Performing Landscapes: Mountains

For thousands of years mountains have been intrinsically connected to modes of artistic and aesthetic performance. From ancient Greek transformation rituals in Arcadia, through designated ceremonies in the Himalayas, to sacrificial rites in the Andes, the topography, visual impact and remoteness of mountains have encouraged complex performance-based behaviours to develop. Since the first documented reflection of Petrarch in 1336 (1898: 307-20), mountain climbers have translated their experiences into prose and poetry, seeking meaning in the surrounding topography and within themselves. This mountain 'prehistory' (Frison-Rouche and Jouty 1996: 17) was superseded by a flourishing of mountain activity and its accompanying literature once the Alps were opened up after the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786. Creative responses to mountains have covered several art forms with fine art, literature, poetry, music and film figuring strongly in the movement of C19th and C20th mountain aesthetics and criticism. Notably absent, though, is a body of literature examining the theatricality of mountains - a curious paradox given the ancient connection points between mountains, ritual and theatre and the extent to which mountains have inspired writers and artists to produce performances both within traditional theatre spaces and much more recently in mountain environments themselves: NVA (The Storr, 2005); Simon Piasecki (The Nightflight project, 2006); Louise Ann Wilson (Fissure, 2011, Y Helfa, 2014, Warnscale, 2015); Sprinkle and Stephens (Goodbye Gauley Mountain, 2014) Maria Fusco (Master Rock, 2015).

Through the production of a monograph, the creation of a new piece of mountain performance (working with a Post Doctoral Research Fellow), several public events and the inauguration of a new interdisciplinary network via a symposium, this fellowship seeks to address this lacuna in mountain studies, delivering the first comprehensive critique of how mountains are exploited as sites for performance, are represented in dramatic literature, and how they themselves 'perform'.

Mountains are one of the most visible victims in the exploitation of the planet, both in terms of hard industry (the practice of Mountain Top Removal, for instance) and softer eco-tourism (the impact of tourist climbing on Everest and other 'signature' peaks). They continue to attract enormous interest from the media and many climbers enjoy celebrity status, equal to that of their acting counterparts in mountain films. This visibility, fuelled by social media, is a blessing and a curse for mountain environments; on the one hand it raises awareness of the uniqueness of mountainscapes and the need to preserve them and on the other it builds expectations of participants' direct experience of those landscapes, encouraging long-haul travel and increasing footfall in delicately balanced environments. Focusing on behaviour, space, psychology and technology, the project seeks to raise significant awareness of the challenges to mountain environments, both for arts-based audiences and outdoor enthusiasts, collaborating with the project partner Kendal Mountain Festival and disseminating research findings using the mountain festival network (Fort William, Llanberis and internationally in Banff and Jasper, Canada).

In sum, this fellowship will carry out and disseminate research that develops a new understanding of the relationship of theatre and performance to mountain culture and mountaineering. It will harness performance-based histories and embodied knowledges to expand our understanding of how specific communities interact with, value, and mediate mountains, asking fundamental questions of our changing relationship to high places.

This fellowship project will increase the undertstanding, effectiveness and impact of mountain-related culture, specifically in theatre and performance, by demonstrating a range of models for sensitive engagement with the outdoors. It is intended for the project to have cultural impact and social impact but there may also be a level of economic impact for the first area identified - festival organisers.

Impact can be summarised in the following areas:

1. Mountain festival organisers, regionally and internationally
2. Site-specific arts practitioners
3. Outdoors enthusiasts (for instance members of mountaineering clubs)

1. The project partner, Kendal Mountain Festival approached the PI before this fellowship proposal was conceived, asking whether he was interested to develop a new piece, in parallel with his authorship of the monograph, Performing Mountains, to build the cultural offer of the festival. This was in recognition of the growth in numbers and in popularity of the festival and with a desire properly to reflect the range of media engaged in mountain culture. Current theatre work has been modest at KMF - in 2015 a one man show, based on George Mallory - but the ambitions of the festival organisers are in line with the growth of the festival over the last fifteen years and reflect a new set of international partners now branded as KMF subsets (in China and in South America). The fellowship's immersive installation, based on the Indian Face first ascent, will offer a potentially mobile model of innovative mountain performance, designed (with appropriate sponsorship from the private sector) to be taken to KMF partners abroad who are actively commissioning content for the next three years of festivals, 2016-19. Thus the fellowship will help introduce contemporary performance strategies into the mountain festival circuit both regionally and internationally, impacting on the programming of KMF and networking the PDRF (who will have practice-led expertise and landscape performance experience) with key figures shaping the cultural offer of the North.

2. As the case for support outlines there is a diversity of performance companies working in challenging mountain landscapes currently and in recent history. This fellowship will impact on this community in three ways. Firstly by inviting selected practitioners to share a platform with established mountaineers, in the seminar series titled MountainAct. 6 public seminars will be held over the period of the fellowship and contributors will be invited to consider points of connection based on themes identified in the monograph (dark play, display, training). By bringing these two communities together, it is intended to elevate the critical languages of theatre and performance studies and to change opinions regarding their efficacy within the mountaineering community. Secondly by surveying the range of work in this field and offering the first comprehensive listing of contemporary mountain performance, work created by this community will be placed in context and by extension appropriately valued. Thirdly by contributing to the Research and Development of the Indian Face piece, contemporary practitioners (such as Angus Farquhar, Louise Wilson, Dan Shipsides and Maria Fusco) will be invited to consider their own work in a new critical context.

3. The monograph is pitched both at the academic community and the discerning enthusiast reader and the publisher has guaranteed an early move to paperback to secure the latter audience is not 'priced out'. More instrumentally there are 10 public events planned to access this wider audience and a designated mini-tour of mountain festivals to engage mountaineering clubs specifically (in England, Wales, Scotland and Canada). The Yorkshire Mountaineer club celebrates its 75th anniversary during the fellowship: this group will be approached to offer commentary and consultancy during the making of the PlR piece.