beaford Arts, an Arts Council England national portfolio organisation, and a professional map artist, to organise and deliver a series of professionally-curated field-based learning opportunities such as field-walks, sound-drawing, and poetic provocation, so the children and teachers can consider past, present and future landscape value. This work will produce a range of outcomes, and leads to an innovative set of National Curriculum primary resources.
Secondly, we will collaborate with poet technologist Chris Jelley on an innovative 'field poetry' programme, employing physical 'poetry boxes' and geo-locational digital tagging to key locations in Devon, either in, or with a perspective on fields (including National Trust properties, right-to-roam areas, Exeter city centre). In summer 2021 the physical poetry boxes will be sited in carefully chosen locations across Devon to engage visitors and tourists in questions of landscape value, and will produce a large ensemble of curated public voices and perceptions.
Thirdly, we will create a Field || guides website on fields and the cultural value of agricultural landscapes with significant new online resources and engagement opportunities regarding landscape values for public audiences. The website will host findings and resources from the impact and engagement activities discussed, as well as materials from the prior research network. The site will become a long-term resource, supporting the 'Countryside Classroom' resources and visitor experience; the front page will provide entry points for teachers and tourists, as well as other constituencies, including academics and artists. We will launch the website with a physical/digital interactive public exhibition and legacy plenary at the University of Exeter's state-of-the-art Digital Humanities laboratory.
As our impact and engagement activities progress through lifespan of the work, we aim to bring the lived complexities of cultural landscape value into discussions and land-use and policy. We will do this through feeding back into the wider work of the landscape decisions programme, and by engaging with key stakeholders and policy-makers in Devon specifically with whom we have established connections and relationships, including the National Trust, Exeter City Council and Devon Country Council.
Planned Impact
We have four main impact objectives: to improve understanding of the aesthetic and ethical value of fields by landscape decision-makers (beneficiaries: policy-makers, local and general public); to empower the voices of children and tourists with respect to land-use (beneficiaries: schoolchildren, tourists, policy-makers); to embed the research outcomes within national curriculum resources (beneficiaries: schoolchildren, teachers); and to inform and co-produce creative landscape interventions (beneficiaries: artists, children, teachers, general public).
Who might benefit?
1. Primary children (in local partner and UK national schools) will benefit with respect to skills, knowledge and creative experience, either through participation in educational activities generated from the in situ activities, and/or National Curriculum resources co-developed with teachers.
2. Educational professionals benefit through skills-training, support with curriculum resources, experience of learning through arts. In particular, the enrichment of cross-curricular knowledge and approaches to landscape and citizenship.
3. Landscape user groups, including residents and visitors to Devon will benefit from innovative and creative opportunities for engagement with new and familiar landscapes.
4. Arts, heritage, and environmental organisations, including project partners and emerging users will benefit from enhanced local/organisational relationships and capacity.
5. Artists will benefit from the creation of a community of professional artists whose work focuses on the fields and landscapes of Devon.
6. Businesses will benefit through hosting poetry stamping stations.
7. Policy-makers will benefit through exposure to new valuation frameworks.
Indirect users and beneficiaries include:
i. Educational policy makers and exam boards
ii. Third sector practitioners in the creative arts
How might they benefit?
1. Extending notions of ethical and temporal value with respect to landscape. In particular, we mean to build 'communities of the field', who benefit from a greater appreciation of their complex role as current and future landscape custodians.
2. Situated engagement with arts, including poetry, maps, exhibitions. We advocate for artists to co-design and co-lead on landscape interventions to facilitate and co-create experiences which enable or transform understanding.
3. Field || guides website. The site will inspire and stimulate ongoing engagement by providing user-specific routes into the content. Different sectors will benefit from the targeted material and resources to inform and enrich their field experiences. We mean for the site to become a social object around which positive interaction occurs, and where involvement can occur across a range of locations.
4. Empowering constituencies whose voices are not often heard (children and tourists) and augmenting the profile of land users, thus enhancing policy-making capabilities.
5. Publicity and profile. The commitment from our range of partners to promote the activities locally, nationally, and internationally, will raise the profile of the project and provide mutually beneficial publicity.
Overall, we seek to maximise the qualitative benefits for different constituencies and users by creating community-engaged, participatory opportunities which illuminate ideas around the shared stewardship of fields and landscapes.
Who might benefit?
1. Primary children (in local partner and UK national schools) will benefit with respect to skills, knowledge and creative experience, either through participation in educational activities generated from the in situ activities, and/or National Curriculum resources co-developed with teachers.
2. Educational professionals benefit through skills-training, support with curriculum resources, experience of learning through arts. In particular, the enrichment of cross-curricular knowledge and approaches to landscape and citizenship.
3. Landscape user groups, including residents and visitors to Devon will benefit from innovative and creative opportunities for engagement with new and familiar landscapes.
4. Arts, heritage, and environmental organisations, including project partners and emerging users will benefit from enhanced local/organisational relationships and capacity.
5. Artists will benefit from the creation of a community of professional artists whose work focuses on the fields and landscapes of Devon.
6. Businesses will benefit through hosting poetry stamping stations.
7. Policy-makers will benefit through exposure to new valuation frameworks.
Indirect users and beneficiaries include:
i. Educational policy makers and exam boards
ii. Third sector practitioners in the creative arts
How might they benefit?
1. Extending notions of ethical and temporal value with respect to landscape. In particular, we mean to build 'communities of the field', who benefit from a greater appreciation of their complex role as current and future landscape custodians.
2. Situated engagement with arts, including poetry, maps, exhibitions. We advocate for artists to co-design and co-lead on landscape interventions to facilitate and co-create experiences which enable or transform understanding.
3. Field || guides website. The site will inspire and stimulate ongoing engagement by providing user-specific routes into the content. Different sectors will benefit from the targeted material and resources to inform and enrich their field experiences. We mean for the site to become a social object around which positive interaction occurs, and where involvement can occur across a range of locations.
4. Empowering constituencies whose voices are not often heard (children and tourists) and augmenting the profile of land users, thus enhancing policy-making capabilities.
5. Publicity and profile. The commitment from our range of partners to promote the activities locally, nationally, and internationally, will raise the profile of the project and provide mutually beneficial publicity.
Overall, we seek to maximise the qualitative benefits for different constituencies and users by creating community-engaged, participatory opportunities which illuminate ideas around the shared stewardship of fields and landscapes.
Description | AALERT |
Organisation | University of Reading |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | KE was asked to be on the advisory panel for AALLERT 4DM. KE and LH attended a workshop and writing session held at Kestle Barton by the AALERT 4DM group. |
Collaborator Contribution | Issued invitation, thus extending the network and reach of both our projects. Paid for accommodation and food expenses for our stay in Cornwall. |
Impact | Workshop event and discussion over future directions. Disciplines: largely Geography, Classics (KE), Art, English, Ecology. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Forest Research Consultancy |
Organisation | Forest Research |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Advisor on Trees Outside Woodland project |
Collaborator Contribution | Support for design and implementation of brief, and participation in policy workshop |
Impact | Workshop, and documentation from third party that I supported (literature review, podcasts, etc.) |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | 3D3 Consortium Legacy Event - Bristol |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Digital Flows Symposium, The Watershed, Bristol 3D3 PhD Legacy Consortium |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y69gxkpFtck&t=1213s |
Description | AALERT 4DM day in London with policymakers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The AALERT 4DM 'Creative Reflections workshop reflect[ed] on our experiences throughout the project alongside other national and international perspectives. It aims to enhance our understanding of the role of arts research and practice in landscape decisions and explore how creative approaches can be incorporated into policy and practice.' I attended and made connections with various artists and practitioners, policymakers, and people in the NGO/business crossover sector. I talked about the Field\work and Field || guides projects, and connected them to our ongoing work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://research.reading.ac.uk/aalert/creative-reflections-a-synthesis-workshop-by-aalert-4dm/ |
Description | AALERT 4DM workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | KE and LH attended workshop held at Kestle Barton for artists, stakeholders, landowners, scientists and other academics organised by the AALERT 4DM project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://research.reading.ac.uk/aalert/artists-in-the-landscape-workshop/ |
Description | Contributor to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was a contributor to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time episode on Virgil's Georgics, and talked about environmental decision-making, landscape and agricultural ethics, as well as the poem itself. The weekly audience is over 2 million listeners, with more over time. I have since been contacted by several people who heard me speak. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lyt4 |
Description | Cove Park presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at Cove Park 'fringe COP26' workshop with artist Laura Hopes, who is part of the Field\work grant, that included information on both grants. The workshop was held over several days, so I also talked at length about the grants in discussion and conversation outside the presentation. Participants included artists, curators, environmental activists, government representatives, academics from a range of subjects, postgraduates, agricultural workers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://covepark.org/turbulence-emergence-enchantment-a-compendium-of-climate-literacies/ |
Description | Digital Flows Exhibition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Exhibiton in which the work for Field\Work was exhibited |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://cfpr.uwe.ac.uk/digital-flow-s-interdisciplinary-digital-arts-and-humanities-practice-based-r... |
Description | Podcast for National Trust (internal) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | I was a speaker on a podcast called 'Landscape Histories for Landscape Futures', available to all National Trust employees nationally. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Press release about Net Zero paper |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Press release, including quotation from KE, released for Net Zero policy document. It was picked up by various outlets, and translated into e.g. Dutch for reporting internationally. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220131110518.htm |
Description | Roundtable with crofters on Skye |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Two roundtable events with crofters from Skye, members of staff from Atlas Arts, and Lauren Gault (artist). The discussion included landscape decisions, classical agricultural texts, policy, ethics treescapes and lived experience. There were plenty of questions and explanations, and the crofters and the Atlas Arts team requested copies or details about Virgil's Georgics for further reading and reflection. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | School visits and artist residencies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Two sets of artist residencies in two primary schools in Devon (North Molton and St Sidwell's), in September 2021 and February 2022. Each residency comprised two days in each school working with children and teachers in Years 1-4. In addition we ran a CPD day in North Molton in December 2021. The workshops were organised with Beaford's Arts. The activities were planned as part of the Field || guides grant, and on each day I led discussion related to the research objectives and outcomes from Field\work. Both schools have reported how much they have enjoyed the events, and how the children have been more interested in the environmental aspects we discussed and made art about. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
Description | Speaker at the School of Plural Futures workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Lead on workshop for Atlas Art's School of Plural Futures working with participants from Skye and Lochalsh. The participants ask questions and learn together about social justice, the climate crisis and about what it means to live and work in Skye/Lochalsh today. I co-ran a workshop with Lauren Gault, artist, about landscape ethics, classical texts, policy and decision-making. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |